Seneca Creek Snowstorm 4K | Blizzard Camping & Hiking in West Virginia

Description

In this episode, we hike in one of Appalachia's most beautiful trails along Seneca Creek / Spruce Knob! West Virginia backpacking can always seem daunting, especially for someone new to the area, but Seneca Rocks is an excellent place to start. Winter backpacking isn't easy either, and although it's a bit more of a challenge, the views are totally worth it!

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--PLAN YOUR TRIP!--

Trailhead: https://goo.gl/maps/oPvLyyiPVgw

Trail Map: https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5433335.pdf

--OUR FILM GEAR!--

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--OUR CAMPING GEAR!--

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Condor Bushlore Knife - http://amzn.to/1JaBBv7

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Platypus Bladder - http://amzn.to/1TrKfNc

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All of the musical compositions or arrangements and footage in this video are original, and were composed, recorded, and captured by Andrew Lin, Bryan Lin, Robby Huang, and Thomas Sinard

Featuring drums by Nate Laguzza

Original content and music is copyright Adventure Archives (c) 2018

Tags: West Virginia Hiking,Appalacia Hiking,Senecra Creek Hiking,seneca creek trail,monongahela national forest,hiking the appalachian trail,appalachian hiking,west virginia hiking trails seneca rocks,seneca rocks trail,seneca rocks summit,seneca rocks west virginia hiking,monongahela national forest winter,monongahela national forest backpacking,Adventure Archives,george washington and jefferson national forest,Hiking near Harrisonburg,spruce knob

Video Transcription

the stillness of winter is an illusion hidden away in the overcast sky ice accumulates on microscopic dust beneath crystalline icicles water begins to pool invisible to the human eye air turns all around us and then all at once a blizzard a raging river and a frigid tempest though sometimes obscured behind a facade of stillness and silence nature is constantly in a state of flux today we hike through the winter to experience what it means to be human in an ever-changing world [Music]

we left Ohio on a cold morning in February in search of snow we headed to the hills of West Virginia but as we drove through the mountain towns all we found was falling rain which was disconcerting to say the least but then as we climbed higher into the hills the rain transformed in the snow right before our eyes we had found winter [Music]

thick wet snow fell from the sky as we prepared our backpacks at the swallow Rock trailhead below us the cheat river flowed rapidly but that didn't stop some dedicated fishermen from enjoying the outdoors and it wouldn't stop us either we made our way to the trailhead we'd be hiking in the Seneca Creek backcountry taking the swallow Rock trail southeast camping tonight and then hiking along the Allegheny mountain trail after diverting onto the bear hunter trail we camp for another night before hiking our way back on the Seneca Creek Trail [Music]

we started out on the trail snow pelted us from above and the river raged below

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the steep incline of the trail and precarious slope of the hill were heightened by the slick fallen snow so immediately as soon as we got on a trail was just like Smokies uphill yeah with the sort of moist snow on the ground it's like extra precarious the trail already is kind of sloping down towards the slope like it's not really yeah yeah and now it's slippery and I'm I feel like once we hit that Ridge it'll be easy going from there I'll be really nice this is incredible winter wonderland and you pointed out the snow is like perfect packing snow well this is if you've never experienced snow before this is ultimate snowball tonight yeah do that and thankfully the trail started to descend making our hike a bit easier

[Applause]

everything was blanketed in thick clumps of snow from below vibrant green club mosses and ferns added rare flashes of color to the winter landscape [Music]

[Applause]

the trailhead leveled out and for a brief moment we enjoyed what felt like a nostalgic stroll through a winter paradise but before long we found ourselves facing treacherous trail conditions once again it was time to pause and take a moment to assess the situation

I feel like this looks crossable it's just gonna take some time the biggest thing is less the current and more just keeping our feet dry yeah yeah this isn't dangerous by anything I really didn't expect like this sort of rough stream crossing I mean we were trying to choose our location based on where it was snowing but as we were driving up yeah we saw like a ton of rivers and things with water levels really high yeah like right up next to the road so well let's go take a look down there where the crossing actually is and then see what it looks like so this actually doesn't look like the best place to cross it's too far and also too deep way to be yeah at the very least we want to find something that the narrowest possible

not to get our feet wet yeah so that we can actually survive we decided to look upstream to see if there were any better spots to cross yeah this looks way better thing am i right here walk it's open my work - yeah as long as you're grabbing part of it like a rail and being real careful ultimately we didn't feel good about crossing the river at any of these spots but we did have an ace up our sleeve we're gonna have someone head back to the car and get these knee-high neoprene boots that we brought we actually have these exactly for this situation but the rationale and not bringing them was the terrain was kind of rough and it's hard to hike in those we didn't want to carry anything extra but we're already carrying quite a lot yeah I've got two pairs of boots this is gonna be like ferry situation like you were talking about yeah Robbie went back to retrieve our boots while Bryan and I waited amid the wintry forest [Music]

