3 Night Winter Bushcraft Camp.

We're just making up some tent stakes, tarp stakes, whatever. Neither of us brought pegs. I actually forgot mine. We're using this, and it's super easy to use. So, got my four stakes there, and we'll try and set up before it gets too dark, and we're gonna get some firewood going too, so. So, when I wanna attach my paracord to my loops, these are for my stakes. These are girth hitch. It's super easy, you just take your running end, fold it over, make a little bit of a loop, and slide it through your tab. And when you got it through, you put the running end and the other side through the loop and you just pull the tail out, then it's on there. Real easy, it's not coming off. And when you wanna take it off, it doesn't get cinched on too tight, so pretty good. Just a quick shot of what we'll get to look out at. That ice, that lake is completely solid. We were walking on it, it's all ice. And which is weird because there's no snow on the ground. So that's our camp, or sorry, that's the lake. And we are just right up in here. Obviously you can see it's getting darker up in the woods. Wow, Kyle's singing rap songs. Up in here, there you go. Good start to the camp. Got a kick-ass fire going, just about dark out there. So all we gotta do now tonight is cook up some food and drink some Sailor Jerry, call it a night. My kind of a Thursday. Wow, so Kyle is generously helping me with his insanely bright flashlight. We got on for dinner tonight two foil packets with, what do you got, potatoes and onions in them? Yes, sir. And then, that would be pork tenderloin wrapped in bacon cut in half. We're gonna eat pretty good. Last night wasn't too bad. Probably got, we don't know what the temperature was. Negative five Celsius maybe. But I used a down bag with my Therm-a-Rest NeoAir mattress inside of an REI bivvy bag. And this REI bivvy bag did not breathe at all. I ended up with a puddle in my, just from sweat, in my main condensation as well. In my bivvy bag. It's crazy. So I gotta try and dry stuff out today a little bit. It's not too big a deal because we're gonna get that super shelter going. It's gonna be dry and warm in there. But we got food on right now. Kyle's making some scrambled eggs. And we'll just hang out for a little bit before we pack up and hike across the lake. Now we got some pepper jack cheese. Dude, that looks phenomenal. If you could only smell this. Here comes the fun part. It's not that bad, actually. No, this is about perfect. I'm telling you, man, you coat this thing up with butter, it's good to go. Dude, this, oh my god, it smells so good. No oatmeal in a packet for me. Yeah, screw that crap. Moving on up in the world. We've relocated across the lake here to the other side. I think we're going to drop our bags, leave them here at this campsite, and go off, off trail, up into the woods over there. And we're going to set up our semi-permanent shelter for two nights there. It's real overcast today. Crazy, we're just hoping the rain doesn't come in because that would suck more snow over on this side Okay, I think we've decided upon a site so basically what we've been looking for is level ish ground A good space between our two main trees. We've got about 15 16 feet between these trees We're going to run a ridge pole, which is going to be this tree here, and we should be pretty good. We'll keep you along as we build it, I think. We're also far enough away from the lake where there's not going to be any wind in here, and this is a good mixture of soft and hardwood, so there's plenty of firewood. Yeah, and we're far away from the lake, we're not going to get wind, but we're not too far where we can't walk to get water, and not be intrusive to other people who might be here. All right, give her hell, buddy. There you go. And how high is it? Chin height? Yeah. Nice. So we're almost done with our little wall that's going to be at the back of our shelter. This is some pretty dense oak. It takes a little bit of sawing effort to get through it. But it's a good piece. We measured it should be long enough. Faster, Joe. Faster. What's that? Put it down in front. That's a piece of wood. Good? Yeah, it is now. Alright, cool. Pound in a bit more after. Do you want to put that end on that side or no? Because there's two big guns on this side. It's up to you. Yeah, let's do it. Reverse. Look at us. Look at us go. Teamwork. Let's go. It might fall. We need bigger stakes. Another stake in here for sure. Yeah, for sure. Okay. Grab me an axe. Just pound it in right now. Well, we're coming along on our shelter here. We've got a big wall on the back. There's three logs probably. How thick do you think those