We are at the bighorn national forest right now and tomorrow i'm going to be hiking into the cloud peak wilderness and i figured if they named the whole wilderness after this peak it's probably a good idea to hike to the top of it so i'm going to be attempting cloud peak.
I did have an appetite so i was able to eat some eggs and i drank a whole liter of gatorade so you know breakfast of champions and then i actually got my van high centered on a rock i should have filmed that but it was it's one of those moments where you're just like i don't like this situation i want to be out of this situation as quickly as possible and thankfully i was able to maneuver my way off of the rock but it it was not looking good for for a second there so i think i need to be more careful what roads i drive down because i can get pretty far with the ground clearance that the transit connect has but that also means it's pretty easy to get stuck way out in the boonies so i'm going to be i'm going to vow to be more careful from now on anyways i think that's pretty much all all i have oh yeah i i didn't hit the trail until 11 o'clock today and that is far from ideal because it's pretty hot down here at the lower elevations although it's not as hot as i thought it might be so i think we're still in pretty good shape to make the peak I've been looking at the snow on these surrounding mountains, and it doesn't seem too bad. I don't think it'll be too much of a hindrance tomorrow morning,
so yeah, we're going to go for it all right. I think we're getting our first glimpse of the cloud peak; it's that one in the center back there, and there's some snow up there, but it's hard to see the full ridge line up to the top. But it doesn't look too bad, and I think we're going to be able to make it. So dinner is this, which looks kind of weird. It's a Andrew Skurka recipe, and if you don't know who Andrew Skurka is, he's like, I think he's an ultra marathoner, he's an ultra light backpacker, and he's a trail runner, and he's just ridiculous. He does a ridiculous amount of mileage every day. I never want to, and I never aspired to be that good, i suppose I should say, but this recipe is really good. I've had it about a thousand times,
so I'm actually kind of sick of it, but it's instant rice and freeze-dried refried beans, and then you boil this until these are both cooked, add some chunks of cheddar cheese, and top with crunched up fritos, and yeah, good protein, fat carbs. Oh boy, oh boy, oh man, oh boy, this is like brown meal. pretty much everything in here is brown and it just forms like a it's not an attractive color that's what i was what i would say about it i found that this cheese keeps okay for a day or two even if it it's getting pretty warm in your pack cheese is pretty well preserved it does get a little greasy though which can be kind of gross but i don't know i try not to think about it too much it's moisturizing the cheese grease it just soaks into your fingers and uh keeps your hands moist we're gonna top with the fritos now and uh yeah there you have it it's uh skurka beans and rice with fritos
let's give it a little taste here oh it's hot oh oh my god so hot so i use aquamira to treat my water i like taping the bottles together so they're always together and then it's helpful to have an extra cap because i'm doing one for my hydration bladder and my nalgene but uh yeah usually the water i find in the backcountry is pretty clean so just adding a little chemical treatment is good enough i haven't had to deal with really nasty water in the backcountry i've been thinking about getting a filter just in case something like that happens in case i'm in an area where i'd have to like filter a stagnant puddle or something but this is just snow melt so it's pretty much the tastiest water you can drink.
So i figure i might as well start hiking the worst part of waking up is putting on cold wet shoes and got a little of the top layer frozen but still mushy underneath yeah it's going to be terrible crossing the snow later i don't want to do too much of this i've been avoiding the snow because i just break through the crust and post hole but finally got up high enough that i can walk on it and oh my gosh so much nicer than climbing through that talus it's like a a runway or a sidewalk in comparison oh thank goodness this is going to save me so much time the summit block is right up there so i should be getting close.
If you’re looking for a visitor map of the Bighorn National Forest, you can find detailed maps and publications on the official US Forest Service website.
Well, being that close to the edge is legitimately terrifying. This is a cool spot, but man, that is crazy. okay i made it down uh if i'm honest there never was an option of spending two nights up there uh i just didn't have the right food i i could have survived but it would have been miserable so we made it down it kind of kicked my butt if i'm honest going downhill is is always kind of hard for me and i'm definitely going to be feeling this one in my knees and my ankles for a while and i think i think i need to take it easy with these extreme hikes uh i'll get there eventually but i've just been out of the hiking game for too long to be jumping into something like that so expect more toned down outdoor adventures in the next uh videos until i get back into shape but uh yeah we got it done and you know i want to be clear i don't think i was like doing anything dangerous out there there was never a moment where like i don't know if i'm gonna make it back to the car although that was a probably one of the more difficult hikes i've ever done i think i hiked 16 miles today which might be a new record for me so anyways i think i'm gonna wrap this video up here i hope you enjoyed coming along for that uh scree stomping adventure and i will see y'all in the next one.