before long Robbie had returned pants full with the boots reading the trailhead sign and it said crossing this Creek at high water levels is dangerous so I'm thinking we don't know how many crossings there's gonna be cross this one see how the other ones are if we ever decide it's too unsafe we'll just camp wherever we're at or however far we can get and then go back tomorrow yeah because I don't think it's gonna get any lower not why need to give up just yet you slipped on our boots and got ready to test the waters insulated in waterproof these boots were perfect for crossing the street now if only we have had three pairs [Music]

after crossing the stream we decided to just leave the neoprene boots on and tied our regular hiking boots to our packs what do you guys think I actually didn't think because that those boots worked phenomenally well I didn't think the dream itself was that bad as long as you have a walking stick it's just the inconvenience of having yeah having to take off the boots and then go back and forth creating that that much inconvenience is almost not worth it considering the risk of you having across so many times I will say it it wasn't as inconvenient as I thought it would be though like you're kind of just slip right in but yeah I think we should keep going see how many more crossings are on yeah if it's looking like this India ton we shouldn't keep going I think if there's like one or two crossings we're fine you have to first more than that maybe yeah we hiked on but the winter weather created some smaller problems as well so one slight problem we're having right now is that the snow is covering all the trail so we're not entirely sure if this is actually the trail if we miss the blaze it looks kind of like it but it is hard to tell we eventually found our way hiking through soggy sections soaked by the stream

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all around us thick snow stuck to every branch in Bush everything was cold and wet but it was stunningly beautiful [Music]

the snow is picked up considerably since we got here it gets accumulated a lot and it's getting dark already the snow made brighter the last bits of daylight as dusk setting

the sounds of the river and the falling snow provided a soothing backdrop as we stopped and took shelter under the boughs of an evergreen tree so they got a couple things working in our favor we haven't had any more stream crossings from - the snow is stopped today I'm so hard yeah it's still there's a general like dampness to everything though and I'm actually wondering right now at how much we're gonna be able to get dry tonight

it looks like the snows accumulated a while like a inch and a half two inches maybe I do think that we need to make sure we're starting to make progress the turns been pretty flat but it hasn't been very open so even though it's not like a lot of hills but still kind of hard to camp it's also a thing we always need to think about is pacing ourselves so we don't like to start sweating or tie ourselves out after some energizing snacks we emerged from beneath the tree and kept at it Twilight cast everything in a dark blue hue putting us in the mindset of settling down for the night but the terrain around us was thick brushy and uneven

so far still not looking like there's any good campsites around here we'll have to get further in before it flattens out and now the trail was becoming more uneven and we found ourselves butting up against the rushing water once again another stream crossing crossing the stream itself wasn't so bad but we again had to switch our boots around but knowing how to tie your laces together can make it easier to stow your boots neatly on your pet we're gonna way to tie these laces together is just to do a simple square knot from one lace to the other so we've got one square knot here and you do another with the other lace and then the knots won't like sort of pull on each other now we were in the dark of night I started searching for any remotely clear camping areas off of the trail alas there was nothing to be found and on top of that the trail transitioned into a steep incline all around us were sloping hillsides and the trail was the only narrow corridor through a thicket of snowy shrubs and saplings and in some parts the trail was obstructed by fallen branches on top of all that the snow started picking up again this time falling even harder than it had earlier in the day we were getting exhausted and the trail seemed to climb up endlessly so I just checked the compass out of paranoia we're going south so I think that means we're in like the last third of the trail before we hit a junction and I'm hoping that around there we'll find camps laters I feel like leaving they're making pretty good progress since we were really low down next to the creek but part of me is wondering if we should have stayed and camped in that one open area before the trail started going uphill the problem with the Appalachian sits like look at the landscape you know there's nothing even if you wanted to stop her lead have really have to struggle to find a decent clearing the good news is that right now it's only 650 so we've got hours and hours of night time that was so hi how are you feeling silver I'm feeling good like especially compared to last trip it's kind of warm it's a lot of snow and it's kind of wet but super comfortable you know the one nice thing about snow at least with all the white snow it's easier to reflect the light so it's a little bit brighter at night and it kind of just looks nice yeah determined to find a great campsite we continued up the steep trail feeling reassured any time we saw blue blaze pinned to a tree I still think we should keep going but if we need a contingency plan it looks like this

