Boys Only Adventure: Hiking + Camping

Happy day!

That was a little rough without the sleeping bag. Oh my gosh, especially since Gideon— Henry hogged, despite what's going on here, Henry hogged the sleeping bag. Wouldn't even let Henry in it. And so Gideon and I made our way with this one quilt, and we ran out of wood in the stove. It was good as long as we needed the stove going. Had to put big sticks in there.

Don't really want to go back to get some supplies, but now we're at—

we could get a sleeping bag. We ran out of little wood. All right, I'm gonna man up and go start the fire. Oh, you were joking? Henry, you still want to go home? Yeah, last night you wanted to go home. Say there's more wood behind me. That's not— I don't think that's enough for a night. It wasn't last night. Hey, go get your rest and then come sit out here with me.

They're having a good time.

Do you want to go get your sweater on? You want a banana? Let's start off with a banana. All right, burn it up cooking show breakfast camping edition. Jonah's on pancakes for the boys. Was that your batter? Nope. All right, good thing I didn't go after that. I thought that was yogurt. Uh, bacon. They can do with what we have. We have a cast iron, we have it. This is a pretty good size one you brought here, buddy. We're gonna cook our bacon and eggs and that. This is all the oil we have left too, so we might be able to get away with a Mills River town run. There's an Ace Hardware and there's a, um, is there an Ace? Yeah, there's an Ace and an Ingles. This is my Bacon spatula. Yeah, I don't think we should come home. I think we should figure it out. Keep splitting wood, buddy. Round 1, bacon's up. Eggs can go in right after. There are the pancakes. This one should be good. You gotta put more oil on it. I know. If we're going home, you can get rid of this oil. We'll go home before lunch. We're gonna drop you off at home. We are? Get in. Henry said he wanted to go home last night.

I don't. I was just joking.

That's a big pancake. Whose is that?

It's just us.

Alright, highlight of the trip. The hike. I did this years ago and remember it being awesome. There's a rock face about like that open and I believe there's a view at the top. But we gotta go 2.5 miles in. Don't remember it being too crazy. The boys have never been there. I think they'll really like it.

We'll see.

We're at the trailhead and barely anybody's here. I just realized this was probably 20 years ago that I did this. The thing about a national forest— well, man isn't going to change it. Nature might have. And memory fails me.

We'll see.

Hey, are you ready? Okay, how far are you gonna make it in those town shoes?

5 feet.

5 feet? I hope more than that. Thankfully we remembered the ergo. You've made it further than 5 feet. Good job. This is where we want to end up, right here. Is this not an extremely long— we could go this way and then do this loop and come back, or we could come out through here. Well, you made it further than 5 feet. And you made it further than 50 feet, but certainly not more than 500 yards. I didn't think I have to worry about you getting socks on those shoes because you don't walk much. At 1 in the morning, when Henry woke up, pretty much wide awake, "I want to go home." All right, well, to comfort him, we can go home in the morning. Okay. He goes to sleep eventually. This morning I wake and tell him, hey Henry, Jonah goes home to get resupply. We're gonna send you home with him, okay?

No, I don't want to be in the bunk with Mom and Daddy.

Well, you said last night that you wanted to go home. What happened?

I didn't want to go.

He said he was— this morning he said he was joking. Will you sleep in a sleeping bag with me?

Uh, yeah, Henry, no.

Because last night he wouldn't even share a sleeping bag with Gideon, so Gideon and I, we're both out of sleeping bags, so we shared a blanket and coats, but we never got cold cold, did we? I got cold. Shivering.

I got shivered a little bit, but now I'm warming back up.

Who wants to man up and take Henry? I'll take him.

I will!

