We are live coming to you straight from a brand new studio, which as you just saw, we're still trying to figure out how it works.

Jeremiah, how you doing man?

I'm doing great bro, I'm rolling with the punches here.

Like John said, if you're watching on YouTube or on Spotify seeing the video version, you'll see a new look.

Did you put in new intro music too or is that the same one?

Oh, it's the same intro music.

I can't change everything at once.

All right, yeah, one step at a time here.

But yeah, we you can expect a couple of hiccups.

We're going to tell you ahead of time.

John's been playing with this this new system that we're working.

So for you guys, you're only seeing something different, you know, same same show, same fun.

I did want to say a quick word from our sponsor, Outdoor Vitals, makers of Performance First Ultralight gear.

It is official biggest sale of the year is now live.

We're going to link to that sale in the description below.

So if you all click through that link, here's what you'll get.

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And by doing the early sale you can get over $100 in free gear.

Not to mention all the savings site wide discount wise.

So make sure you check out outdoorvitals.com this awesome early sale Black Friday on the way.

Man I I was I was told by Jonathan what all trails they have almost all their Christmas shopping already done.

I said I thought you weren't even allowed to start until Black Friday.

Bro it's mid November.

Yeah, man, That's that's not me right now.

I don't know that I've bought one present for anybody, so there's that.

We're just putting the budget together just now for the the Christmas gifts.

Our good friend Suga Canadenzis just said we're looking good.

Oh, thank you, Suga.

So we'll take that.

There's a lot of people on here right now.

Steve is on here and said he just got home from a from a hike.

Steven Wright where?

Were you at Steve?

Yeah, let us know where you were.

We got good evening from the Netherlands.

Outdoor dog and hiking girl always on here.

It's always good to see these guys.

Let's see.

Hard to believe we're almost a Black Friday.

Yes, David Cooper.

Let's just not even talk about it.

It's it's just it's just it's just not good.

It's not good.

John Groover's on here.

Let's see.

OK, this is a new system and I am having all kinds of struggles with trying to get everything to look normal, but we'll see what happens here.

Unlikely hiker almost done shopping, but the season starts in two weeks AT season, I guess.

That is so nice.

Nice, nice.

Got a lot of people on here, Jeremiah.

It's going to be harder to keep track of this.

This is a little different than what we're used to.

So everybody be patient with us.

Yeah.

Be patient with.

Us a month from now, we'll have it 25% polished here.

We're 11 show at a time here, but we'll get better and better.

We are That is, that is the absolute truth.

That is the absolute truth, Jeremiah.

Real quick, just out of curiosity sake, how has your week been?

Well, it's Wednesday as the official day of this recording.

It was going pretty great until

last night about 8:00 PM.

And then you got that red shirt on.

Man, I know it's Ohio State, but that's Louisville colors.

And my my cats got just steamrolled in basketball.

So week was OK.

Now it's turning into a long week.

I'm excited for the weekend now.

So we got a basketball game Friday.

Not to talk too much sports, but what about you?

I see your your little caption there.

This new system lets us put a subtitle and mine says Jeremiah Stringer just had COVID.

Yours says John Kelly.

I finally shot a deer.

What's up with that?

Yeah, I actually, I actually shot a deer this past week.

Last year was my first year hunting is the first, first time, you know, this is the first time I'd really gotten a chance to go out and do that.

And I got out there and I had somehow bumped my scope before the 1st hunt and nothing, I couldn't shoot near anything.

So ended up not getting a Dang thing last year and it was absolutely miserable.

And yeah, it was just bad.

It was just bad.

How did you know you had bumped the scope?

You were you just you had shot at a deer and then it was way off and you're like something's up.

And then you had to reside it.

Something like that.

We'll say that that works.

Well, I figured it out by this time this.

Year.

So yeah, yeah, we're we're good now.

We're good now.

So I'm, I'm actually trying something while we're sitting here talking.

I'm trying to get on here so that I can see the comments a little bit better than what I've been seeing them, you know, So we'll see what happens here.

Yeah, I don't want to harp too much on the new program because we're inexperienced with it, but still figuring it out.

And I know the people that are just listening, which is a a big, a big part of our audience are just listeners.

Oh, look at that, 2 John Kelly's the old double camera angle.

So they're not really affected by this at all.

So again, bear with us.

But yeah, dude, shooting the deer.

Jonathan got one too.

We watched part of the game together yesterday.

He come over for a bit.

We watched the first half and he showed me his deer and he's telling me about all of this cheddar sausage he's getting made.

He's getting several pounds of jerky.

He also said he's got I think 5 lbs of deer bacon, 4 or 5 lbs of deer bacon and he's going to bring some.

Bacon.

Deer bacon.

He's going to bring I guess at least a pound on our our next backpacking trip.

I'm excited to try it, bro.

And then he's had his deer field dressed at like 160.

So I don't know how many pounds of ground deer he's he's basically got burger coming out of it.

And I don't know how much that'll be, but and then it's not tenderloin, is it?

It'd be back straps.

I don't know.

I'm not a deer.

And Tenderloin.

You got both actually.

OK, I'm not a deer.

Hunter and Tenderloin.

Yeah, so I don't know, I I was doing the math and I wonder with the price of beef, bro, just how much money you save if you do get a deer.

It's got to be astronomical because a pound of ground beef in Kentucky is $7.00.

And that's if you get it 3 lbs at a time.

So I mean, you kill a deer, if you already have the supplies and all that, you know, firearm or a bow and you have the equipment, then your investments not that much.

You know every deer that you kill, you're paying.

Your basically paying off that equipment.

Yeah, well, somebody just left a comment on here.

I think that's important for us to see and that is that Jeremiah is getting the beard length back to the old logo length.

Well, it's the cold months.

