Luke here at the Outdoor Boys YouTube channel and I'm stranded in the wilderness of Alaska. For the last three days, I've been solo camping in Alaska's rainforest. I've used float planes, canoes, and my own two feet in order to explore remote hot springs.
But my plane was supposed to pick me up this morning, and it didn't show up. I'm not sure how I'm going to get home. But one thing's for sure, this is going to be an interesting video.
[Music] There's one. [Music] Heat. Heat.
[Music] [Music] [Music] Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] Well, I'm all by myself now.
I've got lots of different ammo. I've got slugs for bears and I've got birdshot. It's a nice thing about shotguns.
They're versatile. There we go. Just going to leave my gun case in the bushes.
I'll get it on my way back. Well, guys, welcome to the temperate rainforests of Southeast Alaska. It rains over 270 days out of the year here.
And we're about 45 miles northnortheast of Catch Can, Alaska. All right, we better get trucking. Got a long way to go.
Look at this place. It's a cold jungle. Everything is covered in moss.
Look at the size of this log. This is crazy. Look at this.
That's pretty cool. Well, this is the lake I was trying to find. Unfortunately, I'm on the wrong end of the lake.
And it's a big lake. Sure is pretty. Hold on.
There's a little something over there. Check it out. It's an old trolley.
All the woods rotted away, but you can still see the metal frame. Oh, that is slick. You see the trolley pretty good here.
I think normally the water level's a little bit lower and you can walk out to that thing, but hey, I got a great view of the lake. Look at this. Looks a little beat up.
National Forest Service left these canoes here for anybody to use. As long as you take care of them, put them back where you found them, everyone can enjoy them. It's a real great thing.
Woohoo. You know what? Rain or no rain, this is still pretty cool.
Look at this. There's a couple ducks right over there. I think I might go get them.
Oh, there they go. Well, they didn't let me get close to them, but they're here, and that's a good sign. If I get up early tomorrow morning, I think I might have a good chance at him.
There we go. We got ourselves a nice little shelter. Going to need it cuz I've already wet my pants.
Well, this is a pretty slick little shelter. It was built in 1937, so it's almost 90 years old. Just made with logs and cedar shingles.
Got a nice little shelf up here you can sleep on or use for storage. Look at a big old solid benches here. Got even a little bit of wood here I might be able to chop up.
This is a pretty cool spot, but I got to get my tent set up. I am really wet and cold. Well, check this out.
It's a volcanic hotring. Look at all the steam coming off this water. Oh, that's warm.
See if we can jam this hole up. There we go. It's filling up with hot water pretty quick.
Scalding hot right there. This right here must be the source. Woo!
Yeah, that's boiling. This over here is just warm. You can see all the steam coming off the hillside.
There's probably other hot springs popping out higher up there. Now, there's a hose over there bringing hot water down the hill. We got to figure out why it's not working.
There we go. Woo, that's hot. All right, so we got cold water there, boiling hot water there, and warm water flowing in here.
And you can kind of use the three to adjust your temperature. Oh man, I want to jump in this right now, but it's getting dark and I am getting hungry and I need to give this some time to clean out the pool and get it nice and warm. [Applause] Woo!
That is so awesome. I think the only thing that could be more exciting than that is a hot meal. Oh, I am so hungry.
These broughtwur are pre-cooked, so you just want to warm them up. Really, put a little bit of water in the bottom of the frying pan. Bring it to a boil.
By the time the water evaporates, the broughtwur is piping hot through and through. Oh, that's delicious. It's not fancy, but it's warm and it's quick.
Two things I really appreciate right now. There you go. [Music] I'll tell you what, guys.
I am exhausted. I had to get up at 5:30 in the morning to catch my flight. Spent all day on a plane and then had to hurry as fast I could to get here before sunset.
Didn't even have time to eat lunch. Got my hot water bottle here. Check for leaks.
All right, looks good. Let's put that in there. Well, I got some bread flour with me.
And tomorrow morning, I'm going to eat hot fresh bread. So, I'm going to go ahead and mix up a little water with it. Give it a little mix.
Let it sit overnight and it'll be fermented and all ready to go tomorrow morning. Making fresh bread is one of my favorite things to eat on a camp out. And I get people asking me all the time how you do it.
I did an entire video on how to make campfire bread. It's really easy. Just going to hang it up on this clothes line so mice can't get at it.
Well, I think I am ready to get out of these wet clothes. All right. Well, the sun set about an hour ago and it's only 7:15.