and not ideal because it's right next to the water yeah I still definitely would like to keep seeing if there's something yeah we were close to compromising and setting up camp wherever we could but we kept on surely we thought the great site was just around the corner but we seem to just come across more stream crossings no snow we spotted the delicate tracks of a songbird but our own feet felt heavy as we trudged up the trail for the first time in a long time we've had uphill like this it's like Japan oh yeah Plus snow okay I think we have to be close though I just cannot believe we haven't even hit the first structure there's one Junction and then when you hit the next Junction you've hiked 3.3 miles and we've been making a lot of progress it feels like and I still these up hills our hiking trails especially ones going uphill always seem to dilate the amount of distance marked on a map although it seemed we were at least having an easier time than some of the forest dollars that's the third spider we've seen just inching his way across the sand barren snowscape so really bizarre I've never say anything like that gives me a little perspective on my life nice is these boots are they also way your feet down a lot I think I feel that much harder and just as we thought we are about to reach our limit I see the junction and I think we got a campsite yep nice-looking campsite our patience paid off it looks great oh yeah Oh got some seats and everything there's a table [Music]

these are the moments we live for yeah I agree that's rough man it's your going uphill you're breaking out of splint we got to be careful about what clothes we put on tonight you know I just kept looking up I kept seeing more uphill and then I would take two steps and trip on a rock and lose a little bit of morale it's well worth it very well worth it was such a tremendous relief to find this campsite after such an arduous hike amazingly the sign said we had only hiked two miles maybe it was all that extra gear we had carried for dinner but it felt like a lot more distance than that and now it was time to unload some of that gear and settle into our campsite and Andrew and I had an experimental addition to our tent for the cold a Mylar blanket that we altered to fit into our tent so what we're hoping is that once we put the rain fly on the space blanket we'll trap a little bit extra body heat over the course of the night and keep us a little warmer now we didn't fold it all the way cuz we wanted a tiny bit of ventilation because we didn't want too much condensation build-up and we wanted to make sure the door was accessible it's kinda mazing you like stick your hand in there and as long as there's no wind coming through it actually warms our pretty quickly for how thin of a material this is hopefully this would keep us at least a little bit warmer at night we continued setting up in the snow excited at the prospect of sleeping in our warm sleeping bags beneath the snowy silent forest but before settling in we prepped the dining area for an extravagant dinner hopefully the bulky stove and food we carried in would be worth it today we're having a special special treat that is hot fun the reason we're eating hotpot is because it is the Lunar New Year even though this isn't actually like a traditional meal they eat for that holiday it's a Chinese tradition got a variety of ingredients some of them are saving for tomorrow got some mushrooms fried tofu Darryl Anderson gave us he gave us some I think these are just dried tofu it almost looks like silken to him but whatever it is I'll eat it

I've also got a bunch of dehydrated vegetables here oh we've got some spicy stuff in here that we'll save for tomorrow we don't want it we don't want any intestinal problems on the first night first thing we need to do is to fill this up with water and get it boiling

this is exciting now in case you don't know the late Chinese hot pot works you boil all your food in the center either in plain water or some sort of broth you can be like chicken broth spicy broth but you also have some dipping sauce so this is some sort of Chinese barbecue sauce it's like sort of fishy oily thing mixed with peanut butter and soy sauce that's what my family's always used we put that in our Bowl put some hot water on it today for dipping the cooked ingredients and we had another snack that Darryl Anderson had sent us it's actually like tiny hole crabs that are glazed in what looks like some sort of a sweet sauce got the sesame is covering - yeah these look delicious that are very officially yeah it's got a very fishy smell okay that tastes exactly how I imagined it - mmm that's really good wow that is good it's just kind of like a seafood flavor but with it after taste of sweetness first bite it tastes like a just a really sweet crack and then you get that seafood let's do it it's really good such a weird combination of flavors that some reason just kind of works I'm totally sure this wouldn't have killed everyone I keep meeting in the hopes that my body will generate heat from food

great thing about hotpot is that you just throw whatever you want in the middle of the pocket it doesn't matter that you're mixing all the ingredients together it's also just like such a communal style of eating you know everyone's sitting around sharing food it's a good time we'll get all those colors too maybe some vegetables I think leafy greens are always essential so these vegetables I dehydrated and with this weather you really don't need to but I just wanted to experiment to see how you would do it if you were worried about your vegetables perishing and the other advantage of dehydrating these is uh they become lighter and the two vegetables we have our napa cabbage and something called tong ho which is also a chrysanthemum leaf very delicious yeah it's got such a unique flavor but I love it oh man I I'm not even eating it and I can feel like returning to my body but here we've also got some mushrooms we've got shiitakes the traditional one in Asian cuisine both got what's called golden needle mushroom but this is actually a mushroom that grows wild around here actually during this season during the winter it looks completely different when it's grown in the wild it's like orange big and kind of like a typical mushroom shape it's not super warm yet actually part of this the sauce needs to be heated up [Music]