are? 12 inches? Three 12-inch logs leaned up on the back on top of each other. They're a Mylar blanket. I've also got Bushcraft USA 10x10 tarp over top of that, but we made a framework as well There's these poles going down and a middle ridge pole going across Top ridge pole another ridge pole or another pole on the side. It's gonna be pretty cool It's uh, Kyle can sit in his chair and still have head height We're gonna make a super shelter out of this so it's bigger than we needed But it's not like we're trying to stay too warm here It's just trying to we're just trying to play and have some fun Neither of us have done a super shelter before, so that's the purpose of this. We finished our hobo village here. Doesn't look as cool as we thought it was going to look. I'm sure it'll work just fine, though. So basically, 3 mil plastic on the front. It's held on the bottom by a log. We rolled it on the log. Got some duct tape, some paracord, some buttons, two tarps. Yeah, so it is what it is. We like it. It's big inside, roomy. We're going to actually grill up some burgers in there for lunch. So we're going to say, well, I was planning on opening a vent. No, no, leave it all. It's fine. Oh, it's fine. Okay. So yeah, that's that. I'll take you on inside for a little view. The Shangri-La. Well, it is warmer in here for sure. Yeah, I know. Oh, and I forgot to mention, we have Mylar on the top, two Mylar blankets. So our plan is obviously have the fire in front of the plastic. It's going to reflect the heat into, or sorry, it's going to, what is the word? Greenhouse effect the heat in? Yeah, I don't know. Okay, so the long wave radiation will pass through the tarp, hit the mylar, and bounce back, hopefully. Wow, you just blew my mind. Okay, so yeah, we got lots of room. This is pretty cool. I'm gonna put up a gear rack, I think. Gear rack. So we're spending a couple days here using our tools a lot. Axes, saws, whatnot. And it's just nice to have a spot to get them up off the ground. so you're not losing them or kicking them, you know. And if these pieces of paracord are long enough, I'm just gonna Canadian jam this sucker on. Yep, there they are. Before I get it all tight and everything, just gonna leave that one side hanging there like that and do the other side, it kinda holds it up for me or helps it hold up for me. Kyle is in the shelter cooking up some hamburgers. I can smell them from out here, so it's about one o'clock and I'm getting hungry. Hungry for some lunch. Okay, you're back. You just eating pizza combos? Pizza combos, man. So while we're sitting here, I'm just kind of relaxing. I thought I'd take a minute to go over a little bit of winter camping tips that me and Kyle have adapted over a couple years we've been doing this. Before you go to bed, fill up your water with hot water, your water bottle with hot water, and put it in the bottom of your sleeping bag. Now, this does two things. It keeps you warm. It's like a hot water bottle, obviously. It keeps your feet warm at night, but it stops your water from freezing, Which is not fun in the morning when you're trying to take a drink. Kyle last year brought two metal ones thinking that it would be alright just to throw it on the fire. And how long did that take? It took a while. It takes 45 minutes to an hour to freeze frozen solid. And mine was ready to go because I had it in my sleeping bag. So that's a good tip. Also, butt wipe. We like to use baby wipes. If you don't carry baby wipes in your pocket in the winter time all day, they freeze. And if you don't bring them into bed with you at night, they freeze. So another thing to bring into bed with you in your sleeping bag baby wipes and as soon as you get up put these things In your pocket or else you're not gonna have a very fun time You should always bring a big American into here. Can you shut my camera off so it stops wasting batteries, please? The other thing you forgot to say is he also likes to bring a big flak We have the American food bags probably approximately 12 pounds of food to start and then we have the Canadian. What? What's wrong with that? Four oatmeal and five raisins. That's it. Raisins are sustaining. So we're all fed and it's getting a little chilly. We need to go get some water. And the way that we're going to procure water for this trip is we have to chop through ice and get lake water. And then we're gonna use, what are they, tabs or Aquamira drops, okay. And as well as boiling it. So we'll see if we can chop through this ice. Cold water. That is nice. So we gathered a bunch of grass just right on the shore 10 feet away. And we're gonna stuff this in the hole. And that's gonna do two things. It's