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Everyone, welcome to this episode of the outdoor gear review. I hope you all are doing well. When I started my hike to the top of this mountain, which has been roughly 7 milesi of hiking off trail, I started off in the sun, and it has ended in this really dense fog. It's not raining right now, but there's so much moisture in the air that it's collecting on the trees and actually dripping down. So, in a way, it is raining. At the same time, it's really not that dark. You can see that I have my sunglasses on. Tempwise, it is absolutely perfect. Right around 60° F. The negative aspect is that the humidity is 100%. It feels close to 80 with the humidity. Luckily, there is a slight breeze and it is making a difference.
It's muggy. It's stuffy. But hey, everyone, look at this forest. Look at how beautiful it is up here. This is paradise. There is two things that I need to do real quick. One, get my tarp set up. Two, get my tent set up. Here I have my cordage bag just in case I need additional cordage. Yes, everybody. Yes, we have the tarp set up without getting soaking wet. That's a win right there. Now, let's move on over to the tent. here. In a little bit, everyone, I will tell you all about this tent. This comes from a company who is probably the last company that you would ever think of as far as tents go. This may surprise you.
Yeah. [snorts] For the last 5 minutes, I've and hearing thunder. It's really far away, but it's definitely getting closer. As you all could see with the tarp here, I went ahead and I pitched it rather high. And there's two reasons why. One, air flow. to comfort. When it comes to pitching a tarp, there's numerous ways that you can do it. And those are my two primary factors that I consider when it comes to the setup. If it gets really windy, really stormy, I could put on my rain gear. Those articles of clothing, plus this tarp will give me a ton of protection and I'll be okay. Sometime back, I was contacted by this guy and his email started off as like, I'm a bushcraft expert. Let me tell you how to
set up a tarp. The gist was that he did not like that I would pitch my tarps so high. He wanted them close to the ground. And I was trying to tell him, listen, if you want to pitch it so low that you're kissing dirt, go for it. But I'm not going to do it. I have zero desire to lay down on the ground underneath my tarp unless I absolutely have to. I'm going to pitch the tarp that I want to because it works best with the way that I like to camp. Protection, comfort, those are the two biggies. Anyways, everyone, the tent has been set up. The tarp has been set up. Let's go ahead set up our chair, get our stove ready, and that's because it's almost coffee time. I would like to have a cup
of coffee before this storm hits or as the storm is hitting. Lots of thunder now. Also, we're getting just a little bit of rainfall. It's not super heavy, but it's coming down. Luckily, the temps are dropping. As it stands right now, it finally feels good. Super good. That likely means the temps are in the upper 50s. And that's crazy considering this time of year. I mean, it's almost July and it's now 50° up here. I tell you, everyone, I am so blessed to have this national forest to go to. At any other elevation, it just be so hot, so humid. I don't know if I can do it. Next week, it is supposed to be in the hundreds off of the mountains. It'll
be close to 90 in the mountains. Up here, it'll still be in the 70s. And that's unbelievable. Before the rain starts, let me tell you all about this tent. This comes from, get this, Kovia, the company that makes stoves and heaters. They also make tents and for the first time pretty much ever you can actually get them in the United States. This is the Core Light 1 and a halferson tent. And this is going to be a trial by fire experience for this tent. This is my first time setting it up and now it's going to go through a rain test. I do this because I'm the outdoor gear review and I test out products. Don't do this with your own campouts.
This should be an interesting test for this tent, and I cannot wait to see whether or not it leaks. More about this tent later on, everyone. Here comes the rain. It's sounding pretty wicked out there at the moment. Light rain continues to fall and it sounds like the storm is getting closer and closer. Let's go everyone. Let it storm. Let it
Yes, everyone. It is raining. But inside of this forest, the drops are not very big. Basically, what's happening is this. The raindrops, they're hitting the top of the trees and they're exploding. So, it's like this very fine, heavy mist. that is soaking everything. Luckily, we have the tarp overhead fully protected. The rain jacket is on. I don't know if you all saw that, but water is flying off of this. I'm going to go ahead and put on my rain pants. That way, my clothes stay nice and dry. It is update time everybody. Heavy rain is coming down now. At the same time, it is very windy. It is pouring out there.
