ALMOST DISASTROUS HIKE IN THE DOLOMITES (can’t believe this is Italy)
This is a conversational travel-vlog transcript of Nate Buchanan and companions (Kayla, Kara, Barrett) hiking in the Dolomites, Italy. The group drives from Venice into the mountains, has a disappointing mountain lunch (gnocchi/pasta), then hikes a challenging trail (referred to as hike 215) to a vivid blue mountain lake called Serapis. During the outing Nate loses a camera zoom lens while taking photos but later finds it after returning up the trail. The transcript also mentions a nearby refugio (cabin with snacks), limited water on the hike, and the group returning to town for dinner and a long drive back to Venice.
Chapters
Walkway sets.
Hate it.
Hate it. What are you doing? So sketchy. The trail gets intense.
Uh oh.
If you missed our last video. We arrived in Venice to meet up with Nate's sister Kayla and her husband Barrett. We explored as much of the city as we could before jet lag got the best of us.
It's a little breezy today.
Got him.
There's a lot more room in here, and we don't have all luggage.
Spacious.
After a much needed night of sleep, we had to make a hard decision on whether or not we wanted to stay one more day exploring Venice or go on a completely new adventure.
Where do I put my car? I'm sticking.
It didn't work.
Am I putting it in the wrong way?
Do not remove until the car. Until life comes.
Let it sit in there because it reads the chip. Hey, it opened.
Let's go.
Well, that was a gorgeous drive. Thanks for driving us there.
Oh, yeah.
About an hour into the drive, we finally stopped to have our first proper meal of the trip at this cute little restaurant in the middle of the mountain. Yesterday, we ate pizza on the sidewalk. This morning, we stood up in a cafe and had a croissant. And I've been counting down the minutes for pasta.
It's called duck. It's spinach Cheetos.
They kinda look like Cheetos, but we think it's gnocchi.
Good lunch. Set the bar low. Things can only get better from here.
Our pasta really wasn't that good.
We ate it all, though.
Even though our lunch was a bit disappointing, we were still in great company. And if nothing else, we filled up on some carbs that would become much needed in the near future.
Wow.
I'm so happy.
If you blindfolded me and dropped me off right here, I would bet you a lot of money that we were in Switzerland. This is exactly what I imagined Switzerland to look like. Beautiful mountains, green meadows, and cows with bills.
We're not even on the trail. We're just on the road.
Who knew this existed in Italy? So Kayla's planned the first three days of this trip.
What trail are we on right now?
Oh, yeah. We're on Refugio. Oh, what was it? Serapis Vendeli.
And how did you plan this trip? How do we know where we're going right now?
Oh, I found a review. One. One single review. I didn't look up anything else. It was very nice, very thorough. And so this was his favorite hike. So here we are on hike 215.
And how long is this trail?
We don't know.
We're just hiking about two hours is what the review said.
It's the family who wrote the review.
About two hours.
They promised us noki at the end. We'll see. And a beautiful lake.
I'm guessing. Probably we keep going this way.
Can't emphasize enough how awake I was.
This morning at 1:00am this one, I.
Feel like it can't get prettier. We round a corner and.
Unbelievably beautiful.
Well, we have a half bottle of water between the four of us. The water situation was a little unfortunate this morning.
I left mine at home.
Nate spilled his in the car, Barrett.
Lost his at some point along the way. And Kayla drank half of hers before we started. Ciao.
Hiking is the best way to practice your chow inflections.
Ciao. I think I've said it about a thousand times. Ciao. Maybe she wasn't Italian.
Well.
Oh, you drank even more of it. Great.
I was thirsty.
This is all we have left, but.
Check out how much stuff we're carrying. None of it contains water.
Does anyone else recognize that? We haven't seen anybody else going up. Only people coming down.
We got a little bit of a late start today.
Good night.
I had to look down.
We didn't know what we were doing.
This is cool.
Wow.
You caused a rock slide.
That could really hurt.
Sometimes.
I cannot believe how blue it is. This is awesome.
I think I have a new favorite color.
What's the name of this lake?
Serapis.
Oh, I hate that. Careful, Caleb.
Take off your bag.
Wow.
Is there a way to. Is there even a way to go around?
Look ahead. I think the best way is to walk down there by where the tree is. You want me to go first?
Yeah, no, I'll do.
She can.
So sketchy.
Oh, I see that.
So sketchy.
Gosh. The trail gets intense.
They got it.
See what I'm saying? Like, I don't know if there's a way to get down.
I mean, we're right there.
This is crazy. Are you sure about that?
Not yet. There's some very good handholds.
That's good.
I think you gotta get come down, Kara. To this foothold down here.
I'm pro you for doing this.
Yeah.
First.
Yeah. Oh, Barrett.
What?
You're scaring me. Squatted there.
I gotta.
Good work, Kara Bear.
I'm here to go celebrate yet. Thank you, Nick. Way to go.
That'll get your adrenaline going.
Nicely done, everyone.
Good work.
Yeah. From. From.
We just took about a million photos. And I could take probably a million more, but unfortunately it's Time for us to move on, or we're going to be hiking out in the dark, which seems very scary on this trail, as you can see.
Here we go.
Made it through the hard part.
So a couple minute walk away from the lake is this thing called a refugio. It's basically a little cabin with drinks and snacks and souvenirs. And a potty, I guess, is what you could call it.
Yuck.
Not my favorite.
So we don't have long, but.
Sorry, Nate, we're not waiting on you.
It's a hiking mess in this family, Gracie.
