All right i'm nervous i really am. Over the next two nights and three days i am going to try
to complete the Honeycomb loop here in the Owyhee desert in southeastern Oregon along the Idaho
border. Some of the challenges i'm going to be facing right away it's a pretty trail less route
a lot of scrambling. Every book i read said you should go with a group or with another person
i have decided to do it solo. I had this thought as i was walking up to the trail like
Jon is this really what you want to do? Go off into the wilderness
by yourself, in the middle of winter. And as soon as my foot hit the trail (--) yeah it is. It is 14 degrees
out right now. 11 o'clock in the morning at the end of January and i am very much alone out here.
Sarah made me jerky for the trip. Thanks honey. It's the driest beef jerky i've ever had.
Shh don't tell her. I do have my garmin that's what i'll be using to navigate mostly and uh if you
come out here definitely bring make sure you have something like that as you can see
you can't see out here and a lot of navigating this trail and this trip is based on landmarks
which at this point i don't think i'm going to be able to see. So i better make sure that my
gps skills are really dialed in. For most of this hike there is no water source except for the Owyhee river
Which is six miles away from me right now. So that's where i plan on setting up camp today for
night one and night two i will camp next to the reservoir. I only have 50 ounces of water that i'm
carrying with me right now so i'm taking a little bit of a risk but on the drive here i made sure to
really really hydrate so i think that should last me and if i get into a pinch there's obviously
snow i can melt. And i really don't know how to shoot this video? My plans are changing due to
the weather. The first thing i have to do is find the legendary painted canyon. I was planning on an
early early drone flight in there but i don't know i can't see (--) right now but i better get a move on
because another challenge to this trip is that it gets dark at like 4:30, 5 o'clock so i've only got
six hours to get to my spot and get to my water source. A trail has appeared. A trail i believe
should take us all the way to the reservoir.
So here we are, this is the honeycomb loop in the Owyhee desert.
I just came across some bighorn sheep. Those things are so big up close holy cow.
Don't have room to pack marshmallows and graham crackers just a bring a little s'more pop tart.
Come on that's genius. Morning day two i'm woken up to a pack of coyotes right outside
my tent. I woke up there's coyotes outside my tent. I chased them to try to get a shot but um
they're quick little dudes and now i'm back in my sleeping bag because it is cold as hell out there
and i gotta warm back up. But i was able to take a peek out there and assess the situation it is cold
and gray. It's so cold that i'm having a problem trying to filter water because this thing keeps
freezing up. The bags have just frozen over so i'm boiling the water i have left in the jet
boil and then hopefully i can dump that into my gravity filter and that will uh
that'll get things moving again. You just gotta make it work.
In fact just poking up my body out of the sleeping bag for just a second is whoo.
I am right here, this little tent thing and i've got 3.1 miles around saddle butte
up here following the river to bensley flat
and hopefully before this trip is over i see the sunrise and it warms me because i am cold.
You're gonna notice in these shots that my pack is leaning strongly to my left
and that is on purpose. I don't know i think i pulled my right hip flexor it
hurts. Yeah when stuff like this happens out here pull your groin, pull your hamstring,
whatever, i mean you got no choice you gotta kinda you gotta get out so.
So here we are this is bensley, bensley flat and if that is any indication of what i'm in for
i'm pretty excited for tomorrow. I've been struggling with my water situation and i thought
it was best if i if i camped closer to my water source today and uh i brought my fishing stuff
and because today was a lot shorter i've already got camp set up and it's two o'clock
so i can actually take my time get some fishing done if there's any fish in here
and the sun's out so shaping up for a good saturday. Listen i'm a curious person by nature
so if i see an old house out in the middle of nowhere i'm gonna go explore it
The toilet has been used
Morning of day three. It's cold, the sun's disappeared. I'm realizing that given my
current setup and my current situation this is probably the limit and the coldest i could go
at this point. If i want to push to negative 25 negative 30, gotta make some upgrades.
Maybe you're saying Jon why why would you even want to go out in negative 25 like, why do you want
to go out to zero, why do you want to be out there right now? And uh for me it's all about finding
that edge and continuing to push that edge however far that is. Just incrementally and just see how
far i can progress in this and how far i can go and what my limit is and that that's the fun part
to me. The challenge, in the growing in the outdoors and growing as an outdoorsman. Each
season i go a little bit further, i'm able to do a little bit more, and i love that i think that's a
that's a great part to life. Finding something that you know challenges you. I missed my turn.
I need to turn and get up out of this gulch. That does not appear right. Playing the piano or i don't
know woodworking or painting or something like that. To try to find some sort of
lifelong pursuit. I've made it to the saddle. There's a barbed wire fence right up here
i think i'm gonna scurry up here and see if i can't find the ridge out of here.
Maybe it isn't the thing that you make money in, just finding a hobby i don't know. There's all the water
i have left. There's about four hours of daylight left. Either i've planned this extremely well
or i'm in trouble. And being able to pursue that hobby and get better at it and see yourself get
better at it as as life goes on i think is a real, just something i encourage, i i think people
should be encouraged to do. So yeah, find your edge. I have found the old jeep trail i was looking for
and if my calculations are correct i just need to follow this about two more miles and i will
be back to the car. This one was tricky so if you want to know how to do it, every wednesday
at seven i do a live stream and this wednesday will be the how to hike the honeycomb loop so
join me for that. More hiking and backpacking videos here, some of my favorites up here,
and youtube thinks you'll like this one. Thanks for watching, i'll see you next time.