Yeah. Put the team on my back.
Welcome to the Backpacking Podcast brought to you by
Outdoor Vitals, makers of Performance First Ultra Light
Gear, and with me always the king of Kentucky backpacking and
the man who knows a little something about prescribed
burns, That would be my friend Jeremiah Stringer.
Yeah, dude, I'm trying to avoid the prescribed burns.
Couple weeks ago, dude, they, they like sent out a message to
everybody around here where I live in Kentucky, and they're
like, hey, we're burning up 2500 acres of like forest land and
Daniel Boone National Forest. Be on the lookout because smoke
is coming your way. Sure enough, dude, noon the
smoke rolled in. Ironically, I was grilling out
that day, so I got to enjoy some of the smoke.
Do you have a smoker? I don't have a smoker.
So now you see you had a you had a free smoker for a day.
I had. A yes, the bacon, it tasted.
Dude, I done corn. I done burger patties.
I done some big old thick bacon from Kroger.
I got the brown sugar cinnamon and I got the black pepper.
Oh, my mouse water. And just think I got one of
those big old black pepper and cheddar sausages.
Yeah. And I got some free smoke
flavor. But dude, I'm headed out this
weekend and I called the Ranger station.
I said, hey, I'm going to be in that area.
Can you tell me are there any prescribed burns?
Because I really want 2 questions answered.
One, if I go out there, am I going to burn alive, me and all
my buddies. And two, if we don't burn alive,
are we going to get smoked out? Because we're, we live so close
to the lake, it just like settles around the lake and you
know, it, it just sits there. It just sits there for like 24
hours and I cannot be outside in there for 24 hours.
That would be miserable. But let me say one other thing,
John, actually a quick word from our sponsor.
It is here, bro. I'm committing right now to at
least one night using a tent. You know, I'm an avid hammock
camper and we may argue, we may argue later about this, but I am
committed to trying out the new CERT tent brought to you by
outdoorvitals.com. It is, I believe their first
ever trekking pole tent. And a little bit about it.
It weighs only one pound, 13 oz, Engineered for backpackers who
want maximum usable space, exceptional airflow and reliable
wet weather performance. I'm telling you bro, I'm excited
to try it out. I know some people have already
ordered it, got their hands on it, but it is official.
You can go on. We'll leave a link in the
description where you can buy it.
And another thing, I signed up for the first time ever for the
OV, the Outdoor Vitals 100 Mile Challenge.
And John, why don't you tell me about that?
That's right, that this is a really kind of a cool thing.
I've got a list of all the things that you get if you do
the 100 Mile Challenge. You get obviously your
registration to the event. You get a free Altitude Son
hoodie, a free OV-100 Mile Challenge T-shirt, admission to
exclusive Facebook groups and communities, access to live
Q&A's and guest speaker calls. The 100 Mile Framework Workbook
printed out like this is awesome workbook that helps you train to
get ready for that, access to digital course modules and
resource links. When you finish, you get the 100
mile finisher hat and metal, plus you get the 100 Mile Event
Challenge stickers. All of this is a value of over
$400.00 and guess what? You're getting it for $68.
Oh my gosh. And by the way, if you never
heard of the OV-100 Mile challenge, John, would you tell
everybody in just a couple sentences, explain it like
you're explaining it to your grandma, exactly what this
challenge is? Grandma, you're going to do
something absolutely insane and walk 100 miles in the woods.
How long? 100 miles.
What do you mean I mean? From start to finish, what's the
window of time that you have to complete the 100?
Do I have to do it straight? Do I need to go do a through
hike? Or no the the windows from July
1st through September 30th. You've got plenty of time to do
this hike. Plenty of time, but you don't
have plenty of time to sign up. But March is the last month to
sign up, so sign up now. And Grandma, here's the thing,
if you do it, this is better than winning a Grammy Award.
I couldn't agree more with that. You could win the World Series,
it won't mean to as much to you as as doing the 100 mile
challenge. I totally agree.
So check out outdoorvitals.com links for both of those in the
description if you want to sign up for the OV-100 mile
challenge. Or check out the new Cirque
tent. It's held up by trekking poles,
which will save you some weight because then you don't have to
carry tent poles with you. I'm looking forward to that,
John. And here's the thing.
It's one of the most interesting things about it is the fact that
it's a it's a trekking pole tent that weighs as little as it
does, and it's not made of dyneema.
In that insane. It's a it's a stretch resistant
polyester that they use and it's pretty cool, man.
It's really, really cool. So I'm I'm excited to hear more
about it. I know Devin, who is already in
the is in here today. He has gotten his hands on one.
I'm sure, man, there's a lot of people in here.
And I'm going to be honest with you, there's so many comments
right now. I don't think they're, they're
coming hot and heavy today. Hot and heavy.
So today guys, we're we're to do something, guys and ladies,
we're going to do something a little different.
We are going to do something called Trail court.
Oh. Yeah, that's right.
Trail Court and the way Trail Court's going to work is I am
the bad cop or the mean lawyer who is the, I guess you would
say the prosecutor, Jeremiah is the good cop or the defendant
and what he's going to do is he's going to defend certain
pieces of gear. I am going to go against those
pieces of gear. Now, the first couple we already
have strong opinions against. One's coming up that we both
have an agreeing opinion on, but I'm going to have to change my
mind to fight with Jeremiah. So this should be fascinating to
see how this goes. So, Jeremiah, let's start off
right away with deodorant. Oh, OK, so let's argue in in
favor of deodorant. That should be pretty easy for
me. But I will tell you ma'am, I'm
packing for this trip. The packing has begun and one of
the things in my first not I guess you wouldn't call it first
aid kit, my hygiene kit toothbrush.
I got a little miniature hair brush like to keep it nice neat
with deodorant. And if I'm through I can, I
typically would throw it in the trash.
But man, all these trips I've been taking that are weekend
warrior style, I love being clean on the way out there.
