Bikepacking High Altitude - Simple Light Gear - Multipurpose

Description

The trip was mostly over 10,000 feet elevation on gravel and dirt roads. I wanted to stay light so I used multipurpose gear from Wilderness Innovation. A poncho that can also be a hammock was used, also a cloak that can also be an under quilt. I used an Optimus butane stove for cooking. Fun trip, it was a test for me, getting ready to do more and longer treks.

Gear shown available at http://wildernessinnovation.com

Tags: bikepacking guide,bike packing,mountain bike,rocky mountain bikes,multipurpose gear,hammock camping,underquilt hammock,hammock suspension,dyneema cord,Optimus stove,GSI frypan

Video Transcription

well I'm uh my parrot getting ready load my bike up and hit that gravel road back there find me some kind of spot somewhere to camp I'll be right a couple hours tonight go from there this is kind of a it was all kind of a last minute thought and so I'm just like well you've seen me too many times you know like I just decided you a flat Smith well I knew I was going to go camping but I just wasn't sure where you know I just decided to do this for some weird reason I don't know why well not good news I've been climbing since I left here at this gravel road and I just now realized that I left my iphone back where I changed my clothes at so y'all ride all the way back down there and get it and it right all the way back up here I'm not that thrilled about it all right I'm all here no got the steak an iPhone got a head out over that way and it's gradual uphill all the way up the round over that peak right there well here's my setup I put up last night after dark it was hard finding a place to camp up here last night because it was so dark and and it's hard just with a headlamp to kind of scope out a good spot but I found this one this right here did the trick for me man I slept like a log and I even slept in today but I'm not even getting up early I'm going to sleep

doing a little about my setup here I used the ultra light poncho as my hammock put my Oh sneak cloak on that last night I parked my bike up here on the road and kind of come down to this little group of trees behind me see if that might be able to be made suitable to make my camp and I stumble around a little but it turned out okay so there's my camp down there like that real tree extra it's almost invisible you drop we're kind of on the edge dropping down into a valley down here well there's a beautiful valley down into there

then I got a lot of my stuff out last night just left it out here this is my my cooking stuff here and that my little stove in there and everything I'm gonna get down a little bit out of the wind with this thing that's our frypan set we make these bags and get a bunch of different colors my old cook set and food out of here I won't even eat all this stuff keeping it simple some fish smoked fish some ramen people different things I didn't even I didn't even eat supper last night and some grits this is the real real old-fashioned course grits from Georgia my cup right here holy optimus cup yep my little stove

and in here and I like this you just flip it up it's a little deal right there just clicks then you pull that your little handle there screw that on good to go then we can pull our legs out here

brought along the water in my water bladder here's in my backpack I need about that much water that's it right there that's a little windy see if I get this thing with ya [Laughter]

and I really love it up here I think I think I say that on every video I do every time I go camping I think I say I love it here the sim from the simplest places to the nicest place or whatever seem like I just like them all getting a little bit of steam starting to come off of there so we're not far away here I started to decide on the app for breakfast I had planned to bring eggs and I was looking for my little - egg carrier and I couldn't find it wife dropped me off on my way driving up here I she said oh it's in the such-and-such bin the only thing I didn't look in some kippered snacks I think I'll put those in my frypan all right that didn't take more than a couple minutes now I got my go bite duo here I've got a little trail dust on there but I like how they they click together and they're really sturdy I mean this is really sturdy plastic cookware I mean you're not you're not likely gonna break any of this and you can click them together to make a long one however you want to do it now my grits I've already added the salt and that's stuff that I need to go with it so so it's already ready to go a little salt little pepper and stuff like that so we'll just let that cook up so in the end grits gives you gives you more volume of food to eat a lot of other things has a packs really small but then when you cook it up it really really swells up nicely my frypan here but it's got a got a folding handle on it and you can just lay it down into there you can just lay that into there but depending I'm really filling this up to store stuff the handle you just take and squeeze it just take them squeeze right here and you can take it all the way out so it latches in there so clicks in that makes it nice I I like them to be product of Canada or Sweden or something like that because I want to put my hash browns

I just want to heat this up I can eat them just like this a lot of times I have I've just ate them right out of the can but I want to put my grits with that too so it'll make me a hot breakfast all the way around those grits right there remind you of the mud pots at Yellowstone popping up getting close to done they take a lot longer to cook then you know quick grits and all that kind of stuff you know cuz these things are pretty real they taste so much better it's that's amazing and then I'll put that fry pan on here alright we're cooking Harrow mocha I'll just be an ongoing thing here now you notice I didn't wash out my cup or anything like that there's really no no water available so you got to bring everything you're gonna use so we can't waste water washing stuff needlessly between you know between things and all that you just you got to be practical you just you just go on with it so there are the grits of the Gertz kind of keep on cooking a little leave enough you take it off the flame good so I mix a little bit of this smoked fish and with a grip oh my gosh I'm so good I mean you know it's a it's a very simple meal you know there's nothing here that you got to refrigerate or anything like that that's nice same time it's got a lot of energy and stuff like that for your day well it looks like our it's like my water is done I just got this ziplock baggie where I pre-mixed my chocolate in my hair Oh in there so I just carry the one container amazingly enough I brought along this styrofoam cup and it didn't even I didn't even get tore up in my backpack it's kind of astounding really cuz it'll keep the stuff warm till I get finished drinking it the nice things also about finishing up cooking the heating up water in that cup is that loosens