very good because they absorb all the hot water inside them you bite in explodes hmm as little undercooked which is actually quite juicy hmm it's like a lukewarm pot textures might be a bit off because it's dehydrated and she's got an interesting taste like a weird herbal you know these Darryl Anderson tofu stir pretty good oh really we're gonna have it good enough as a moral of hotpot is a game of patience and when you're cold and hungry patient system eat up fellas happy new year yeah the hotpot had been incredibly satisfying and we topped it off by drinking some much-needed hot water oh my god just kind of like a metaphor for life we got to warm yourself up from the inside oh yeah

happier person you got to work your way from that inside huh yeah so did sweet jebediah Moses not bad so far as usual like the lakes needs a warm up first I hope this mylar gets like a game-changer for something earlier hiking up all that uphill made me sweat a bunch so like some of our clothes got wet yeah I know some of yours did the mine seems to get really wet so I was pretty cold while we were eating but now that I'm in dry clothes it's a lot better feeling much better about the situation

I'm hoping this like convection oven they know gets going and like it dries our clothes of it but yeah this is like what I've been looking forward to all day that hike was tough good night the Sun emerged the next day and even though it's light had it yet thawed the frigid air it was a welcome sight [Music]

I was the first to wake up and decided to have a bit of a heavier breakfast but not the most standard breakfast so good right now instant noodle should not taste this good sheets of ice thawed and the Morning Sun began to shed from our tent just as Brian and I woke up so warm in that tent that the only thing that drove me to come out was a great need to use the bathroom and if you've seen us before you know that I'd like to use snow as toilet paper this is a very good packing snow

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beneath the bright Sun everything looked like a cheerful wintry landscape and the clear skies motivated us to get packed and experience our surroundings from the trail the trail brought us down a long corridor leading through an array of trees caked in snow and ice we could see for miles through the trees in the bright light and we could feel ourselves warming up as we hiked it's much warmer today because of the Sun which is such a welcome change in the weather and it's almost so warm that I might have to take out this outer layer last night we were hiking uphill and I started sweating and that really chilled me at night thankfully I've got some dry clothes but I think I'm gonna try and manage my layers a lot more carefully now that the sun's out we were thankful for the newfound warmth but it also meant we were even more likely to work up a sweat we had changed back into our damp clothes from the previous night so that our dry sets could stay dry for tonight [Music]

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the trail kept taking us straight ahead and all around us the scenery was stunning

delicate branches were enveloped in a layer of snow and everything sparkled as we made our way forward [Music]

we came to a split in the trail and took a moment to enjoy the scenery before continuing on

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we saw the shadow stretching across the ground as the Sun was starting to set [Music]

we passed the winter equinox yeah yeah okay so hopefully the days are getting longer because we get up so late today that we're already running out of sunlight so hopefully we find that cancer

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before long we reached an open field whose clumps of grass created a lumpy texture in the snow and just past that was a trail junction we stopped to rest and refuel so we haven't really talked about it yet but how is this everyone's nights oh pretty good you're super warm I'm just amazed at how much it's warmed up yesterday yeah we definitely had a fortunate warm night huh huh I can't believe how windy it was huge bursts of wind here try to get knocked over no just now the winds would like push it to the side after the first gust of wind I just saw this light just going all over the place outside what the heck is that me like did someone like see our campsite thought we were like all dead and came to investigate huh it's really hard to get out of bed in the morning so I'm so cold yeah yeah it wasn't even that cold just you're so warm inside when you're hiking especially in the cold of winter every campsite trail junction nook and cranny becomes a temporary home with the changing of seasons from autumn to winter the change of temperatures from day to night and the change of scenery as you hike along you create a consistency in the company you keep and the community you create we continued on and the trail stick is down the side of the hill and into the woods and Robbie noticed some signs of life in the snow I think right here is where a deer slept last night I am by no means a hunter

and you can tell because it's got the snow right there and then over here you've actually got tracks moving away from it there's one here and there was one up there top down there one time we filmed that video yes no yeah there was those little patches where the deers had slept and there was poop lying around too so I'm looking for some hair but I'm not seeing any but sometimes you'll find hairs and deer hair is really brittle so if you're trying to wonder or whether or not it's a deer hair just pick it up and you can really literally just pull it apart snap it in half so funny how much more robust animals are like a deer just plops down and sleeps in the snow if we did that it would be dead by morning after observing the trails left by the deer it was time for us to continue on our own Trail we descended further down the hill entering the embrace of the forest around us

you

the snow was fine beneath our feet and icicles dangled from fallen logs [Music]

we approached a shallow flowing stream where lush green moss peeked out from beneath the snow here we stop to fill up on water before hiking on through the familiar Appalachian landscape