And to help get me a little refreshed in the morning, you
wipe off with baby wipes. Normally when I get up, I take a
shower, but that's kind of impossible out there.
So I just use baby wipes, take me a little baby wipe bath and
then I apply deodorant. And a little pro tip, if you go
to Walmart go to the the travel section and they have mini sized
everything so I get one of those tiny little deodorants.
Now unfortunately it only lasts 3 or 4 trips but I put that on
every morning and it just makes me feel a little bit better
about myself and my friends don't have to smell me while I'm
in the woods. It weighs almost nothing and so
I think it's a valuable asset to have whenever you're in the
woods on a multi day backpacking trip.
So add deodorant to your hygiene kit with those baby wipes.
So basically let's just start this off by saying it's, it's
obvious that the deodorant doesn't actually do anything.
It's just to give you a security blanket.
So you're packing your fears. So we'll start with that.
Today we're packing our fears by bringing deodorant, something
that realistically, after a weekend of backpacking and
possibly doing multiple miles, where you're going to sweat and
you're going to smell anyways. Now you don't just smell like
sweat, but you smell like sweat and deodorant.
And on top of it, you're adding more stuff into a hygiene kit
that's probably packed pretty tight already.
It's also going to add ounces to your pack.
And everybody knows that ounces equal pounds at the end of the
day. And so it's just adding more
weight to something that really is unnecessary.
And so I'm going to go on out on a limb and say it it does a few
things that I think are -1 it adds weight. 2, it takes up
space. And three, it's more money
you're spending. I'm just going to be honest with
you. If I don't use deodorant over
the weekend, that's money in my pocket because it's deodorant
I'm not using when I'm at home and I'm saving money.
Plus, the reality is I already stink and I can try all I want
to put on deodorant. And unless you're putting
deodorant on your chest, your back, your crotch, your legs,
you, you're going to smell bad. There's just no way around
smelling bad when you're in the back country.
As a matter of fact, we call that embracing the suck.
So I would say personally, I think deodorant is basically a
useless item when you go backpacking.
OK, let us know in the comments who are you in favor of?
Are you pro deodorant? Are you on Jeremiah's team?
Because the defense rests their case well.
Or Ben Ben McMillan agrees and thoughts that Jeremiah should
carry deodorant. That's why he's been backpacking
with me. Before he knows, Yep, he agrees
that you need to bring deodorant.
Yeah, don't worry about everybody else.
Here's here's one for you. Here's one Jeremiah, should you
bring butt deodorant for sticky butt?
For stinky butt, Well. I don't get stinky butt because
first of all I have the bidet, the pocket bidet so you can rent
your tush off after you do your business.
Then you can clean it up with the baby wipe.
And then I do anti monkey butt and if you haven't heard of it,
it's like Gold Bond but better. I don't know about that.
I don't know about the better gold bonds.
Pretty awesome. Well.
Gold Bond is pretty awesome except for whatever that
medicated. You know the medicated label
they put on there? Yeah, they should mark that out
and put burns cause. Oh, it's not burns.
It's like a bunch of little angels blowing all over your
skin. OK, well maybe you haven't had
the stanky butt before, because I have the raw stanky butt and
I'm telling you, big black sharpie, mark it out and rot
burns it. Don't burn you up.
Are you serious? No, not at all.
Wow, so you think it's like a good tingle?
Yeah, yeah, I think it is. I really like it.
We might have to agree to disagree.
Now. I love Chicken Littles.
Trex's comment on here, he says everyone else is.
They're at armpit level with Jeremiah.
And I will tell you, I got a funny picture with Miyagi on the
trail, and I'm giving him a hug. We're about four days deep into
a backpacking trip. He's tucked right in my armpit.
Man, what? Can you do?
And I will tell you what's funny is on that trip I brought an
electric razor and I carried it the whole time.
And every day we would shave off a little bit more of the other
person's either beard or mustache or eyebrow.
Just kidding. I wouldn't let him touch my
eyebrows. Oh, I saw.
I saw your facial hair, bro. You were way nicer.
Why were you so nice? Well, I wasn't.
Expecting you don't get to see what the person's doing, they're
like sit down and let me so you start off my.
Who were you backpacking with? Some of my best friends but.
But who in particular? Who in particular?
Well, I had Mr. Backpack with Jason, Sir.
But who in particular can you not?
There we go. You can't trust Miyagi on a
trail, buddy. Dude a different trip we were on
I got woke up about 5:00 AM to him with AI think he had a
Bluetooth speaker or a call and he had like a howling wolf right
outside my my hammock. 5:00 in the morning, little wake up call
right next to your head. Man you can't trust and put pine
cones in my backpack. Rocks.
He loaded my backpack up with rocks and I didn't discover them
till the end of the day when the hiking was done.
He threw a horseshoe at me and then utter.
That's good luck. That's good luck.
John So I'm just telling you, you don't trust me, Hoggy on
trail, man. I'm just saying, hey, there was
another comment that was that was I think it's a great
comment. Check this one out.
It says heavy deodorant on the morning shower of the first day.
I head out on trailhead. Trailhead.
But don't pack it in your backpack.
Well you can pack it in your backpack.
Not to rehash my points but it's so small the travel size don't
bring the big guy and plus those are like $9 for.
Have you seen how much deodorants went up?
Again, that good that you're just doing what I'm saying and
here all things outdoors. I think everyone else should
have deodorant. I'm usually OK.
That's right, Jeremy, That's right.
You want to argue another? One, yeah, let's go with another
one. Let's go with another one.
Let's talk Bluetooth speakers. Oh boy, so my job is to be in
favor. Now, should the Should the
prosecution go first this time, or should the defense go first?
Yes, yes, present your case, John.
I would love to refute your points.
I have a feeling that our audience might be on your side
on this. I have a feeling I could win
this one. Now, the last one's probably
pretty split, but this one I think I can win.