Lots of thunder, lots of lightning. Still not super close, but definitely getting closer. It is time for another update, everyone. This storm has been going on for over 1 hour now. I'm impressed. I have no idea when this is going to end. I don't have service up here, so who knows? Luckily, it's not super severe. The winds did pick up at a time, but now it's really not that bad. It's just a really good rainfall with a lot of thunder. The storm apparently went around us and luckily we didn't get a direct hit. Just a little touch of it.
Just a taste. And that's okay. Heat. It is time for another update, everyone. It has been raining for 4 hours straight. It is almost 5:00. We're talking about inches of rainfall. It does look like the rain is coming to an end for now. I can see some clearing in the sky over there. My attention is now drawn to the Kovia tent. Did it leak? Everyone, this tent leaked just a little bit, but it did leak. It appears to me that the tent leaked from here for sure and either from here or from there. You can see here how the fly attaches to the pole. These are very high stress points and because of that making them waterproof is difficult.
This tent has suffered from two points of leaking. Luckily, the leaking was not that bad. This forest was wet when I got here. Now it is soaked. Everything is sping wet. There's water coming from everywhere. It's going to be dripping from the trees for hours, maybe possibly all night long. That means no fire, unfortunately. I do wish we could have a fire tonight, and that's because it's rather cold right now. The temps are in the 50s. I'm not exactly sure what. I don't have my thermometer with me, but yeah, I can tell. Definitely in the 50s.
It continues to be extremely foggy, very rainy, and already the sun is going down. Because we can't have a fire tonight, we might as well go ahead and have dinner. Dinner tonight, it's iffy. It might be good. It might be terrible. And I'd have to say the odds are it's not going to be that great. But we shall see. Dinner tonight is certainly questionable. It comes from a company that has a really bad reputation. But apparently they have revamped all of their packaging. You can't even tell that it's from the same company any longer. Hopefully it's more than just a packaging change. Hopefully the meals are better, too. But we shall see.
It really doesn't have that much of an odor. I can't say it really smells like anything. What I'm having tonight, everyone, is a meal from Ready Wise. This is pasta olive vodka with chicken. I'm a little bit surprised. This is not bad. This is not bad at all. Apparently, Ready Wise has joined up with a company known as One Tree Planted. I've seen this company before with other outdoor companies. And basically, with every meal sold, they plant one tree. Sometimes it's like with every jacket sold, they plant one tree, something like that.
It's an interesting idea. I'm not sure if it really offsets the manufacturing of this meal, but sure it couldn't hurt, but it does bring up an interesting point. The company is not going to lose profits. So, I'm sure that the prices on this have gone up. So, basically, you're paying for the meal and for a tree to be planted. So, I don't know. What do you all think about that? Comment down below. And I wonder where exactly is this tree being planted at? Where can I find proof that an actual tree was planted from me purchasing this meal or from someone purchasing this meal? Speaking of which, I did not purchase this meal. A viewer did. And I tell you what, now is a good time to do some shoutouts real quick. Scotty,
thank you so much for the fire starters. I cannot wait to try those. Christopher, thank you so much for the coffee and the two meals, the Ready Wise meals. The dark chocolate coffee was amazing. Steven, thank you so much for the rechargeable lighters. Those are quite interesting. I'm looking forward to trying one of those. Oh no. Now that is interesting. Everyone, this chair just broke. That there is one of the few carbon fiber chairs that are out on the market today for camping purposes. I was wondering about that carbon fiber. Yes, it could be really strong, but if
there's any defects, right, it will break. I've seen this before with other products, carbon fiber products. What I think is going to be more interesting than the product breaking is to see whether or not I can get in touch with the company and I can get a replacement. I believe it's too late to go through Amazon. So, I will have to talk to the company directly. You know, talking about this campsite and how amazing it is. Something that I get asked about all the time is how I go about finding the campsites that I find.