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it's feels like the last day in the Smokies what are these called right here so these are low those are rhododendrons yeah you see those everywhere in that flash they're actually not native but may become naturalized to the environment so they're not necessarily okay because they don't harm the environment necessarily but where'd they come from

I'm not sure exactly Pangea I'm sure actually going along with that they're Josefa but evergreen hemlock trees and that's like giving this place such a Christmas feel yeah oh yeah it would have been great to have like Christmas dinner out here yeah we're gonna New Year dinner tonight [Music]

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we continued hiking parallel to the brook as though it's soothing sounds were leading us to our evenings destination

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[Laughter]

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the trail turned the corner and soon revealed a wonderful sight you're like a regular pioneer stop Brian diverging from the trail and I was like what is this what's going on Oh baby listen a beautiful campsite it's overlooking the Seneca Creek over here oh my goodness well look at that look at that waterfall Wow we got a table again - wow that's great and what is it about hiking and we just come across that perfect campsite like the best feeling in the world I'm always surprised at let me go hiking you never know what's gonna be around like the next yeah like it just you would have never expected that this yeah yeah that whole trail it was just very typical Appalachian sort of mountain hiking and suddenly it opens up and you've got like some grassy meadows over there the waterfall over there big mountains in the distance like I finally realized this looks like something from Captain Mark it was like a PBS show or this guy would draw on like this big poster board and he'd make like these lavish landscapes then literally look just like this I mean this this is a very surreal landscape it looks like someone took a bunch of like key different landmarks mush them together if this is summer I could just see like a little tent popped up everywhere oh yeah they're like a little it's like the end of Return of the Jedi with the Ewoks like there should be like little lights everywhere people dancing around this is great this is like a cliffside or piece of real estate it's over looking at me man in the distance we saw an open meadow just beyond a trail Junction and decided to wander over and scout it out this area up here what's so cool how open it is I feel like I need to like get a knight armor and ride a horse or something

tomorrow we're gonna have to take a polar dip in this little area it's sunny enough gotta cross there without like boots like ours I mean the fact that someone saw that was like that looks like a good place to make a campsite yeah that looks like a fire ring so this is where we're gonna go tomorrow right yeah yeah this looks awesome kinda wonder was this naturally open like this or what

lots of good camp size one over there one over there yeah campsite hoodie I know that Dali saw it certain parts that are naturally foggy but other parts are actually kind of deforested but this petal looks natural to me just cuz it's such a small area well I'm almost wondering should we camp at that go check that campsite out because that looks super nice it's not like we'd be staying there tomorrow yeah like Stonehenge or something yeah love it man I think that's what I appreciate most in a hiking landscape is when you get big open meadows like this I don't know I think this is great what do you guys think you know it's a very rare occasion when there's more than one great campsite the bottom that's our table but I think we'll make do yeah we could use one tonight Wow yeah I mean this for our tents right here it just seems too perfect let's do it yeah yeah because we're not gonna have another opportunity because we're gonna be hiking out tomorrow so we retrieved our packs to move from a great campsite to an even better one and along the way I saw a familiar plant all right well while we're making our way back to the other camp this plant is burdock can tell because it's got these huge spiky things they'll stick right to you this is a second-year burdock the first year of growth it's just got sort of a rosette of leaves that are close to the ground but it's got a root that is edible

once it has the stalk though you don't want to eat the root but earlier in the spring you can eat certain parts of the stalk that are tender it also has huge leaves I've seen people wrap food in it to cook it but the leaves are real bitter so I don't really like doing that myself and I think this is kind of an indication that we're about to get into the meadow area because this isn't something you would see in the woods like that so obviously the plants ecosystems are kind of encroaching on each other these birds with their hook shaped prickles served as the inspiration for a Swedish engineer George de Mestral who invented velcro

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before doing anything we decided to relax a bit in our campsites wonderful chairs

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eventually we got up and set up our tents this time in weather that allowed for a more laid-back pace [Music]

then it was time to arrange her dining room set it up for tonight's hotpot dinner