So. So Jeremiah, let's just start
off by saying who wants to be that guy?
And by that guy, I'm talking about that guy who thinks that
what he's doing is really cool. And then he's playing music that
everybody wants to hear. And he's got that speaker blared
as he's walking down the trail. And he's not sure exactly why it
is that everybody's giving him dirty looks every time they walk
by him. And then he finally hits that
one Karen that's on the trail who looks at him and says, will
you please turn off your speaker?
It's rude. Here's the thing, Jeremiah.
When we go into the woods, I don't go in the woods to hear
whatever music somebody wants to hear.
I don't go into the woods to hear rap, rock, metal.
I don't go, I don't go in the woods for that.
I go in the woods to hear the woods.
I want to hear the birds chirping.
I want to hear the the sounds of, of insects flying around
like crickets and things. I I don't want to hear music.
I want to hear wind blowing. I want to hear water along the
streams as I'm hiking. When you bring that kind of
technology out into the woods, we like to call that noise
pollution because it's not like you're wearing headphones where
it's all just on you. No, you're making everybody else
have to listen. It's, it's insensitive.
And Jeremiah, it's just downright rude.
The prosecution rests its case. All right, wow, bro, you're not
ready for this defense. I mean, you got your.
Seat belt on. I hope you got it buckled.
First of all, who needs headphones when you have a
Bluetooth speaker? You can shed that weight right
away. OK, throw those things out.
Second of all, Bluetooth speaker.
You can get the backpacking friendly version of don't.
Don't let John dissuade you here.
You see, he's got in his mind, I think one of those big ones that
you put on your shoulder and you carry down the beach.
I'm talking about the tiny guy. I'm talking about 10 bucks, 12
bucks on Amazon. It clips on right here at the
top of your backpack up above your water bottle.
And you only had if you're walking with it and you have it
on, you only have it on loud enough that you can hear it.
And I'll be honest with you, I typically don't use Bluetooth
speaker while moving. It's only it can't.
But I will say for this hypothetical situation that we
will say while you're walking, I'm the defender here, lawyer
practicing. And you only have it loud enough
that you can hear it. It's right here next to your ear
on your shoulder. And when you're coming up past
people, then you pause it if you want to be not rude, as John put
it. Second of all, at camp, a lot of
times you're with your friends and they do like the same music
as you. Because as much as we don't like
it, most of us are eating similar foods here in this
culture. Most of us are waking up at
similar times, going to sleep at similar times.
I mean, there's outliers. Course, there's third shifted
all this stuff work for yourself.
But as much, as as much as we don't like it, we are a lot
alike. And so if you're hanging out
with your buddies and you all want, oh, I don't know, a little
country or a little heavy metal or some Christian rap or, heck,
I don't know, maybe some death metal, then you can blare it at
camp while you're sitting by the fire and the defense rest its
case. Yeah, well, I had to have to put
this on the screen. Back country exposure, but
except Jeremiah sponsored videos with Bluetooth.
I think I have, I think 5, four or five sponsored videos of
Bluetooth speakers. You have to defend at this
point. You're gonna lose all of your
sponsorships in the future. Yes, yes.
Yes, we got bills to pay here folks, so if you have to sell
out, let me give you some good clean advice.
Bring the Bluetooth speaker. Now there are, I'm seeing two
different messages from Devin on here.
One says hurry up, chorus, unite, but the other one says
fart chorus unite. I'm assuming it's fart chorus is
the correct thing. I don't know why it says hurry
up on this other window, but OK. And here's a here's a good one
too. On trail, no.
At camp, maybe. Depends on when and where.
And Ben McMillan says the same thing he says on trail, no.
At camp, yes. If everyone agrees and there are
no other camps nearby, that's a big one too.
You don't want to be that that guy that takes off the people
that may have been hiking 27 miles that day and really want
to sleep for the next morning. Yeah, you really do want to be
courteous. And whenever I do those
sponsored ads on my personal channel and it's brought to you
by some Bluetooth speaker company, then I'm always a huge
advocate of that. You have to be courteous.
I mean, there's a lot of people, like John said, are out there
and it is, you know, recovery mode, restore mode, you're
really trying to get in touch out there.
You're trying to get away from all the noise that daily life
brings. So in all honesty, you do want
to be courteous and that could mean that you need to go through
the camp and be like, well, I guess we're not listening to
music tonight. These people are going to bed.
Also, by the way, big time super chat Derwin off the rails I was.
Just going to say Derwin off the rail sent us a message, said see
you Friday. I guess you guys are going
backpacking together. That's right, 5.
Bucks on us. I opened up the basement to him
if he wants to come on Thursday, but I assume he has to work long
drive for these guys because I'm backpacking close to home this
weekend and some of them are driving.
I think the furthest is 8 hours. I say man, I've done it before
too. Sometimes it's tough.
But yeah, shout out Darwin. I can't wait to see you buddy.
So what is the furthest you've driven to go backpacking?
I'd say driven, well there's two that's about the same.
We one time we went to Pennsylvania and went to.
Oil Creek. Oil Creek.
Yeah, that's right, Oil Creek. And I think if there was no
snow, because there was like 2 feet of snow at the time, it
probably wouldn't taking as long.
I think that was around 9 hours. But I'm not going to lie, dude,
it was so expensive to fly in anywhere close to Mount Rushmore
when we were doing a loop around it, like a four day loop, that
we had to fly into Denver and drive across multiple states to
get over there. And that that technically could
be the furthest that I drove, but I actually had to fly in and
get a rental and then make the drive.
So I got you. Depends on how you ask the
question, I suppose. I was going to say the furthest
I've driven was Pictured Rocks because that one Jonathan
Woodall just said in jail. Again, no way if if he is, it's
not my fault we took him out. We didn't even put him in jail
the first time. No.
So what are you? What are you doing, Jonathan?
