- On a scale of one to 10, how experienced I am with
hiking and backpacking and camping is probably...
- I did not see any instructions.
- Oh my God!
(grunts)
- I'm putting sunscreen on.
- With a brush.
- Listen, I got it at Sephora.
- A one.
(dance music)
- Most of the people in Ladylike
we're not the most outdoorsy folks.
Oh, yes.
Fuck that.
And I was like, yo', let's dive right in.
Let's get a backpack, let's go to a forest,
let's find a dope, badass guide, and let's just go.
- I am Helen Sweany and I am a survivalist.
I have been hiking, camping, and backpacking my whole life.
- Thank heavens we have Helen because if we did not
I would be right at the office, typing away
on my little computer, having a normal Friday.
- Yesterday we went to a camping store
and spent about seven hours in there
and I like shopping, but that was too much.
(laughing)
- Our packs are around 30 pounds and they take up
my entire back and going down to basically below my butt.
- My pack is so heavy, but I am incredibly strong,
so it's gonna be fine.
- I am optimistic about this, you are all gonna make this,
we're gonna go all the way up to the pines today.
(upbeat music)
- I'm in.
- [Safiya] Jen, come on, here.
- We started off pretty fine, we all had our packs on
we were just trying to sort of figure out everything.
- It is hour one of our hike and it's going pretty well.
I did catch a little horny toad, little lizard thingy.
Got him.
(screaming)
How's it going, how do your backs feel?
- My back, I adjusted my pack
and my back feels so much better.
- We're on mile two?
- Roughly - Mile two.
- [Chantel] One and a half.
- One and a half?
That's it? - [Chantel] That's it.
- The first part of the hike
our main objective was just to filter water.
- These lovely ladies are trying
to figure out how to put together this water purifier.
- We had a water filter that we hadn't even opened
until we got to the stream, and it was a bit of a struggle.
Where's our bottle adapter?
Do we have another piece somewhere?
- Where's Jen?
- Jen is catching butterflies.
Helen's already filtered three gallons of water.
Meanwhile we have all these pieces.
- At the fall, I ended up being the designated person
who just held the bottom filter in the pool.
- We just finished filling up Saf's camel back,
and so now she's going to taste it to see how it tastes.
- Or die.
It's cold!
- Once we got the water pump
working, it's pretty easy to do.
- So after the water situation we refilled
everything we had, so we had even more weight than before,
and we went on this semi-steep incline.
- Hiking is already hard, when you have a bunch of stuff
weighing you down it's gonna be harder.
- There were moments where I was just like,
what did I get myself into?
I genuinely, genuinely was very afraid.
- I think all of us were sort of a little bit shocked
at just how precarious the ledge would feel.
- I'm feeling the incline
and I think the altitude a little bit.
- Holy cow, we just came up on this view.
We're in the literal wilderness.
We saw a sign that said, Chumash Wilderness.
- [Jen] When we arrived at the campsite
it was incredibly beautiful,
there were trees everywhere.
- The end of the hike was pretty much
like a come to Jesus moment.
Yeah, I mean, I was like, here we are!
- It's home.
- So, we're about to start setting up our tent,
and Helen's done.
(bagpipe music)
- I did not see any instruction.
- It's so tranquil out here, too.
Like, once you get settled and start actually setting up
your area with tents and things, and just getting more
at home, you just kind of relax a little bit.
- We learned how to make cordage out of yucca plants.
I didn't know that was a thing, that you could make really,
really strong rope out of a yucca plant.
- We're collecting sticks for the fire.
Because, we weren't very good at making rope.
- Do you want to hold it and twirl?
- Jen and Saf are hunting for wood.
Meanwhile, Freddie and I here
are making gentle yucca cordage.
- [Chantel] The wives (laughs).
- [Freddie] Look at them working hard.
- Helen and I, I mean, Helen mostly,
but I helped make the fire.
(drums)
- [Chantel We have a bunch of water on hand,
on standby in case it gets a little bit out of hand.
- I could also bring the poop trowel out
so that we could shovel some dirt on it.
- Oh, do you have the poop trowel?
- I've got the poop trowel.
- I, I lost it.
- [Freddie] We gots all this food.
It's all freeze dried and we're gonna be testin' it out.
- None of us really anticipated
how difficult boiling water would be.
- It's a paper cup.
I filled it up with water.
The fire's not going to burn the cup
as long as there's water on it.
(bagpipe music)
- Our food didn't turn out great.
- [Freddie] This is what mine looks like.
- And this is what mine looks like.
We did get the same meal, however,
the differences are pretty stark.
- I got huevos rancheros (laughs).
Which we found out after the fact that you need a skillet
also, after you put the water in the bag.
So, we improvised, and...
- [Chantel] That looks like eggs!
- I don't hate it.
- Yeah, I mean, I'm definitely like,
I think we're all very hungry.
And I think we're all moderately satisfied.
- Getting late.
We don't want to get bears, so we're gonna go tree the food,
which means tie a rope to a rock and throw it,
and then hoist the food and leftover stuff high in the air,
so the bears can't get it.
(grunts)
- [Helen] Oh, my gosh, that was it.
You did, well...
It has to go down a little bit.
- [Chantel] If you jumped, do you think you
can get it, Fred?
- No.
- [Safiya] What can I do?
- [Freddie] Can you reach this?
(cheering)
- [Chantel] Hooray, you're a hero.
- I got it.
- Sleeping, though.
Sleeping was a thing.
- Freddie's bundled up.
- It's so cold.
- Do you have a pillow?
- No. - Yeah, me either.
- We miss our friends.
They're just next door.
Can you hear them?
Of course. - Say something.
(laughing)
- Rude.
- Say hi, guys.
- [Freddie] Hi. - [Safiya] Hey.
- Hey.
- Goodnight, and until tomorrow.
- Goodnight and good luck.
(gentle music)
- It is morning.
I was freezing the entire night.
- We later found out that it got down to the 30's.
At one point I was just like, Jen, I am so cold.
And she's like, do you want to cuddle or something?
And I was like, yes.
(laughs) I was like, Jen, we're spooning.
- We woke up, packed up our tents,
said goodbye to our campsite.
Bye campground.
- [Freddie] Bye lovely meadow.
- How do you feel now that we're done?
- I am happy that we're done,
I am ready to get back to normal
normal life.
- I want to take a shower, and I want to use a pillow.
- The hike down was pretty uneventful.
Alright, so as we can see, this is Jen's pack.
I don't know if you guys can tell, but she has both
the kettle and the poop trowel sticking out,
the camera bag draped across, jackets on either side,
the pack is nearly as tall as she is.
We see things that we recognize, crew.
(cheering)
- We made it.
- How do you guys feel?
- We're so happy.
- I kind of can't believe that we did that
because it was just so overly ambitious.
- I am very beat.
Like, I am very, very tired.
But, I will say that I am happy that we took this trip.
- My feet do hurt a bit, and I think that I've got
some shoulder pain, but I'm feeling pretty good, honestly.
I feel like, weirdly, rejuvenated.
- I knew that if we had fun and no one died it would be
a success, and we definitely crossed that metric.
- I hope that you all will look at this as the beginning
of a backpacking experience that
on your own you'll find other places to backpack and you'll
keep on going from this point.
- I feel proud to say that I have gone backpacking.
It wasn't on my bucket list, but now that I've done it
I'm putting it on there so that I can check it off.
("Make Me Feel Good")
(swooshing)