No Man's Mountain - Desert Trek - Beautiful Views

Description

Having been told of a remote mountain to climb on the desert of central Utah by a rancher well acquainted with the area, I set out to check it out. I camped in the Buckhorn, setting up one of our Ponchos as a hammock so I could get a good night's sleep. I wore our Osni Cloak in the chill of the night while getting camp organized, later it served as an under quilt for the hammock when I snapped it into place. Relaxing around the fire before going to bed I give a handy tip on proper campfire for keeping warm. The next day I headed further onto the desert looking for the small dirt road that would take me to the base of No Man's Mountain. I climb up onto the mountain and the scenery from there is spectacular. Well worth the trip. Most mountains in this country are not climbable by normal means they are typically bounded on all sides by cliffs hundreds of feet tall, that is what made this trip intriguing, there was one narrow way up on top. Check out our gear, made in USA at http://wildernessinnovation.com

Tags: Hammock,poncho,under quilt,camping,utah,San Rafael Swell,hiking,solo,woodsman,bushcraft,campfire

Video Transcription

oh I'm out here on the desert it's uh it's wintertime out here really not much in the way of snow out here I got my hammock set up and I got my fire going can add me a little some DEET something kind of simple but usually it's especially in a colder weather here the main purpose of your fire is you want to get warm from it if I have a fire pit and the fires down in the fire pit all that radiant heat from the fire is blocked

now I take off the sight of it like I've done here and I got I got warmth from the fire out of the way from my feet up to my head that low part of the fire is radiating underneath my chair so instead of having a cold rear-end I'm actually feeling warmth from the fire just showing some stuff I'm messing around with I got up three or four times during the night that's changing around trying some different things I'm always experimenting and to me that's you know part of the fun of being out so let me show you a couple things that I came up with one you might have seen this before it's a little shorty path blanket and I just laid this on top of me as a top quilt I just laid a one of our regular PS BL blankets in the bottom here I wanted to make sure I changed up a couple times during the night but I want to make sure nothing underneath me was influencing how warm I was cuz I wanted to see what I needed just on top you want to find out what works best for you now something else I the last part of the night I snapped my oceany underneath to make an under quilt and during the first part of the night I wore it over on top of me so you know I just running around now one thing about a toast knee or an under quilt is because it snaps so here's my poncho set up as a hammock here right here is the oast knee in between there I just I shoved I shoved a jacket but I had in my truck I laid that down in there to add a extra layer of insulation underneath there I'm always just trying something and so I don't usually show this kind of stuff but I'm just showing a little bit of of some of what I've experimented with this time got some fun adventures planned out on the desert today of course I'm sleeping here in the desert I love it out here and I'm gonna go get me some breakfast and then we're going to get out on the desert the eggs are frozen milk was frozen so I've had to thaw everything out to get my breakfast on yeah let's see how side number 2 is oh there we go well I'm heading farther out on the desert there's uh there's a peak out there that a rancher friend of mine they went up on the day after Christmas and I couldn't so I thought well maybe I'll go do the same thing I wasn't able to go on that day I needed to work so we're heading up to this did not do this beautiful country out there I had never been out here before you know it was a little rougher getting here on the road than I thought they said well you don't need a jeep four-wheel drive but the roads a little rough in places and they were right so there I am no man's mountain trail head so I'm so I'm headed up on top a friend of mine who's a rancher that's branched cattle out here for his whole life he knows all this area out here like the back of his hand he told me how to come up here on his hike so well just because I'm out on the desert doesn't mean there isn't snow and there's not a lot of it but

see these patches of snow you know we're on the desert it's still still winter here well way back on the flat out there's where I came from and coming up the mountain here this is the remains of an old cat tracker an old mining road made by a bulldozer yeah and as you can see in the air is a lot of it is kind of tumbled over so we go around it well it's the country I'm hiking around in it's just endless endless beauty I mean it's desolate but at the same time this just beautiful country rugged bouldery climb up this thing but I am finally getting a little closer to the top man far as you can see red rocks now we're getting into where there's some sunlight again all right here we are top of this big rock here well there's the big country right there pretty nice tell you you just can't ever get over how coolest country is out here it's so big you know let's clear down on the bottom down there come up on top of this table up here and man just looking down and looking out through this is just blows my mind it's amazing just amazing how big everything is how much you can see as far as you can see up through here it's just stunning I can't get enough of being out here I'm telling you what I just I just can't get enough of it well it's some it's some rugged landscape up on top of here up on this Mesa this table now you know we find a lot of plants growing up here a lot of them are are kind of stunted some of these pinyon Pines back here are kind of shorter even than normal and a lot of this stuff is kind of packed down a little bit you can tell in certain areas probably because of prevailing winds and stuff but we do have quite a bit of yucca growing up here most of them are small kind of like this one here but it's just it's just beautiful up here I think I'd like to come back up on top this Mesa hair and camp I think it'd be I think it'll be awfully fun but you see all dead plants and stuff I mean some of the stuff just can't make it this is a harsh harsh harsh terrible climate up here but at the same time it's beautiful and the stuff that does survive just stands out and it's amazing oh man this is comfortable up on top here I'm at that put my little fleece pullover on it's kind of breezy and the winds a little cool though this dark rock right here and that Western Sun shining right over here this is really nice and warm and comfortable actually even though I'm laying on rocks imagine that often times up in these areas you see a lot of these thick debris underneath rocks like this and that's small-game and rodents and stuff like that drag all that up into there to kind of secure themselves a little home out of the elements and probably away from predators and such now you see all these little Basin like depressions eroded in the rock all these things places where you might watch in the summertime after a rainstorm to come and get a drink of water it's still too cold for much of the snow to have melted a little tiny bit of snow melt water here a little bit of firewood separation here [Music]

take some listen dump it in here I've got a little sliver of fat wood here that would have helped had I not like put it out in there okay just let that sit there like that I won't even use the whole piece there it is right here product of Canada I don't do product of China I like to keep these some of these in my pack all the time and oftentimes I'll I'll eat them just raw you know but okay so the fires going Seiken let that cool down and that'll be good for at least one more fire it can take my cooking stick here

put that on there and then my fish up on there I should really wait for it to burn down a little bit beautiful scenery back there right I'm on the edge of a cliff right here that drops way down it look what about boiling right now some water there and I'm cheap

I either carry my Klean Kanteen or these Powerade bottles my water bottles well

I think we're warmed all the way through we're warmed all the way through I can take that off of there there we go I'll have a little bit of fish snack it's a nice cold water you know it's only about 38 degrees up here but you know out on the desert high altitude and full Sun and right now there's hardly any breeze whatsoever so it's actually pretty it's actually pretty comfortable now but I really like this little can fish like this makes a good trail snack whether you eat it right out of the camera no I mean it's already cooked breathing right out of the can or you warm it up like this over the fire see your ways good and put a cup of a cup of cooked rice with one of these and that's that makes a pretty good meal right there Here I am there's my scenery this is the world I'm living in right here and down we go back down the trail hard thing I can this trail is keeping your eyes on the trail because you keep wanting to look out at the scenery well the sun's going down over the horizon so now to get out of here down on the bottom now in the wash so now it's following the wash back to the truck and then getting on that crazy wild road getting into here going back out and there's where I came from hey my little fish snack over the fire up on top of that peak out there at that point looking down on all this stuff it was quite a fun trip you