Anyways, so Long story short, I drove 12 hours to get up to
Pictured Rocks. OK, Yeah.
So that was that was a long drive.
Drove it by myself the first day, drove up there, got a hotel
room the next time, drove back through Wisconsin instead of
going through. What did I drive through to get
there? I drove through Ohio basically,
I think. The whole state of Ohio.
Bro, was it Ohio? Yeah, it was Ohio.
Yeah, you had to drive the whole state of Ohio to get to Michigan
from Kentucky. And every time I'm like, this is
so boring, but you know, you're excited, you're wanting to get
there. Speaking of Michigan, we went up
to that hammock hang, remember? Yep.
And we didn't do it. Technically that would be the
furthest drove, but we didn't do any hiking.
It was all lounging, meeting other hammockers.
Oh, we did a two mile hike one day.
Did we? Did 1 little short tiny hike I
think I'm. Going to slip through that, but
I'll tell you one cool thing about that hammock hang I'd
never before seen. You know, they got hot tents.
I didn't know hot hammocks were even a thing.
So that was my first time ever checking out the hot hammock.
Not really applicable right now. We're headed into the throes of
spring, but very cool. I think we're getting rage
messages. I'm telling you y'all better get
with YouTube. This is getting old.
I don't even know I would free him from jail.
But John, honestly, I think you stumbled upon even how you take
people and put people into jail. Last time we looked just to fill
everybody in. If you're a new listener, for
some reason, YouTube just likes to throw some of our members of
the audience in jail sometimes, and then you can't comment.
You can't. Can't do anything, can't
interact. He didn't put him back in there.
Put him back in. Oh my God, how did you get back
in there? He must have used a a wordy
dirt. He must have a family friend
somewhere. All right.
Well, you you're now out again, so you can join us again.
That's hilarious, man. Start every show.
I am Jonathan Wood on he's out
on bond. Don't mess up.
You're on probation bro all. Right.
I got one more, one more trail court I want to do with you.
It's not on the list. OK, beautiful.
So let me let me look through here one more time and just make
sure. I had a pretty comprehensive
list. John had a lot of things to
choose from for Trail Court. He.
Did he did, but the problem is a lot of the ones he has on here,
I I like. And so I'm not necessarily
wanting to not defend the things that I like.
I'll tell you what we'll do one that I do like, OK, It's, it's
going to challenge me. It's going to challenge me to,
it's going to challenge me to like really think about it.
OK, OK, so I'll go first. I.
Guess trail cord on this one will be hammocks.
Oh boy, oh boy, this. Is hard.
I've been defending hammocks for six years.
We might have to. Put a timer up for how long I
can talk about being in favor of hammocks.
Man, I think I can make a master course out of this one, but I'll
keep it short and sweet. OK, Yeah.
First of all, the best thing about hammocks, you're not on
the ground. Being a a larger guy, I'm I hate
getting up off the ground and especially, I mean I'm only 33
OK, so got some room to grow, but I know the older that I'm
getting the the more and more and more I dislike getting up
off the ground. Well, you're also 6 foot 3.
Yeah, yeah, that doesn't help either.
So I like to be off the ground. Another awesome thing about the
hammock is if you want to, you can just toss your camp chair
out because technically your hammock is the perfect camp
chair, especially if you're solo backpacking.
Now, if you're with the group, maybe keep the chair for the
fire, but hammock camping, you wake up in the morning, you have
your little backpacking table, you make some coffee, you make
some breakfast, do all of your morning chores Perfect.
You're just sitting there in your hammock.
You got an under quilt. You're literally floating in a
sleeping bag. Cocoon of down or synthetic if
you want to be more ethical, but I use the down so a.
Real clear before you go any further, Ben McMillan sent bail
money for Woodall in the in the in the Super chat of $13.
Oh wow. Well.
But not giving it to him. But yeah, that's great.
But. We'll put it to good use, Ben,
and we'll we'll keep him out of jail.
Yeah, look, Jonathan says. Thanks, Ben.
Oh, back to my hammock. The last thing I'll say about
the hammocks is the tarp. So you have this big open area
that even your friends can come hang out under the tarp with
their chairs. If it's raining, you don't want
them. Imagine you and your four
friends trying to squeeze into the Cirque tent.
OK, the Cirque tent is great for backpacking and it's great for
you. But if you all and your friend,
all you and all your friends want to hang out, you might be
laying in there and, you know, cuddling basically.
So the hammock, I got to give it the dub when it comes to having
the tarp, having the floating like basically layers of
sleeping bag around you so you don't even get drafts with the
under quilt and the top wheel. And then lastly you're off the
ground. I rest.
I appreciate your, your, your defense, Jeremiah, really do.
But there's there's a few problems.
We have a few holes we need to poke into this, this defense
that you have. The first thing being you.
You mentioned you could pretty much just ditch the chair.
Well, that's great if you set your hammock up directly beside
the campfire. Otherwise you're sitting on the
other side of the campsite away from everybody, yelling at them
to talk to them at night. That doesn't seem like a good
option to me. I think I'm still going to bring
a chair. As far as as shelters go, one of
the things that's really nice when you go backpacking is a
lack of difficulty in setting up.
And the reality is setting up a tent.
It's pretty basic, pretty simple, and a lot of times it's
color-coded for you. And so coming in, setting up a
tent and setting it up and getting it ready for camp is
probably going to be a touch easier, a little quicker and a
less confusing. And let's just be honest when it
comes to options just based solely on little parts of a
hammock like suspensions or the hammock itself.
Do you want a single layer? Do you want a double layer?
What does a double layer even mean?
Do you want to use an under quilt?
Do you want to use a sleeping pad?
What kind of tarp should you get?
Should you get a hex cut tarp? Should you get a tarp with
doors? Should you get your cat cut
tarp? What kind of tarp should you
get? What kind of material should the
tarp be made out of? And the truth is, you can't.