And one for Nate.
Nate's flying the drone.
But we're hungry, so they did have gnocchi, but unfortunately it's getting dark, and we didn't have time to sit down and eat a whole meal, so this will have to do. If you've watched any of our hiking videos before, you know that we're not terribly disappointed.
You gotta have good posture.
Julia, did you.
I honestly have no clue. It's not in here.
Shoot.
Are we sure you check everything?
It's not anybody else's bag? No.
You didn't put it in mine.
It's not a joke. It's not a drill.
Oh, my gosh. We are so far down the mountain right now. How did I do that?
How much money does that seem like? Get to hiking.
We are at least halfway.
I'm sorry, Nate. Love you.
Love you. There could be worse places to hide. I'm trying to be positive.
So Nate always carries our camera. He has this lens that I'm on now, the wide angle. And we also have a zoom lens that he does all of our B roll on, and he wears it on his hip in a little case. And when we were having our little photo shoot on the rock, he took it off of his hip so it wouldn't be in the pictures, and.
He'S really bummed out. But maybe they'll see a good sunset up there in Barrett. Kayla and I are gonna go ahead and walk down because they're much faster without us, and we're just gonna wait on them. No big deal if it's still there. I guess if it's not there, it's kind of a big deal.
But.
See how well I can capture this experience.
I don't know anything about vlogging, and I don't have a stabilizer.
Just don't fall off the leg.
That's good. Handrails always. It's a long way down.
Oh. This hike wasn't easy to begin with.
Trying to run back up does not make it any easier. Barrett, thank you for coming with me.
Watch this. Ask me if we're on a workout.
We're gonna eat extra pasta tonight. Worst case scenario is we do all of this and the camera lens isn't up there. Worst worst case scenario is that the camera lens is actually in one of the backpacks with the girls.
We made it back to the car. We feel like we just walked around the earth.
The whole earth.
It was a long trek back.
And our feet, now how far we've gone.
Look.
At our feet.
Oh, and Kayla has a bruise.
Oh.
So gross. I just painted my toenails.
Hopefully the boys aren't too far behind us.
I don't know if you can see them, but I have eaten at least 20 bucks.
Okay, we're getting close.
We calculated beautiful sunset, and we think they should have about an extra hour and a half. But we're hoping they walked a lot faster than us because we're pretty slow, so.
Well, at least I get one more view of the lake and the mountains.
Okay, turn your. Turn your face. There's just a black mark. We've really worked hard today.
It's been a big day. It's about 8 o'.
Clock.
We're tired. We're hungry.
Okay. It is almost the moment of truth. Is it still there? Was it worth the hike back.
There?
It is.
Woo.
Found.
Was worth the hike back up.
I'm so happy you're back.
I kicked it twice.
My ankles feel like jello.
Poor thing.
Chacos are not the proper trail running shoes.
Okay, y' all made it back 47 minutes after we made it back. It should have taken you an extra, like, hour and a half.
It only took us 20 minutes to get back up to the top.
Wow.
Yeah.
And around the lake.
Yeah.
That's crazy.
Now we're going fast. Yeah, we're holding you back.
We beat the girl up there.
Yeah.
The lady we passed.
Yeah.
I'm telling you, my butt down to my toe tips. They're not numb. I can feel them. They're just like, oh, man.
Oh, man.
Okay, We've driven to the nearest town which has the nearest restaurant.
Restaurant.
We're gonna get some dinner before driving back to Venice because we deserve it.
No stairs.
Let's see.
Could have been the worst pizza ever. And it would have been so good.
And now it is 10:30 and we are driving two hours back to Venice.
We thought maybe we'd do a second hike today. Maybe we'd go to the Prosecco Valley. We thought we were gonna have all kinds of time.
We're like, oh, we'll do all that.
On the way back.
This is why.
Kara's sporting her.
I only had one espresso this morning.
I'm just kidding.
I had two cups.
There are another foreigners in here.
Everyone's sitting right behind you.
Oh, there are some.
There aren't many foreigners.
On this side. Y' all ready?
Oh, yeah. I was just looking at our car and realizing how tiny it was.
The green Cheetos take the cake.
Wish there was cake.
You officially made it. Oh, nowhere.
I made it nowhere.
Must be some paper. Peanut butter printing.
You have two giant bags on you.
Carried a child for nine months when.
I was hanging out.
The light is so good right now, y'.
All.
We're fast.
You look so good.
The extra bags make you feel nice.
This is as fast as I can walk.
Barrett's legs go back further than that. He won't be able to put them up on the thing.
Barrett is seeing if he can fit on a Vespa.
Don't think that it's closer to this one, Barrett.
No, size wise, it's closer to this one. It's just not this fancy. We're supposed to be putting Kayla and Barrett on one scooter in two days.
I think we weigh too much. Let's be honest.
I'm 78 inches tall.
How many centimeters?
98 centimeters tall.
Is that right? No.
No, no. What is it?
He's got altitude.
1.98.
We need food. We need food.
1.98 meters. I'm not 2 meters. I'm very close to 2 meters.
TripAdvisor betrayed us.
A lot of self control.
Oh, look, you need to do a say what?
I feel like TripAdvisor betrayed us for lunch, so.
Wow. Show me your food.
Shimmy.
Just a little shimmy.
Coparetto. My new least favorite word. It's the money that you get charged to put your butt in a seat at a restaurant. €2 are both of €2 per person at both the places we've gone today. That's just. We did split a pizza.
That's why they do.