gonna show us where our hole is so when we need to come and get more water, and it's gonna stop it from freezing Solid, it'll still freeze, but this will help it from freezing so it's doing away with chopping it open again I'm actually gonna get a little bit more because that's not enough But you can see doesn't look like anything around that's exactly where our hole is. Is that softwood Kyle? That was an expert, expert moment. Yeah, it's super dense oak. Let me have a couple swings Okay, sexy. Yeah, see what I mean? It's like hitting concrete man There you go. Get them dinner plates. Saucers. Have you been axing with Doug a lot lately? Why's that? You're just beating the thing in its dimension. Well, we missed it. I was trying to warm my battery up in my pocket, but Kyle felled the tree. He felled it very well. It fell down with no hang-ups. And now we have to process this wood. This is a big old oak. It's going to be the start of our firewood pile. Let the fun begin. There you go. Time to go ax. So we pounded all our stakes in there, and we're just lining up our fire reflector. Maximize the warmth in that piece. Our goal is to be in t-shirts in that thing. So with this log, our fire reflector comes to completion. So it's a nice size, you know, a thigh-high size. Our fire's going to be right here, probably about this wide here. And we have a nice big step to our plastic. We're all good. This is going to theoretically be a pretty warm shelter. Look at those curls. Yes. They went everywhere. That one had a notch there. Well, that's a wasted shot. We're getting hungry. We just finished eating our supper. We're all fed up now. I'm feeling good It's definitely warmer in this shelter We've got the fire going out there big long fire and the the light coming in here is pretty good, too I've also got a candle lantern lit up there, but it's pretty good man. It's warm in here loving life right now It's it's hot. It's legit hot up here Like it's it's hot where I'm sitting. Kyle's priming up his uh, what is it a Primus stove? Yeah, Primus Omni-lite Ti. There you are priming that up We're gonna make up some hot chocolates balling out of control. It's great Man, this is super warm. I have no socks or shoes on obviously My feet up on a log by the fire and my feet are toasty It's like to the point where I need to move them. I'm so hot. Kyle's in Shorts and a t-shirt so a mission accomplished I guess. Fully accomplished man. I'm starting to sweat I might have to go to the ground. It's too hot in this chair. We survived the night Stayed nice and warm in there. We had some pancakes for breakfast, which was awesome I think Kyle made up some pancakes and Our fire reflector is completely gone here We had a rip roaring fire last night like we were burning logs huge logs And so the front half of the poles of the reflector and all the reflector is gone, but that's okay. We just used pine It didn't matter today after we go for a hike We're probably gonna probably gonna hike for about 10 10 miles today around the loop and after we get back We'll make another reflector and hang out by the fire, but that should take most of the day that hike So should be pretty cool. We're gonna go down and get some water beforehand. I'm gonna pull it out there Kyle see Oh, it did look at that. It's like I knew what I was talking about for once Yeah, is that part of the technique It's extra fiber, man. It's okay. It's all good. So what are you doing, Kyle? Mirror drops. We got combined the capacity of six liters here. This is riveting television. It's really exciting. Lots more snow over on this side of the trail. Hey, you held back. It's not like you weren't, like, taking a wave. We've been hiking for three miles so far. We did three miles in about an hour and a half. We're putting some miles on our feet, that's for sure. We came back to a juncture over there and it was either continue on the trail we were going on or cut up this like old logging road and we decided to cut up the old logging road we're still going to do about a six mile hike as opposed to a 10 mile hike but um we'd like to get back and do a couple things around camp beforehand before it gets too dark so that's what we're gonna do we're just gonna stop here for lunch and uh relax kyle brought this little arcteryx bag it's like a shoulder bag and that's what we're using we're just flipping um switching it off back and forth from each other carrying it And got this platypus two liter bag that we got our water and just rides a little bit easier than a Nalgene or a couple Nalgenes actually That way right here right should come up that looks right up there Yep, a few inches five five inches thick. How you