It is getting dark so early nowadays. I'm just going to kind of hop into bed and eat some snacks and listen to an audio book. I've got a pumpkin pie infused Gouda cheese, which is going to be kind of wild.
Got some chocolate covered hazelnuts, a wicked salami, fig cake, and some pilot bread. So, yes, I'm having an awesome time. Sun's just barely up and it's not raining.
So, I think I should go do some duck hunting. Oh, yeah. These didn't dry out at all last night.
This is not going to be fun. That flock of ducks is right back where they were yesterday. I'm going to try to stalk them.
Oh, there's about 15 ducks in that flock and they flew off before I even got half as close as I needed to be. But I'm sure they're not the only duck on this lake. Malard ducks actually have a language of sorts.
There's a hey baby, I'm here call. There's that num num this is tasty call. There's the basic quack.
Well, that duck came right into the call and I was able to close the distance with him pretty good. When I got closer, I could tell he wasn't a malard. He's some sort of diving duck.
And those usually don't taste as good as malards. So, I'm just going to kind of let that one go. [Music] I'm just working my way up and down this river and around the lake just looking for sloohs and marshy spots.
Oh, my legs. Well, I spent about three hours paddling around looking for ducks. Didn't shoot any.
And oh, I am tired and hungry. I think I am ready for breakfast. Little something to keep me warm while I cook.
[Music] Got a little butter and honey in this jar. We're going to let that warm up. Pour some honey butter on that.
Some fresh pan fried bread with honey butter and pork gel bacon. Few things in the world taste better than fresh homemade bread smothered in melted butter and honey. Well, I'll tell you what, the rain has eased up a little bit.
I want to take advantage of that. I want to go get some firewood and bring it into the shelter so it can dry off a little bit. And maybe, just maybe, I can build a fire tonight.
If nothing else, cutting firewood will keep me warm. Look at that. There's water all the way through that log.
There we go. Got a nice pile of wet wood. It's mostly dry on the inside, but it's so wet on the outside, it's going to take a lot of heat to get it dry so it can ignite.
In order to get the fire started, I'm going to need dry kindling and lots of it. And the problem is, where do you find it? All the branches and moss and grass here are just soaking wet.
I got these two dry pieces of wood I found in the shelter. So, I need to chop them down and make them into kindling and keep that kindling bone dry. Each dry piece of wood I'm going to lay over here where it's nice and dry.
Another great fire starter is charcoal, but this stuff's soaking wet. So, we're going to dry it out. There you go.
That works real good. Also, use your stove to dry out other pieces of wood. I'm out of water.
Luckily, around here there is no short supply of water. If the water you're filtering out has a lot of sediment, it'll gum up your filter really quick. So, I use the carrying case for my water filter to kind of do an initial screening.
The carrying case will filter out all the sand and sticks and other things. I just hang up the dirty water and gravity pulls it through a filter down the hose and fills up my water bottle. All right, let's go and pinch it off.
Rumor has it there's brook trout in this lake and uh I haven't caught a brook trout in a long time. I got my rod rigged up with a little fly. It's got a black leech with a gold bead on it.
I don't know a ton about this lake, but most lakes like this in Alaska have leeches in it, and trout love to eat leeches. I think I want to bring a hot water bottle with me fishing, but I don't want to sit and wait for a pot to boil on my stove. Woo!
Yeah, that's toasty. Oh, that feels nice. Well, the fishing isn't going great.
The rain's picking up and I am soaked to the bone. I think I might head back. I am soaking wet and very cold.
My hot water bottle is lost its oomph. I think I need to do something to warm myself up. And I got an idea.
All right, let's get warm. I'm starting to regret my idea. Okay, half of me is being boiled alive.
Half of me is freezing to death. And there's just a little bit of sweet spot. Okay.
Oh, I think I've got the temperature dialed in pretty good. That hot water pipe is just a touch too hot. So, I got a little bit of that warm waterfall coming in mixing with it.
Just just perfect. Between the hiking and the canoeing, I'm a little bit sore. This is nice.
Oh, well, I missed lunch and I'm a bit hungry, so uh I think I'm going to have a hot spring snack. So good. Oh, this is nice.
But I'm starting to get overheated. Oh, it's a little lightheaded getting out of that hot water. I don't have any towels, so I'm just going to have to put on my clothes wet and dry out slowly.
Honestly, I don't feel any wetter than I did before I got into the hot springs. But man, I'm a whole lot warmer. I'm starting to get hungry, so I am going to make a tin foil dinner.