It's really hard to buy those things all combined and then
find out that you actually like all of them.
Typically when you buy an all in one hammock, a lot of people
find out they like all of it, but certain parts and they have
to go out and change those parts out.
That can be frustrating for people wanting to go camping.
Also, I'm going to be honest, man, there's just something
about having privacy where nobody can sneak in and and into
your space. You've got a nice little cozy
close up area. It's kind of like a little house
or a little bedroom that you got at night.
That's nice. The other issue is wind.
Let's just talk about the the issue of major winds and storms
when you're in a hammock. We even talked about this a few
weeks ago, how you set up your hammock and you watched a lot of
your gear start blowing or I'm sorry, Jason did set up his
hammock and basically just watched his gear start flying
away in the wind. That doesn't happen in a tent.
You're able to stake down the tent and there's no wind getting
underneath the tent. But with a hammock, I know
because I've experienced it myself, heavy rains and wind can
cause all kinds of issues on a hammock that just you don't have
with tents. And so for that, I'm also going
to say, actually, I might add more because I got to win this
one. I've got to.
I got to win. I'm, I'm, I'm this.
Is this breaking my heart? OK, got to do this.
I got to keep going. Let him cook.
Here, here's another thing about the tent, man.
Here's another thing about the tent.
You can typically find a lighter weight setup with a tent than
you can with a hammock, unless you want to spend three times
the money. Because hammocks, tarps, Ridge
lines, all of that. Some guy lines all of it.
When you put it all together, it can just cost a lot more money
to get the same weight that you're going to get when you buy
a nice tent. And with that said, I'll stop.
That hurt my heart. That hurt my heart, dude.
That broke my heart. That whole thing was just
terrible. That was that was an exercise I
never want to do again it. Was like just spouting
blasphemy. I know, I know.
You're the one that came up with this.
Jeremiah. You were setting me up like
outdoors, a bear burrito. I may be a bear burrito, but a
person laying on the ground, you're basically a bear Taco.
I mean, it's just like you're just down there, but they can
get to you. It's easier to eat something off
the ground than it is up hanging up in the air.
So that's whatever. You know, it's interesting.
I watched it. I watched Dan Becker's video the
other day. He was talking about people's
fears on the trail, basically backpacking myths, and one of
them was that bears are out to get you.
That was one of the myths and he mentioned something that I had
to look up and check, he said basically since the 1700s there
have only been 180, I think it's what he said, 180 fatal bear
attacks in the United States. Oh, hundreds of years.
So I mean, that's what, less than one a year?
So I'm thinking, I don't think that the 10 or the hammock
really matters when it comes to bears.
I agree. And as much as it pains to say
me to say this, John, I think that you might have got the dub
on that one. I think you made some great
points. As much as it like I could see
your soul melting inside your body as you were talking, but
you made such good points. You're so articulate.
You might be you might have a second career in this.
Have you thought about going back to school and maybe?
Get water. I can tell you that I hate
classes aren't. You waiting on taking the bar
exam? Aren't you excited?
What you looking for? Kim Kardashian's doing it.
I see her crying online. You haven't seen this.
OK, give it a goo. Kim Kardashian is trying to get
her her a license to practice law and I see her crying online.
This is a little bit of old news, actually.
I see her crying online because she's studying, studying,
studying and just keeps failing the bar exam.
Yeah. And she's kind of not just how
challenging a job like that to. Get.
I mean, who would have ever thought that Kim Kardashian
would fail the bar exam? Not me.
I'm as surprised as anyone. I'm shocked honestly.
Check this out. Stone David Ventures 90% more
likely to get eaten by a bear in a hammock.
Now I would like to see the statistics on that.
Yeah, yeah, I would like to see the statistic of anybody that's
ever been eaten in a hammock by a bear, so.
Yeah, I'm with you. I'm with you that that's a bold
statement. That's a bold statement from a,
from a very respected hiker. So I I need to know like the
statistics. You know, I don't remember what
stone they used at the last time I backpacked with him.
It was probably, well, I think maybe two years ago I saw him at
Hanson's Point. Yeah, he came up there.
He had a really cool backpack and he had this wild saw.
Yeah, he has all kinds of cool stuff.
Coolest gear, man, He's some of the coolest little things.
He had this little low, this little contraption that you, if
I remember correctly, he was cooking lamb burgers.
It was something like that, or maybe it was deer.
I think it was lamb though. Did you try one of his burgers?
He cooked over the fire. No, I didn't get.
I think I left on Saturday afternoon, so I didn't get a
chance to get there. OK, well if I remember
correctly, his serving his serving plate because he dropped
it on it was on a rock. So his might have been a little
sandy when he was eating it, but he gave me the good one.
So shout out Stone date. We appreciate you being.
Yeah, but I still want. I still want I want him to cite
where he got his 90% from. Yeah, yeah.
That's a bold statement. It's a bold statement, petition,
Jeremiah. I I want to do another another
little thing here today. Yeah.
And, and, and if you're in here right now, you're with us and
you're commenting, go ahead and leave comments on what you would
do here. But let's say you are going on a
backpacking trip and you are given your normal base layers in
your clothing, your your boots, you know what you would wear.
You get all the stuff that you would normally wear and a
backpack. But you can only take 5 items
with you. What are the five items that you
were taking? My goodness dude, it's almost an
impossible question. So how long are we going to be
in the woods for? Let's say let's just do an
overnight, it's in the spring and it's going to get down to
the 40s. Oh, that's cold.
It's not cold cold, but it's cold enough.
It's cold. If you were out there just
leaned up against a tree sleeping, you'll think it's
pretty cold. Chilly It's chilly and you are
wearing appropriate clothing for the weather.
Okay, so you got your clothes so you don't have to worry about
bringing the clothes and all. That stuff.
But what 5 items are in your backpack?
Okay, I'm looking at my gear list.
I got a little bit of a cheat code here, John.