You wanna walk a little bit? Hey, consider it a good workout. You know it's a thing, right? Rucksack. Wow, this was a more dense— I think they planted it— pine forest. Now it's almost dying. That's what age will do to you. It's kind of weird now that I'm 47. I'm pretty much no longer a young man, am I? Certainly not when I'm 50. But in my head, I still am. It doesn't seem like 20 years ago I was hiking through here with my bros. But what's crazy is this forest will outlasting. These boys could bring their kids here and that creek will still be running. I'll be long gone. So let's treat the forest like that. Listen, it was here before we got here, and it's going to be here after we leave. Yeah, so keep that in mind. We're the— we're the visitors here, not the other way around. Thank you, buddy. Man, he's kind of a challenging rucksack. Because he moves, but that just adds an element of training to it, right, Josiah? Proud of Josiah. He's been really stepping it up lately, being a quiet, solid help, uncomplaining help. He's really becoming a man as of lately, not just in voice and physical features but in character. By the way, he quietly serves, like earlier today sitting next to— having Henry sitting next to him. I don't think I captured on film, but at one point Henry was sitting on his lap at the fire. This morning Josiah invited Henry into his sleeping bag with him to get him warm, cozy. So he just has that nurturing spirit.

We're not quite halfway. This is where the rock is.

We were here and we went all this way. Oh, so good job, guys.

We're almost there.

Yeah, so we'll do this and then Jonah's got the baby now. Jonah, this is good for your mountain biking training, your soccer training. We have 3 miles left, so we've come 2, or did we add it up? Guys, are y'all having fun yet? No, we're climbing 1,000 feet today. I'm sure we're nearly that. We'll take a break when we're done, as Boots would say. We'll take a break when it's over.

It's not doable.

Let's get to John Rock. We'll take a break.

I said there's gonna be a rock, Papa.

There is a John Rock. It can't be much further. We're on top of the ridge.

Whoa, you can't fall.

Okay, why are we dropping him? Why are we getting him off? So that he doesn't fall. Okay, come on, let's go look. It looks so bad from right here. Look who's walking now. I think he just needed a snack. Yeah, we took— what an amazing view, guys! Have you seen a better view in Pisgah?

Wow, this is also my first time hiking in Pisgah.

Well, this is a good impression for you, buddy. I kind of like hiking more than mountain biking right now because everybody can do it. And it costs zero money.

I mean, I think it's worth it.

We are literally in our normal clothes. I have made a mistake. Not a mistake mistake. We're not lost or anything, but I haven't gotten to this campground where these rock faces— I thought that was John Rock, but wherever I'm thinking is, it's at the base and then there's this climb of rocks. The boys would have had a blast on it. We're gonna come out on this John Rock Loop, and we're gonna need to go back a little bit to find it away from the trailhead. We would have been screwed if we had a backpack, because I would have planned and thought that was the spot, and it wasn't. So I'm glad we did not, because what would we do?

Wait, where?

There's no camping spots.

Yeah, there were some couple. There's two.

Not way up there where I thought we— they were. These boys might kill me if we veer off from the way home, but it's killing me now. I got to know where these boulders are. Here comes a riot. Hey, that's home, and that's the, uh, that's the boulders. I think it would be worth it. I think you guys would be like, heck yes! I think this is— this looks familiar. Do you want me to run ahead? Yeah, and send back somebody this way because the rocks are on this side. I know, but it must be some another slope, and that would be so cool to know because in the future we could go backpack there and then we could do the John Rock Trail. Some half a mile I saw on the map. It's a half a mile. Okay, so we're here. We're literally like up or down, so close. How about I go and see? Okay, y'all want me to go ahead and then holler? I guess we'll just walk up it. All right, I'm putting the leader trip on. This is our main deal for today. So you want to be carried? We're gonna go uphill. Okay, come on. Good job. Well, you got it, buddy. Okay, hopefully I'm not leading y'all astray. Please forgive me if I am, but this is what you call pot odds. It's worth this little bit of effort for the big payoff if it's true, if it's there. I don't know if we have good odds that it's there, but it's so worth it. It's the— it's worth this little bit of effort. Worst case, it's an extra mile. Lucky for the boys, maybe me, we ran into a hiker who was just coming down this way. Didn't recall any kind of climbage to the side of the trail, which I'm pretty sure you would be able to see. So I'm wondering if I'm just thinking of a whole different area. This is gonna plague me. Well, we hit a section of the 100 miles The bike ride Joan and I just did, we are smoking it up this mountain. New ETA: 6 PM. It's a lot different on foot. On foot, even the downhills you've got to walk. I got outvoted for finding these boulders. It's going to churn in my head and suddenly it's going to pop into it where these things are. Now I'll be on a hunt for these boulders. I thought I graduated Pisgah after doing the 100-mile Bye, Craig. Now I may have a new mission. Ran out of battery on the hike. Yes, I'm home. We came resupply, resupply, and look at what this girl has done.