Little salt, pepper, a little pork gel, bacon on there, green onion, and a whole bunch of cilantro. If you're doing this at home, use Italian sausage or kilbasa instead of broughtwurst, and it's even better. But hey, you know, use what you got.
All righty. Oh, I think the rain eased up. I'm going to make a fire.
I better do it now. There we go. Even with a dry kindly, that fire isn't taking aggressively.
There's so much humidity in the air. I put these wet pieces of wood up here so they can dry, but they'll also act as a roof if it starts to rain, which will protect the fire. Oh, I can hear it sizzling in there.
It's so nice. Working the fire is drying my pants out. Look at that.
There we go. I forgot to bring a fork, so I made some chopsticks. That is smelling like it's ready.
There. M. That smells good.
[Music] Oh, that sweet potato is so good. Oh, that was good. The meat and the sweet potato, a little bit of salt.
Man, that's good stuff. I uh I think it's time to roast a marshmallow. Oh, that's good.
Got some uh lemon pound cake here. Cup of hot chocolate with some cake for dessert. Not too shabby at all.
I gotta tell you what, I'm feeling very fortunate right now. Got a nice warm fire. The rain has been really light.
I got a full belly. I think there's a really good chance I'm going to go to bed dry and warm. Really, the only thing I can complain about right now is that I've got two visitors.
Go. Get out of my tent. No.
Get Get out of there. Get out of there. Okay.
Come on. Come on. Yeah.
Yeah. Okay. Come on.
This way. This way, buddy. Come on.
Come on. There we go. There's mice all over.
Oh, mice can cause a lot of damage. Anything fuzzy, they want to steal it and take it to their nest. So, they'll chew holes in your sleeping bag.
They'll pull your hair out. They'll chew up your jackets. And of course, they can get into your food and ruin your food.
Dude, that's a different one. He's a little fatter than the other one. I'm just going to try to clean up really well and get all my stuff off the ground so they don't chew it up.
Sure, a mouse can still get to it if they want to, but at least I'm not making it easy. Hopefully that'll keep my stuff away from the mice. Oh, these socks are so wet.
And it feels so good to be warm and dry, but it's late. I've got to turn off the camera and I'll see you in the morning. Oh, good morning.
I had this nightmare that I was rabbit hunting and I shot a rabbit and when I got close and picked it up, it was someone's palm ring. Tell this old lady that I shot her dog and thought it was a rabbit. Oh, everything is so damp.
You hang up your clothes and they do not dry at all. I've got an entire change of dry clean clothes, but I'm saving it for the airplane ride home. Don't want to get the airplane all gross.
Oh, it's raining good outside. It's going to be wet today. Oh, this blade is disgustingly dirty.
Well, they're not exactly dry, but they're are worlds better than yesterday. I'll tell you what, this has been a pretty cool little adventure, but I am ready to get out of the rain. I think it's time to head back to the beach.
I got a plane to catch. Oh, I'm going to get soaked. Oh, there's a seal right there.
Well, I got a bit of bad news. I just got a message from the pilot that they're weathered in at catch can and they can't come get me. I don't know how bad the weather is.
I don't know how long it's going to last. All I know is the pilot said he'd give me an update in 2 hours. That's how it is here in Alaska.
You have to bow to the weather. The weather doesn't bow to you. I need to get out of this rain.
I'm getting soaked. Oh, it's good to get out of the rain. I'm wet from the waist down and a little bit cold, but at least I'm not in the rain anymore.
I get cold just sitting here. But if I go out and walk around, I get more wet. So, I've got to do little exercises under the tarp to try to stay warm.
I don't have any more cooking fuel and I don't have a ton of food left. So, just having a really simple lunch. Well, the rain eased up and I got a message from the pilot.
They're still socked in in catchin. So, I'm not getting rescued anytime soon. Maybe in a couple hours or something will change or maybe I'll be stuck here for a day or two.
I'm using the break in the weather to walk around. I'm freezing. I'm just going to walk up and down this beach till I'm warm.
Barely got half a dozen laps done and it's starting to rain a little bit. [Music] Well, it's been 5 hours and I just got a message from the pilot that they're going to try to leave. We'll see if they can make it.
I can hear a plane. There's the plane. [Music] Thank you so much.
I've got to catch my flight to Anchorage. So, they just dropped me off on a dock right here outside the airport. Oh, heat.
Got some dry clothes on. Give me a hug. I missed you and Jacob.
I kind of wanted Oh. Well, guys, it's good to be back home and with the family. Hopefully you guys enjoyed this video.
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