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while we waited for the water to brew and looked around and found a friendly fungus

so while I was inspecting the Cleveland I saw this chaga fungus growing out of this birch tree kind of just looks like a burnt chunk of nothingness but definitely chaga and I might take a little bit of it and brew some tea tonight after dinner then it was time to eat okay so I've got some of the spicy stuff you guys want me to put it in or do you want to do individual I think we put some in but maybe not all of it yeah let's put something this is good food sometimes when you have hot pot you've got a pot with a divider in the middle that already and one side will be spicy oh yeah oh yeah that's good it smells like a Chinese grocery store I'm gonna start with some of these dehydrated mushrooms we got just so throw some of these yams in there too this is our last day out here we can not worry about having enough ingredients for another day oh yeah oh man is boiling good today oh yeah this this is a true hot pot so we've also got some carrots or enjoy in a purple one whoo this is gonna be awesome so we saved the spicy broth for this last night cuz you don't want that to deal with on the tray I'm gonna get in on this action I'm so excited mr. inside yeah the hot pot is a game of patience wow it's a great evening too it's a little bit warmer than yesterday there's it's not wet obviously and way warmer than yesterday there's like no wind I think something has to be done this these sprites over is definitely great but you're careful while it's hot okay

that's the least of my problems right now

this is so good this feels more like the hot pot at home yeah yeah oh we got to do oh yeah [Laughter]

vegetables are like so good Wow even LeAnn's are cooked oh really I think so I'm going spoon size the carrots aren't quite done yet let's throw more veggies in there no holding back now veggies are so good it's actually nice and really hot oh man I'm so good this is oh what a payoff the shiitake mushrooms are real good they do fit just like women

hopefully they absorb a lot of water yeah they soak up all this juice they stay really hot hmm I need a bigger bowl huh

I don't eat hotpot enough in life that's really so easy yeah yeah it's about to grab those actually just pour mine it's this the best meal we've had camping it might be pretty darn close it pretty close if it's not it this is about as close as you could get to like a meal you could have at home and have a taste exactly yeah yeah so actually a big thanks to my dad he's the one who provided the stove yeah we we decided on our last trip that we didn't want to finagle with any sort of camping stove some of these mushrooms the software must enjoy doing what I got here is it's like a fish cake and it's made of like minced fish and potato starch and usually one of the main ingredients for hotpot are like little fish balls or shrimp oh yeah I think it may be it made it was like squid or beef anything but we're like some trolls in the woods come eat our mushroom so man but when I was hiking up that hill last night I was just like when is this ending like this is pretty horrible the smell was smaller if only we could have had hotpot like this at the last night that would've been a good conclusion yeah it was still quite a relieving meal yeah but I'm really happy we can have real hot bug tonight nature was like hey check out this campsite it's all green and perfect yeah we'll even just uncover it for you I prepared it for you it's moments like these where I'm like I could live out in the woods forever would it be funny if we just set up camp here and like every week someone would hike out just go get more food we just live here for like a Mike we literally be trolls for other oh welcome

come sit have a lot of stupid totally be worth doing it just to do that we're gonna sleep with some full bellies tonight Z's after we had eaten most of the ingredients we finished it all off with some noodles a lot of doodles so excited I'm in hog heaven right now this is a pre/post typing yeah

Andrew and I decided to sit out a bit longer to watch the stars so last night when we were hiking up that hill something I kept thinking was this would feel impossible if you were alone like oh yeah imagine the psychological like horror of that yeah it's so funny man because you don't know if there's a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow yeah like we just happen to get really lucky like that if there had been nothing and you were by yourself yes you have to rely on your own like will and gumption and when you're with a group like you just even though you're all in the same boat essentially you've still got other people that like encourage each other yes to give each other the false hope yes that's funny because in Morgan Monroe that's exactly what we talked about do you think the other person's not scared you're gonna be scared yeah he's definitely been a good winter trip

I don't know if I talked about this already but it's so unfortunate how you can't take the contrast with you yeah yeah you know like when we get back home it's just gonna be so comfortable and we can't remember how the fact that my feet are soaking wet and cold right now yeah and appreciate the fact that you are barefoot inside with carpet and everything there's just like not enough of a direct connection to being outside and oh yeah we gotta get back to balance it's definitely not coming back out here and just living out right but it's definitely not as much indoors as I live yeah you know this is arguably much more rustic and rough than what some sort of hunter-gathering person yeah because they would have like a nice settlement they've got the whole community you know they're back in town boiling hot pot yeah it's either you're surrounded by a lot of people in the cities but then there's no nature or you're out in a rural area and like there's small towns that have community but there's also places where you're just kind of like dispersed yeah yeah there's no balance like I would argue what humans were meant to live in when your physical surroundings create an ever-present contrast between pain and pleasure or discomfort and relaxation you remember the value of a community that you can depend upon and rely on so we are in our tent again and there's significantly less clothes hanging on these clotheslines that brian has set up but uh haven't feeling it's gonna be a lot warmer to me yeah I was thinking it feels a lot like the second night says the fact that's cold we've got the constant sound of like rushing water in the distance just feel a lot like that yeah

much less strenuous hiking thankfully but anyway I'm gonna start hanging up all my wet stuff sucks I think it's gonna be a nice night though