I'm going to like totally toss out my hygiene kit, all that
stuff. Toothpaste don't don't need not
even a hair brush. I know they'll say.
Wait, no deodorant? No deodorant, no hair.
Can you believe it? I think so.
Do we get the backpack? We get the backpack.
Yes. So you get a backpack, you got
stuff to put stuff in. And we'll say it's a, it doesn't
really matter the size because you're not going to feel it.
But we'll say it's a, we'll say it's a 45 liter backpack.
Let's start with something to eat.
I'm going to need something to eat.
You know, I'm going to need energy, otherwise it's not going
to be, it's not going to be fun probably anyway.
It's probably going to be more survival style, but I'm going to
need something to eat. So I don't know.
We'll bring beef jerky, a pound of beef jerky.
So that's one item. Is that allowed?
Yeah, that's an item. All right, so I'm going to go
with jerky. I'm going to go with a knife.
And not just any knife. One of those knives that it's
it's not full Tang and it's got one of those little screw parts.
Is this cheating too much? Because I was.
Going to because I that's on my list too.
So Oh my gosh, that's 100% on my list, yeah.
You know one of those survival knives has.
A Flint has a Flint inside it, yeah.
It's got a Flint inside. It's got a compass in the screen
part. Yeah, you you can use it.
Just a ferro rod. Has a ferro rod, yeah.
Ferro Rod OK, Yeah, so that's going to take care of all my
fire situation, right? I'm going to, I'm going to count
on myself to find Tinder and kindling and all, and I'm going
to use my knife to do all that. So now I'm not worried about
fire. So I got food.
I got fire. I got a way to make a shelter.
I need something to make the shelter with, otherwise I have
to bring the shelter. So I think I'm going to go with
a sleeping pad and I'm going to do one of those like foam pads
just in case. Just in case what you got.
I was just going to say, Stoned Ape Adventure says.
I think the last in the last decade, the only person killed
by a bear while sleeping was in a hammock in the Great Smoky
Mountains. Oh, that's close to home, bro.
Check that out. Wow, that's crazy.
I'd like to read more about that.
Yeah, I'd like to find out more. I'd like to find out more,
that's for sure. So we just to recap, we got
food, we got the knife that's got some extra stuff in there.
So we're cheating a little bit a way to make fire.
We got the fire taken care of. I'm going to bring the Z light
sole. I think it's the name of the
pad. That's the, it's got AR value of
like two or three. So it's not that warm, right?
At least it'll get you off the ground, right?
And I'm a little bit torn. Can I pause at 3 and see what
you got? No.
Oh, you, I got to finish it out. You made me have to defend tents
over a hammock, so you have to do this, OK?
I think you know what I think I'm going to bring now.
If I bring a tent, is it? Do you have all the components
of the tent? I mean, if you're bringing a
tent, you've got the tent, yeah. Yeah, I know you have the tent,
but like if I were to bring the cert tent, I need trekking poles
to set it up otherwise I'm going to cut you have.
To bring tacking poles, trekking poles separate, probably.
Well, can I bring a tent that has the poles and stakes and
everything contained? Yeah, you can do that.
OK, I think unless I misspoke and I've already said a fourth
item, I think I'm going to bring a tent to stay in then.
Now I don't have to build a shelter.
Right. Because the hammock too many
components. I can't.
That's too many items. And then the last thing, Oh bro,
toilet paper be pretty awesome. I could start a fire with it.
I could wipe my butt with it. Now come to think of it, the
uses are limited. I think I'm going to go with a
fully functioning first aid kit. The whole like backpacking first
aid kit. OK.
If that counts as an item. Sure, that could be.
We'll let. Well, no, because that's a bunch
of items. You have to pick something
within it. OK, then I'm going to have to
swap it out. OK, I'm going to go with the
whole Sawyer water filter. Like like it all it comes with
is the filter and then the bag that screws on.
I don't know if that's allowed. Is that 2 separate items or is
that? Technically, Technically it's
two separate items, but we can work with it.
All right, well let's cheat and say it's not 2 separate items
since it comes in a package together.
Kind of like the tent, OK. We can do that.
Otherwise I'll have to swap out for like a bottle to get dirty
water in and screw the filter on top.
OK, so in review, go through your five items.
My 5 items are tent, somewhere to sleep OK I got a pad to sleep
on so I'm not going to freeze. I'm going to be cold because I
don't have a sleeping bag. It's going to suck.
I have a pound of beef jerky, which is going to get old, as in
I'm going to get tired of it in the first hour.
And then I have a knife, which is a bit of a cheat code because
the knife has a little cap that unscrews.
It's got a comp compus on the cap.
It's not going to do me much good because I don't have a map,
but at least I'll know which way N is.
It's got the ferro rod on there, so I can use that with the knife
as a strike like a a striker. And then lastly.
I have my filter system which is basically the Sawyer.
They use a Kanak bag. Now I don't know if you've tried
them or not. The water.
Yeah, I've got one actually. It the water tastes a little
rubbery if you leave it in there overnight and then filter that
water in the morning. So I would suggest as soon as
you scoop the water up, then filter.
Yeah. Because if not you have like
rubbery tasting water which is probably not great.
Which is wild because the old Kanak filters weren't as bad or
the old Kanak bags weren't as bad with that.
Yeah. What's the deal?
Do you think that they like patented it and then Sawyer had
to go a slightly different round?
Or is it a full on partnership where it's actually a Canuck
bag? I I don't know, I thought it was
a Canuck bag. Is it not a Canuck bag?
I bought 1 and there's no logo unless I'm mistaken.
So it's not a Canuck bags that's that's probably just a different
kind of rubber. That's what I think too.
It it has to be they had to change something because it's
the same. Everything's the same as the
Canuck, but or Sea Knock or however they say it, but I think
it's Canuck. Everything's the same except for
the taste, which is a big deal actually, the whole point.