I know, look, look. So I like—

look at this, guys. We should have done it before and after.

I know, we should have.

We should have. Don't forget that we did kiss. We kissed and we hugged. We didn't plan on coming home. No, here we are.

I know.

Look at this.

So, and I'm gonna get— look, I have these little things.

Good job.

Little hooks. I'm gonna put them on here.

You'll enjoy being in here.

Exactly. It won't be such a struggle.

So proud of you. I came in, it smells good. Is it— what? I got into you. I leave and then you just go nuts.

Well, I feel better after that chiropractic adjustment, man.

Good chiropractor. More often. I know.

I'm thinking I need to, especially if something like that goes down. If I don't feel good like that, I didn't feel good for probably 10 days. Yeah, I don't feel good for many days in a row.

I need to go to the chiropractor and get adjusted because it helped me.

I feel so much better.

Definitely. And he's got his chair that's on the supply list. Look at this, she's even making turkey devon video for your channel.

Yeah, I'm actually gonna put this— I think I'm gonna put it in the fridge and then I'm gonna make—

how'd you spatchcock it?

I took it down the breast.

Oh.

I saw someone do that on Instagram and I was like, because they— she was saying there's all this meat on here. Yeah, I was like, oh well, since we're using it, burn the breast. Exactly. So I'm gonna put this in the fridge.

Can we get a dog?

Here, sleeping bag. Looks like it washed and dried nice. I might need some help. Back on our way to camp and mini Airstream, so cool. Kind of hoping it's going to camp so we can get a picture. Going to camp. It's almost 4 o'clock. We're gonna— let's just eat the rest of the evening, okay? We'll have very late lunch, early dinner, and just kind of eat for the next 2 or 3 hours. Sound good? Yeah, sound good. Okay. I'm glad we all went home together because we all stayed together. I didn't really like that Jonah was going to be away. I did get paper towels. I got lard too. We don't need no stinking avocado oil. We're gonna have a good night's sleep.

Hopefully Gideon—

Henry won't be to wait for an hour like he was last night?

I will.

You will? Well, I'm gonna take you home. You woke up? No, I want you to go to sleep. Will you sleep? Will you sleep in the big sleeping bag with me, or is Gideon going to— is Gideon gonna sleep with me in the, in the, in it?

Yeah, I want my own setup.

Okay, if you insist on having your own sleeping bag, Gideon's gonna sleep with me in the big one.

Okay, well, he can sit in the middle. He and I had to spoon last night.

Survive under that one blanket you left us. All right, he's going in. Oh, I want you to see this. He's going the other campsite though. Isn't that cool? Donna says those look really good behind the Cybertruck. Play that, Austin. Let's see. Fire and meal, and the sun's still out. He did say put the log back because he can't move it, and I guess people— other people might not want it. Uh, he got it. Henry, Henry's got it, but you might as well cook two at a time. First course, hot dogs.

Over here.

Do we have another tongue? No, but I could put it on this way. This is scaring me. Do that. Danish bread on a stick. Josiah had a good idea. Put the hot dog on it, wrap the hot dog with that, and then you have a built-in hot dog with a bun. I'm down. Let's try it. What kind of bread is it? It's— I guess it's focaccia. The trick is to get it warmed up without burning it. Just so— those hot dogs are probably ready. What do you think? Sure, I'll take one more well done. A thin layer around a hot dog. Are you happy? You want a hamburger or hot dog next? In this evening's episode of Burn It Up Cooking Show, bread on a stick, hot dogs in the bread on a stick, and we're gonna try to make buns. Is this a thing? I'm basically gonna fry bread. If it's not a thing, why is it not? I think we're probably gonna find out. I think I would cook it low. We just realized we've come to this campground 3 times and none of them were planned. First time as a family when we tried to roadside camp and the road was closed. Second time on the 100 miles when we had to bail out the first attempt. And then now attempting roadside camp again, and this time the roadside camps were full. This is going. Should I try to flip it? Yeah, give it a flip. Nah, let's let it This is probably a huge thing. There's no way people miss— it's a huge thing, right? But we're not a bread culture family, so we wouldn't know about this, or I wouldn't know why this is about to be a huge disaster. Josiah wants to know if it's ready. We should have salted it. Yeah, try it. Let's try it. Let it cool off. That's gonna be so good. No, no, it'll, it'll cook nice. That's gonna be good. I bet y'all are gonna love that. And we're out of hot dogs. Well, you didn't get any bread on that bite. Is the hot dog cold or no? No, it's good. Come on, bite it.