I really don't have any sort of secret or anything like that, but I will say it does take a lot of work and a lot of time and I should say a lot of effort. Any sort of campsite that I go to that I use, I have found over many, many years. I start by taking a look at maps. Maps for public lands, maps for national forests, not national parks, national forests. National parks are completely different, and I'm not going to look there. And that's because they tend to have very strict rules. Luckily, most national parks are surrounded by national forests. So, while you can't go to the park and do what you want to,
oftentimes you can go to the national forest and do what you want to. So, I start there. I take a look at maps, see if I can find anything listed as far as campsites go. I look at satellite imagery and I also drive out on forest roads and I go and explore. That is what has led me to the vast majority of the campsites that I frequent. Just getting out and exploring. Not only is it fun, it's also exciting. And the truth is, you never know what you're going to find, good and bad. And that everyone is pretty much it. That's how I go about finding campsites and whatnot. The thing about national forests is that oftent times you can disperse camp. All you have to do is check the regulations, be
so far from a road and all that stuff, and you can do anything that you want to. And that everyone is exactly what I do. I like to disperse camp in the middle of nowhere where I see no one and I hear nothing. It's just me, the animals, the forest, and that's it. I am not a people person and I don't want to hang out. I don't want to talk. I don't want social hour or anything like that. I want to be by myself with you all in the forest. And that's my style of camping. Good morning everybody. Good morning. Good morning red squirrel. How you doing? As you all could see, it is a foggy, rainy morning.
It's basically been like this for most of the night. A little bit rainy, drizzly, which means I slept late, everyone. I turned in around 9:00 and it's now 6:00 a.m. The temp went up last night and the winds picked up, too. Right now, it's really not that cold, but it's very windy. The sun is coming up. The forest is awake. I can see the ground. And that means it's just about time for me to backpack out of here. I know what you're thinking. Luke, stay around a little while, right? Every morning when you wake up on your trips, you take off. Well, there's a simple
reason for that. I'm ready to move. I don't sit still very well, if that makes sense. And I'm pretty sure that coffee that I drink has something to do with that. I have a cup of coffee and I'm like, I got to go. I got to go do something right now, you know? That coffee is doing exactly what it's designed to do. Make you move. You know, this really has been a great trip. Awesome rain, awesome storms, beautiful location, great conditions. I wish it wasn't as humid and muggy, but that squirrel wants me out of here. That's another reason why it's time to go.
Yeah. All in all, this has been a great trip. The tent did good, but not great. It leaked. The chair, it really did terrible. It broke. I took a look at it, and I know exactly what happened to it. It's not that the materials failed. It's actually something to do with the manufacturing. There's a small post that goes in between those poles and that came unglued and moved to the point where the frame had nothing to hold itself together and that's why it came apart. It's a failure of the product, not of the materials. And it'll be interesting to see what the company has to say about the chair and whether or not I can get a replacement, get a
refund, or who knows what, right? It is from a company called MN Snaily or something or other. Ever so often on the channel, I've spoken about AI, and I wanted to talk about it again this morning in regards to messages and emails that I receive from you all. I've noticed over the last maybe 3 months or so more and more people are using AI to write emails, messages, and whatnot to share information. And I have to admit, I don't like it, right? Because like if you have your AI write an email to my AI and my AI responds to your email, folks, we don't want this, right? I want to hear your thoughts, your opinions. I want your insight. I don't want anything written by AI. I don't want any information from AI. Right? I can look
all that stuff up. I can use that stuff the exact same way that you do. So, please, if you're going to shoot me an email, if you're going to shoot me a message, don't use AI because if you do, I'm going to respond with AI. and our AI bots will play this game of responding to each other over and over. Time is the ultimate commodity and I do not want to waste it. I don't want to waste any time responding to an AI message. Right? If you write, I want to talk to you. I want to hear your thoughts. I do not want to hear the thoughts of an AI. Plus, most of the time, the AI information that is sent in concerning all sorts of topics, it's wrong. It's incorrect. There's things about it that simply do not make
any sense. When it comes to the outdoors, when it comes to outdoor gear, often times, well, most of the time, AI has no clue what it's talking about. Now's a good time to say goodbye, everybody. Thank you all so much for joining me for this trip. I really do appreciate you watching this video, having a good time with me in this incredible forest. What a special spot. If you had a good time on this trip, please hit the thumbs up. I do appreciate it. Also, make sure to check out my second YouTube channel, A Quiet Place Adventures. You will find a brand new adventure there every single Monday.
Until next time, everyone, take care, be safe, stay dry, stay cool. Strength and honor. cat hair on my face. I love those cats. But everything is now covered in cat hair. I can make a cup of coffee and there'll be cat hair in it. Heat.