Yes, All right. Are you ready?
It's my turn, right? Oh yeah, hit me.
OK, So what I'm going to do, I am also going to bring a tent,
except I'm not going to bring a pad.
I am going to get a sleeping bag because what I'm going to do
under my tent is pile up as many leaves and pit like pine needles
and things like that. And that's going to be my
insulation underneath, underneath me, underneath the
tent to insulate me from the ground.
So I'm. Watching bushcraft channels.
What's up, brother? Brother, Here's the deal, man.
I've I just actually read an entire book about survival that
I'm probably going to do a review on because it was really
fun. But that's for another day.
But yeah, so I would do that. So I'm going to have a sleeping
bag. I'm going to have a tent.
I'm going to have a cook pot because I'm going to want to
boil water. I'm not going to filter.
I'm going to boil water instead, and I'll use my shirt or
something to filter out all the pieces of things when I pour the
water into the pot. You know, that kind of thing.
So which is, well, whatever. You know how you pour in this
water. Actually, I just thought about
that. I'm just going to drink it
through my shirt. Well, we'll figure it out or
just deal with the fact that there's bits in it.
Who cares? I'm also bringing a knife
though, and my knife is going to be, I'm stealing this one.
Stone Ape Adventures put on here, a Rambo knife.
Because the Rambo knife has the compass on top.
I can actually put matches down inside of there.
I could also have a map down in there.
All these little things that come up as a part of the knife.
So that's the knife I'm going to bring with me.
That's my hack gear piece. We're so. 5.
Items, but it would still be it'd still be considered the the
knife, you know, so technically. So I guess.
So I'm going to bring that and then I'm going to bring what I'm
up to. That was three items.
That's four items you got. Tent.
That was 4 items. I got the tent sleeping bag pot
that and because I got the pot with me and I can make a fire,
I'm going to bring like a peak refuel meal with me instead of
beef jerky. I'm going to bring like one of
those really good like bison, like bison gravy, biscuits and
gravy or something like that. It's probably like 1500 calories
anyway. Yeah, yeah.
And since I've got the pot, I'll be able to boil water to put
into it and also have some chunky bits.
But it's all good. There's something wrong with
that. It'll make it tasty.
So. But I'll boil my water and then
I will. I'll do that talk, Watson.
OK, this comment has to go up here.
He says what's what? John bringing pot lol.
You only the essentials, John. Only the essentials.
First thing on his. List.
Well, I brought them in. No way to use it.
Just the pot. Just the pot.
No, so, so yeah. So I would bring, so I'd bring
the tent, the sleeping bag. I'd probably end up using my
jacket that I'm wearing during the day as my pillow.
I would bring my knife, my cook pot and a peak refuel meal.
And you say cook pot twice. No we just been talking about it
so much that bring 2 cook pot, tent, sleeping bag, cook pot
knife meal. All right, wow.
So let us know in the comments. Is this the dumbest 5 list thing
that a person would bring if they're backpacking?
Because I think that we have exactly what we would need to
spend the night. I think you're going to be
warmer than me, dude. That's a good idea, putting the
insulation under you. I'll tell you what, man, the
best comment of all. I got to get up here and find
it. Let me see if I can find it
because everybody keeps commenting and I can't get to
it. I'm.
Just going to read it. I'm just going to read it.
I'm going to read it.
Keep them coming, folks, Ben McMillan says.
A tarp, quilt, sleeping pad, cook pot, and a sherpet to carry
the rest of my stuff. Oh genius, you need one of those
Elon Musk robot walking behind. That's the first item.
Elon Musk robot. Yeah, You know what?
Yeah, that we've been talking for years with Mr. Backpack with
Jason, Sir. He's looking for one of these.
He's like, if I can get one for under 20 grand, that thing's
going to carry my backpack. It's going to set up my 10.
Heck, might even drive him there.
We'll see. Yeah, you could probably do it.
I mean, you could probably do it.
What was that company near 0 there's?
I'm going to bring one piece of gear with me.
I'm going to bring my near 0 the Dean.
What's near 0? They have so near 0.
What they do is they create like adventure bundles where they
give you the backpack, the tent, everything in the backpack.
So that'll be my one item. Is that that bundle?
OK. I'm looking at a picture of
their ready to go bundle. It's $800, by the way.
Which when you think about it, with all the gear that's in it,
that's a really good deal. Well, they do have some quality
gear I don't. Here let's do.
This a lot of this is actually looks like legit.
It's very. Legit.
The Sawyer Sawyer's legit somewhere.
It is up on the screen so people can see it.
You've got 26 items. You got your backpack, your
tent. You've got a you've got an
entire hydration kit, including a Sawyer.
You've got a cook kit with a coffee mug and a pot, a stove,
gas. You've even got a spork.
You got health and safety taken care of, including bug spray and
sunscreen and a knife, a little extra rope.
You've got a backpack. You got a sleep system that
includes a. Well, that's interesting.
Oh, you got a stool? Yeah, You got a stool down
there. You got a trowel.
I like the fact that you've got a sleeping pad with a sheet that
goes over it and then you've also got the the sleeping bag.
Yeah. Is that a liner or is that a
liner for your pad? I would assume that it's a
sleeping pad, a sleeping bag liner.
It looks like it's a liner that would go.
Maybe it goes over your pad because you know, one of the big
complaints about sleeping pads is they don't feel like bed.
It also says 19 lbs fully loaded out.
That's great for a beginner setup.
It's 20% off right now. I don't know man, I some of this
stuff I've I've never even heard of this brand, so I don't know
how quality their tent will oh. They've been around for a while
now. There's a lot of they, they
actually are a decent company. I actually have, I have the
phone number for their their owner and I was going to give
him a call to see if he wanted to be on the show.
So you telling me not to? Well, I'm not telling you not
to. I think it's a very interesting
concept. I would entertain the idea, but
I think for the record, outdoor Vitals gear is 100 times better.