all that all the stuff from the from the grits and now I can wipe out the cup or a lazy frypan here and kind of swish that around now let's just show you how I mop all this out so often times for mopping stuff up out in the wild I'll break off a pine bough or something like that or juniper or whatever wherever I'm at I'll use that as kind of a scrubber to wipe everything out I don't often get worried about when you're in a situation like this getting every little tiny bit out of there but but that's pretty good now just a really light swish of water and that bill will be clean this I actually have a scrub pad with me you might have saw it in my stuff hey so even though I've got a scrub pad with me I'm showing you how to do with that one so here we are all nice and clean ready to pack back up well breakfast is done this will cap it all off all right so here's I set up my my rig last night I don't often do this but it's a sizable ahem but the only thing I could do that thing stuck clear out almost to the other tree try to get out of way in order to take care of it so I used my silky pocket boy but never do this in a campground setting I'd never do it in a place where people commonly camp but I'm just down off the road here this is on a side hill I see no evidence anywhere if anybody ever camping here so it's not like what I'm doing is going to you know really mess things up or anything trying to take off that one big limb up here these are just some stubs that we're sitting there that I just got out of the way for convenience and working this is an old-growth tree the bark is really hard and with the diameter of the tree and everything you know the cord makes no impact on the tree at all this is how you can tension it you pull more cord through there and you get to where you want you just you just literally just flip it over hook it right there and the tension of everything locks that in there and holds it in place you know if you want to undo everything BAM it's undone just like that very simple very lightweight six grams each these are not available for sale yet these are prototypes so my whoa we got some wind here that's what we get for being on a ridge so my super UL poncho weighs about 12 ounces or so that became my hammock so poncho into a hammock so if you haven't seen the hosni cloak you saw that i used it as under quilt for my hair

last night got a full nice fully insulated hood can be a liner for a poncho can be an under club for a hammock so it's a multi-purpose piece of gear yeah getting up here to the crest of this one continuous uphill and washboard gravel not exactly fun well I was hoping to make it to that campsite where that trailer is last night so I wanted to camp on those trees so I guess it's a good thing I didn't make it someone's already there the spring time a lot of that's got ponds down in there but things dry it up now that more appeal seems like I just keep writing uphill appeal appeal so I'm about them at the top of my ride for this trip I'll be taking the road you see down at the doubt the ridge right there for taking the road to the right down Pleasant Creek Canyon I'm about ten thousand ten thousand six hundred feet right now

I think I'll stop right here somewhere right in here and drove them a bike up off the road little like I'll throw a hammock up and take a little snooze well I think it's time to take me a little nap I just I just dropped this stuff through that loop I think we're gonna make something I just like to use what I've got I think we may make something that people can get if they want to you just let gravity do the work drops out the end I just pull that back pull the loop over the knife we're good now I just put a put the end of that through there start cinching it down so now I've got gathered gathered in hammock hook that thing about right there for the moment and see I just twist that it almost makes it go over the end it's all there is to hold one end of the hammock up right there take the slack out of this one to bring it up so all you do is pull on it that I just hold that into the key like that and then just run it back up you got to come some more so I just pull it some more let it run up there that's it's a little more than I need right there probably maybe something about like that like of course the hood becomes a pocket zip it shut through the draw court down so it just became a pocket if I need it nap time takes a couple minutes are up good to go well I got down the mountain the hair to the park and I got about four or five miles I guess Tom hey man I I really had a trouble here see my my bag with my blanket my Oh sneak cloak in it was so bouncing everything this thing here kept shifting over and I had my tripod on there it had fall over and then the tire would the tire would suck it up into here so I'm like how am i booking it down the mountain holy cow I just I just want to let it rip you know and I am zipping down the mountain that thing gets sucked up into there and my back tire is locked up solid holy cow I am fishtailing all over the place I'm like I don't even know I'm I don't even know how I'm gonna keep this thing upright man it happened a couple of times finally I took the tripod off and put it on the I strapped it on the back of my backpack a backpacks like only a it's only like old like daypack you know and I've got I've got like everything in it in it or on it now it's like crazy and that's the other thing so I get in these stretches and I have to kind of break it to keep because I'm afraid of that bag coming off of there again you know so I'm having having to keep breaking it to keep from going too fast and I got so much weight up top in that pack you know I try to break it it's my you know I got to be careful he's wanting to throw me over the handlebars ho my gosh it was insane oh man what a ride I got to collect myself now that ride would be a blast like I had nothing on just zipping off the top but having this other gear on there let me tell you it really changes things up quite a bit don't figure after this I'm gonna get to the park check everything back down the hatches make sure we're good get me get me a good drink fill my mouth full of sunflower seeds and book it on way book it on home what a crazy deal oh my gosh

you