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like strange butterflies emerging from green cocoons andrew and i squirmed our way out of our sleeping bags [Music]

it wasn't freezing this morning but it was still fairly chilly so I decided to brew a hot drink [Music]

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once brian and i are the first ones up and i'm actually boiling water in the morning and the other day I collected some chaga it kind of just looks like a bunch of burnt pieces of mulch but uh it is a fungus I assure you you can make a medicinal tea out of it so I'm gonna try it today to make a tea and uh see how that is

probably got some dirt on it too oh wow it's changing colors really as soon as I put that in it just change colors immediately it's almost like a dark I guess it kind of looks like coffee I know it's chaga for sure it's just it still looks like a crusty old piece of burnt wood so I'm a little nervous literally tastes like much kind of a vague Irby flavor maybe I'm gonna see if I can put some more in it's not bad I'm gonna try and boil it some more and see if anything happens [Music]

does have like a faint herbal fruity Sunna scent when maybe I'm just imagining it well it was actually like slightly bitter on that verse it kinda like coffee I don't really smell much I feel like I've heard people refer to drinking chaga tea as like coffee but something else it definitely looks and kind of taste like coffee [Music]

it's like kind of bitter taste that bitterness it's kind of subtle sometimes but oh maybe yeah the bitter after going down ok it's very good it's supposed to be medicinal so we're gonna be feeling real good today or will be even more safe we went about our morning milling around camp

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we tended to our wounds and made sure our teeth were clean with some organic toothpaste

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it was a quiet calm morning we eventually broke camp and explored the area nearby the Cascade in the river was a wonderful sight this morning and it felt like a privilege to have so much beautiful nature right in our backyard I'm weird because nature just makes stuff like this completely on its own but to us humans it's almost like you he's made for us it's like so beautiful it's so amazing then you think somebody designed it like a human actually came out here and like landscape back but it just nature doing its thing you really think the wonders of nature never get old even in more familiar subdued landscapes

there are countless treasures to be found and with nature always in a state of flux there are always new wonders to experience

we can send you down the path excited to see what new wonders nature had in store for us today [Music]

we saw water cascading down a steep bank feeding into the stream [Music]

and that stream whitewater bounced along the rocks submerged beneath [Music]

and arching across that was a tree whose top had become embedded in the ground [Music]

these curiosities of the wilderness both create and are shaped by the constant change in nature snow melts into rushing water which in turn shapes the rock that causes the water to rush in the mid all that change life takes shape there's a branch that fell onto the conifer tree you can see these little dangly things here these are actually not cones these are a cocoon of a bag worm they basically used the material from the tree to create a cocoon for themselves and they'll emerge as like a moth but we used to see these all over our yard growing off of the cedar bushes I haven't seen them in the wild too often but

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though just yesterday everything was covered in snow today there was water everywhere droplets clung to the boughs of spruce trees and the stream continued flowing and the soil beneath our feet was damp and muddy and with moisture there's fungus some sort of mushrooms dried on here not quite sure what it is so cold and chewed up but check this out there's some green elf cut mycelium in this wood staining it well whatever it is the color in here is pretty much we had finally reached a trail Junction and we noticed something peculiar about our map with our turn so this is the trail that we're gonna take but on the side it says swallow Rock trail I took a look at the map and actually says shallow Rock trailhead on the map so whichever one is right one of those needs to be fixed because someone's gonna get lost someday because of that here there was one more stream crossing but by now we were used to it when we traded off our boots like a well-oiled machine

on the other side the trail began sloping up along densely wooded hills so I'm looking at my compass and to the right is north to the left is south and you'll notice that all the slopes that are facing towards the north they're still covered in snow whereas all of these ones recovered in sunshine most of the snow has thawed and it's amazing how just these hills right next to each other like we can feed it to each other you can have such different changes in the environment and even in the spring when mushrooms start sprouting up you're more likely to find them going on to sunnier hills because it's warmer and it also affects like which way the moss grows and all that is pretty amazing after the last two snowy days it was a nice change of pace to be on the sunny south facing slope and the up hills were a lot less treacherous now that things had melted though a few tenacious patches of snow persisted in the shady spots of the trail just when we started thinking the trail seemed to be winding on a bit longer than it should Robby saw clearing I think we're just about there hoping anyway yeah I think this is it all at once the trail emerged from the forest into a big open field it was difficult to recognize at first without the snow but we soon realized we were back at our first night's campsite lying in the meadow we're desiccated milkweed pods ensure enough old milkweed stalks stood among the dried grass we decided to stop and reminisce a bit at our old campsite we spent one night here and already this place is nostalgic to me it was like the slightest bit of familiarity and I'm just like yeah it is funny how familiar and also how different it looks at the same time yeah like that whole open area that we walked through like I totally forgot that existed yeah I mean Robbie got there so I think we're there I was like this isn't the campsite how do you know this were there everything was just covered in snow yeah it's amazing like how quickly it can change over the course of two days we had an extra night I feel like let's just stay here it'd be pretty fun