John. Well, of course we're paid to
say that. Yeah, but I'm saying it out of
the comments. I'm kidding.
I'm kidding, by the way. I am taking their gear out this
weekend. Dude, I'm taking that 15° summit
sleeping bag. Oh yeah.
Last time I took it, I was so hot I had to unzip in the middle
of the night because I woke up sweating.
And it's awesome to get down to like 33 on this one.
And I fear, and this is a good fear to have, John, anytime
you're afraid that you're going to be too hot and that you're
going to have to vent your sleeping bag because it's
freezing outside, but you're burning up, that is a good
problem to have, my friend. There are worse problems.
Yes, because you could be me with five items in the woods
laying on top of a sleeping pad, shivering in the middle of the
night because John said it's 42° as the low and I have no
insulation over me. I'm just zipped up my my puffy
jacket and I'm. I was shocked that you went with
the pad and not the sleeping bag.
Well, I was thinking I would lose more heat from the ground
laying on the ground. But thinking about you could
even do the outdoor boys thing and like, put rocks in the fire
and then bury the rocks and then put your tent on top of that
dirt. Yeah.
And that would keep you warm for a while till you froze it like
3:00 AM probably. But that would at least keep you
warm for a while. And then you hours of sleep
though. Yeah, and then you wake up, make
your fire, eat the rest of your beef jerky, and then hike out at
5:30 AM at daylight. Yeah.
Sounds like fun to me. I mean, I'm down to try it.
Can we do it overnight like that and actually take what we said
in this in this episode? So you can't bring a sleeping
bag? John, I, I got to be honest, I
love the hypothetical idea. I'm not so keen.
Just like we might stay out of the courtroom because we know
nothing about like, I'm pretty sure that, that I don't even
think the defense rests the case.
So I, I think I even from the beginning, I have no idea what
I'm talking about, but oh, and I was going to say, if you missed
it earlier and you want to go back and see the stuff on
screen, I know I say this every week, but it's important to know
YouTube and Spotify, if you use those platforms, you can see the
video version of the podcast if you want to see these ugly mugs
and see what we're talking about if we pull stuff up on screen,
but feel free to listen as well. Apple Podcasts.
I think about half our listeners are on Apple Podcasts.
So they're only hearing this. I don't know how you describe
the voice Appalachian. They're only hearing the voice.
They're not seeing those. They're only hearing 100%.
Somerset, KY. Yeah.
And check if you want to see us, check us out on those video.
Play check us out, check us out Jeremiah.
This has been a lot of fun, man, This has been a lot of fun.
So I, I, I just want to add in there the, the dynamite one
person tent is about 3 lbs. That's part of that kit, which
again I come back to for 800 bucks you're getting all that
stuff. That's a pretty decent little
setup. Yeah, and they have 4.9 start.
Now they only have 15 reviews, but they do have 4.9 out of five
stars. And the first one is about this
person talking about their first time backpacking and how
basically this enabled them to get out on the trail.
So if you really want to drop a grand, which is probably what
it's going to cost you by the time it gets to your doorstep
and and this is how you get your foot in the door.
It's not a bad idea, honestly. No, I mean, you think about it,
if you were to buy a lightweight camp gear setup, everything
separately, you're probably going to spend closer to $2000.
Yeah, and like John said earlier with the tarp and the hammock
situation where we were arguing back and forth, I'll tell you
it's best to start with, in my opinion, the more budget
friendly stuff because you're going to find things that you
don't like and then at some point you're probably going to
get sick and tired of being sick and tired about this specific
thing. You're going to be like I want a
backpack that don't squeak or I want a tent that's, you know, it
seems to come seem sealed so I don't have to seem sealed myself
or I got Giardia My my filter is filled.
I think I'm going to pay $30.00 for a new filter.
So stuff is going to come down the pipeline, although there
that is the kind of bug spray I use that bins.
I think it's 100% DEET. So it'll probably melt your
shoes, but I spray it on. Speaking of dude, that reminds
me, I told you last week I pulled ticks off on the last
trip at the beginning of this month.
Now I'm ending the month and even warmer weather with more
ticks. Oh, there'll be more ticks.
I have to, I have to treat that gear today, otherwise it ain't
getting treated because I need to have everything packed and
ready to go tomorrow night. Yeah, you do.
I got to get off here and go treat my gear from the tick
Terminator. Well, I got to get off of here
because I've got to put some furniture together for a YouTube
studio, so. Oh, can I say that is coming
together really well, man. People can't see everything.
But John sent me some pictures and I don't know if you can
swivel with your camera any, but you got to know.
We got to keep, we got to keep that.
We got to keep that. Keep it professional.
Yeah, we got to. Keep it quiet for right now
until it's time. Yeah, but I'm excited, dude.
You have some good stuff in the making.
I'm super excited about about what's coming up.
So also just just to throw it out there, I was just I just
recorded an episode with the backpacking and Blisters podcast
and got to hang out with Carl Mangioli the other night and be
looking out for that episode. Talk a little bit about the
backpacking podcast. We talked a little bit about how
you get the shaft when you're the person that plans a trip and
some fun stuff there too. Yeah.
And let me add on there, Speaking of the shows, I talked
with Dixie and I have her locked in toward the end of April to
come on the show. So something to look forward to
there. And I know you're lining up
guests as well. Oh yeah, we might have a little
owner of the old garage grown Gear, Mr. Lloyd coming on the
week before Dixie. So we got some, we got some
guests that are starting to pop up kind of excited, Jeremiah.
And I've enjoyed doing a lot of shows where it's just the two of
us for a while, but we're getting an itch to get some
people on here again. So we're going to get some more
guests on here. It's going to be fun.
You guys are awesome, man. The comments are just flowing
like water today. It was incredible.
We're so thankful for you guys. With all that said, you guys
have a great one and we will catch you on the next one.