feeling? Oh, it's hard Yeah, I'm friggin exhausted too it's a good thing we opted for the shorter trail we got a piece of balsam fir we're going to try and do a bow drill out of see if it works if we get some energy yes sir some dense cherry watch that kick back yep tree's a little hung up just gonna fix it here we had a pretty busy day today uh we did that like eight mile hike we came back and uh started doing some wood processing like crazy we got this fire reflector built up again of like logs off the ground because our fire reflector from yesterday went up in an inferno it was amazing and we got tree trunks over here like telephone pole size wood to use for our fire tonight I'm just splitting up some small stuff right now because that stuff ain't gonna burn by itself on the agenda for the rest of the day just hang out cook some pizza for supper and finish up the cap the sailor Jerry tonight looks good yeah nice so I got my we're using balsam fir here and i got a tinder bundle made of birch bark and this thing looks like it's going to peter out on me he's done yeah i drilled right through it i've lost interest in this i tried every now and then but i'm just being like right now oh pizza it up bro pizza it up so this is what you do when you forget your can opener and you need to open your pizza sauce another one over here oh that smells so good no just one that works pour it over there so what do you got going on there, Cal. Got some pizza going. Got mozzarella cheese and pepperoni and Joe was so kind to just open up some pizza sauce. And we're gonna cook it and... Supper was fabulous. We're stuffed now. Just relaxing. Got my feet up. And the heat's actually coming through that really good now. We got a big log on there burning. It's not even late. It can't even be 8 o'clock at night. I'm drunk. I need to eat some food and all we have is combos cheddar cheese combos not pizza combos cheddar cheese combos dude i'm melting absolutely melting i i've been i've been colder in august have you this is insane what about may i i don't even i mean what about october like i feel like i'm in a tanning bed what about september yeah january yeah slept real good last night it was uh super hot in that shelter it's crazy uh today's the warmest day it's been so far uh we're just packing up now and whatnot i got a little bit somewhat of a new sleep system so i thought i'd go over it just really quick before i tear it down so i got a bivy bag i never had used a bivy before they're pretty cool um this is an REI minimalist bivy it's like a hundred dollars at REI it's it's good it wasn't that breathable uh the first night i had it zipped up all the way and i i got a lot condensation and sweat in there so the next two nights I left it zipped down halfway like this and it was much better for summertime it's got this little bit of a screen mesh for your face which is cool so the bugs don't get you I wish it would have had like something that I can oh it does actually I can hang it up so it stays off my face I found it anyways so and then my sleeping bag is the Mountain Hardware it's a 600 fill down it's rated to 20 degrees or negative 7 I believe in Celsius so that's a good bag doesn't weigh too much inside I got my pillow like always excuse me same Therm-a-Rest and my reflectix underneath kind of keeps another barrier so sticks and stuff don't poke my my pad and I would wager to say it adds a little bit warm we're somewhat packed up I just wanted show that fire reflector back wall we used didn't use it as a fire reflector obviously but we use it as a wall for our shelter worked out pretty well this area had abundant resources we got to capitalize on them pretty good so we're just breaking down gotta clean up everything we still got a ton of firewood left we'll stack that up for the next time we come here and call it good you can see how much warmer it actually got the ice now looks like water it's real dodgy I wouldn't be caught dead out there back at the truck You see I changed into my blue jeans one thing we've been doing is bringing change of clean change of clothes and leaving in the car so when you get to the car you can change out for the ride home Normally when I go anywhere I have to drive at least four or five hours That's the ride home today is about five hour drive So it's nice to have clean underwear socks clothes, you know This was a really cool trip. I had a great time Did some new stuff that super shelter was new for both of us is really cool I hope you guys learned something. Hope you enjoyed the video and stay tuned I will be making a lot more videos I know I haven't had a few out any out in a long time, but they're coming Thanks