Can I taste?

That's good. Is that where it's at? That got cooked all the way through. Josiah, man, you have the patience for this. This is good. Next ones, we made the bread even thinner. Did we salt them both, Josiah?

I don't know.

You just saw them while they're wet. You need to salt them. Here, salt the ones— they flip these during that. This is It's gonna be a heck of a bun. So basically what this has turned into is how many different ways can we cook this bread. Jonah's got— is that Outdoor Boys style?

Yeah, I saw that cooking.

Look at the ashes falling in there though. What does he do about that? I'm just gonna wipe it off. Did you oil it? No. Did you use oily bread?

No.

Yes. Well, yeah. Oh, that one was using it a little more. Look at that. You guys are outdoor chefs. You didn't do the hot dog, Jonah. I did, I tried, I couldn't see. Okay, let me do it. Really? I want it. You're so impatient. Yes, I'm sorry. You're gonna tear up the bun. How are those hot dogs? Good. My turn. Hey, did the fried bread turn out all right? Is it a thing?

Oh yeah, with that salt, I'm gonna be a real steak and chicken.

I may or may not have had a knee-jerk reaction of not eating all day. Steak, chicken, and 2 eggs. Sun's going down, belly's full. Glad I got my belly full before then. Got at least 4 hours before I'll be asleep. How's your chicken coming on? I would do better. If you're done, maybe cut it in half. See, see, you still got some roll on this. Rice and beans, Jonah's new favorite. He said 2 carbs.

Oh, it's fine.

It's good to see the sunset. It's so healthy to see the sun going down. I'm sitting right here and realized— Jonah realized, remembered, we, we saw it go up this morning too. Maybe that's one reason camping, outdoor lifestyle like this, you go back rejuvenated a bit. And you're going to want to go home?

No.

There's something special about that sunset though. He might start wanting to go home. It's dark. This is the last night, and then we're going to do group Mighty Man Camp. 4 spots left. Lincoln, if we didn't sell them out yesterday, link in the description. November 19th through 21st. Let's do this together, it'll be fun. Thank you, Lily. Homemade marshmallows.

Lily's good to y'all.

All this is is gelatin, maple syrup, honey. Oh, it's honey. It is honey, isn't it? And what else? There's probably only one more ingredient in this thing. That's all a marshmallow needs to be. Did you get enough? Uh, no. How'd you like this 2-hour meal? We've been eating for 2 and a half hours. You guys had rice and beans, and then we had— you had a hot dog. You had a hot dog and bread. And then bread. You had the bread. The rice and beans, it's all expanding in our bellies right now. You had steak and chicken, and now we're having dessert. And now you had— now you have, uh, are you full yet? I'm getting there. Yeah, we had a little nice little time by the campfire. Okay, the deal is I'm gonna sleep by the stove because I, I wake up the most and I can, I can stoke it. Gideon and Henry— Henry, you agree to sleep with Get in, in the double sleeping bag and clear this out because last night you peed right outside this door. Jonah's getting our fire started. Thank you. We didn't find the climbing boulders I was hoping to, but we did find a fantastic view and we all had a good time together in an adventure. I'm a little sore from the— it was 5 miles. Are you boys sore from that? No, they pigged out. In the evening. I bet if we counted their carbs, it'd probably be 200 carbs. These guys are big eaters. Anyway, happy day.