just two days ago we were struggling up a blustery snowy hill and today we were struggling with a damp sweaty Hill this trip was a lot like Dolly Sods since that snow the first day and walking through snow the next day and then like no snow and yeah I'm the next class day I love these type of areas that have lots of my wife yeah well my favorite feeling just coming out of a forest and seeing something entirely new yeah such a changing landscape that's what I really liked about north manitou hmm it was like you would be walking to this beautiful forest but then every so often you just have this big open field nose really nice it's like this entire trip there's a change in the seasons and a change in the scenery way quicker than you would have ever expected well I'm ready for spring we enjoyed the sunny warm weather for a little while longer before hiking the last stretch of the trail

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in just the course of a few nights it felt like entire seasons had passed nature is always in a state of continual change sometimes it's small almost impossible changes like flakes of snow drifting from the sky sometimes with the chaotic shift an avalanche tumbling down a mountainside today we face more changes than ever with developing cities technological innovations an uncertain economy society fluctuates just as the natural world does we can't stop change from happening the clashing of forces and the contradictions that emerge are part of both nature and society but what has always gotten us through a world in flux was our sense of community [Music]

the same sensibility that brings families together over boiling pot of food is that which drives us towards a world of cooperation compassion and togetherness

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change in itself is neither good nor bad but when we embrace that change together as a community that's when we can truly thrive

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shoutouts to Steven tuck and koop William hi Scouty park we'll see you soon

extra special thanks to Jeromy Pruitt Jacob Millican and son Jan Wong we couldn't do it without you guys t price Ryan would like to say as always remember to keep sharing and caring also a shout out to expedition research who sent us some awesome gear can't wait to use it on the trail I also shout out to Jason bourgeois and John Truett also thank you to sue and Tom Kozlowski and Jesse kurz for your support extra special thanks to Dennis yo who would like to give a shout out to his friends at BSF in Singapore you're all awesome and extra special thanks to Hayley our Kahless who would like to give a shout out to Christopher Robert Abby aka crabby also an McBride would like to give a shout out to Tom package Andrus in tow would like to give a shout out to his daughter Sophia Liv then we've also got shout outs to longtime patrons Greg crib home long and Jim Potts and finally a shout-out to Philip and Jessica Lou Jonathan mulberry Charlie Joe and Joe fender thank you so much watched pot never boils and right now a lot of people eat very meat heavy hot pots but I always like the listener from us over that comes to no surprise that's one thing about hot pot is it kind of forces you to be patient leaning slowly and a bunch of different ingredients will cook at different rates and stuff so it's kind of fun to like pick around and see what's done too bad we're gonna have a fire there's good like a roaring fire going be great it's gonna be really nice to eat all this get in the tent you dry and warm what a campsite man yes we were struggling today and payoff is quite good no I love that just so snowy today but I'm kind of hoping it's sunny tomorrow I just settled from dry because uh all my stuff ended up getting a little damp

yep how part is just such an entertaining

he'll you know mm-hmm it's like so fun to open it up and see what there is openly like check things and Napa has a great texture to him yeah we went to Mohican State Park and it was snowing like this oh yeah you're trying to cook in the morning it was almost impossible it was very reminiscent of it it still is much colder I feel like yeah I'm a nice one hmm oh that's good and it tastes exactly how hotpot smells yeah it's like a very nice broth that's a lot went backpacking in the Smokies that was like our first real backpacking trip besides the one we went from Shannon dog brought one of these top arranges fit like bags of rice and everything but how was it carrying it this time was it giving you horrible flashbacks to that time when we had but at least in this case but we fun we brought with ours I think ours was a tiny bit bigger maybe and also it came with like this plastic taste we kept it in the plastic case which is probably like extra three or four pounds like this is an exact one that I use when I go to my dad's house yeah I think you'll see a lot of these actually in Asian households I'm like the gas canisters you can pretty much only buy those at Dover yeah which is funny you're like the hot pot type meal is just like a very Asian thing yeah because even with the Korean barbecue with a similar idea you don't have the water but you're cooking stuff in the middle and sharing it got raw ingredients bringing a barbecue that's actually something I've been plant wanting to do for a long time we'd have to do it not in very country there's literally bears coming in which guys happen for dinner every time I take a bite it's like I'm rediscovering heaven again

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you know you think we have it tough you see this guy walking across the vast stretch of Antarctica