I got to keep my face warm, bro.

I have this Black Friday hike coming up and I'm praying for good weather.

I'm going to be backpacking with a few different people, but one of them is Mr.

Backpacking with Jason Sir and I get to see him this Saturday.

We're going to UK game, actually they're playing Tennessee Tech and I said win that.

Game I will give you a hard time.

Well, they are 10 and O actually Tennessee Tech, not to talk too much sports, but I'm going to be hanging out with him.

And then on Black Friday, I was like this weekend, it's been really, really cold this, you know, over the past weekend we actually got some snow and then I was like, it's going to be freezing on Saturday.

Nope, 72° and sunny for the football game.

Football games like 2:00.

So it's going to be nice and warm.

And I'm, I've already paid for the campsites and stuff for trip for Black Friday and man, my fingers are crossed that we get some beautiful weather.

I'm sure you will.

I'm sure you will.

This is really cool, David.

He was actually on a hike with Backcountry exposure and lost again with Jim.

Oh wow, that sounds like a fun hike.

So they must be, I would assume out West.

Oh, yeah, it's got to be in Utah.

Absolutely.

As a matter of fact, look who's on here right now.

Yo, Mr.

Backcountry Exposure himself.

How's it going?

Devin?

Good to see you.

Let's see.

Oh, hey, we got a birthday Triquavius.

Oh, that's one of my students that.

That's one of my students.

Happy birthday.

Oh, nice, nice.

So we got some really cool stuff going on.

The best part of the sound was the symbol solo.

I guess that was during the the opening Jingle during the countdown timer.

So, all right, we're here for a reason, Jeremiah.

Oh yeah, we're getting deep into the show here.

We're finally.

We finally, we need to get to what we're here for.

And that was one thing and one thing only, and that was getting on the comments or getting on the questions that you all have asked us.

And I want to make sure that we get to those.

So, Jeremiah, Are you ready for question #1?

Yeah.

And I want to say before we start, the people that are on here live, you have the special opportunity to today ask anything you want, but it could be about backpacking or it could be about life in general.

It could be about work, it could be about whatever you want.

So feel free in the comments.

The people that are on here this second watching the live stream, go ahead and ask us some questions.

We have some that we had posted last week and people had already commented some some questions for Q&A, but we'd love to hear some live.

Yeah.

So Jeremiah, our very first one comes from, let me get the name right on this comes from Rick Rich Hamrick.

And he wants to know, he says, what is Jeremiah's hair care regimen for maintaining his flowing locks and silky smooth beard?

That's, that's funny.

I've actually backpacked with Rich a couple times.

He he was at the meet up and also out whenever Jonathan and I went to West Virginia and did that plane crash.

So what up Rich?

I don't know if he's on here right now, but I bro, I used to wash my hair every day.

I would get a haircut like every three weeks or every four weeks.

And then I decided, you know, it'd save me $25.00 a month if I didn't cut this hair.

So I just stopped cutting it.

And since my son was born, I haven't had a haircut and.

It's been over a year.

And I know when it's time to wash it.

Yeah, it's been over a year because my, I'm a public school teacher in Kentucky and I teach mathematics.

And the students will be like, oh, you got the slick back today, don't you?

And so that's when, you know, they're like, oh, I.

Picked up, Yeah.

They're like, OK, it's getting a little greasy up there and sometimes Bridget will tell me, so I should be like, yeah, hair's getting a little greasy, time to wash it.

So I'm trying to do once a week, bro, but I just can't do it.

I went from every day to once a week and now I'm, I'm having a breakdown like every four or five days I'm having to wash it.

I wash it, condition it.

Didn't you have to use conditioner before?

Wasn't even a thing.

Now I'm spending some of that haircut money on conditioner and oh man, that's about it.

I really want to learn to like either braid it or I was talking to my students this morning about doing cornrows.

I think it'd be awesome bro, what do you think?

I can just see it with cornrows.

Man, That'd be great.

That would be great.

OK, you ready for the next question?

This one comes to us from Russell T.

Russell T.

And he says best place to eat in the gorge that is not Miguel's.

Boy, they got a lot of new places, ain't they?

They do.

They do.

My favorite.

What's the Mexican place out there?

I know.

Shoot, it's right there before you get to Miguel's.

It's closed on Tuesdays.

Yep, that place is awesome because they have the world's biggest burritos.

I I eat there.

The burritos are massive, man.

I mean, they are the size of your forearm, the whole thing.

That is not a joke.

They are massive and they're delicious.

Yeah, they give you leftovers to take home.

We ate at that Mexican restaurant.

You'll have to look up the name.

I can't remember what it is, but it's literally right there around Miguel's.

But I'd say the burger places are really good.

But this is a little bit of a cheat of an answer.

My favorite place that I've eaten is probably being The Brick, which is where you can get hand scooped ice cream.

And I think that copies there too.

But I got like a triple or quadruple scoop.

La Cabana.

Is that what it is?

La Cabana.

I just looked it up, La Cabana.

Did somebody else put that in the comments?

Yeah, I think it's Brian in the comments.

Yep, Brian, you are the winner.

Yes, Laca Banyas.

I I actually just looked it up, was about to say it when Brian posted that.

Yeah, Laca Banyas is definitely where it is, man So good.

Look at the look at the comments on the cornrows and and the dreads.

I tell you Jeff, I think you're wrong on that because stone nape adventures, who is on here?

He has dreads and they are freaking awesome, dude.

If you ever have the chance to, you're lucky enough to lay eyes on those dreads, man.

They'll be burned into your soul and you will appreciate them.

So I think the cornrows or dreads would look great on me.

But we're all entitled to our opinion, Jeff.

So here's another question for you, Jeremiah.

Let me get back to it here real quick.

This one's actually from Chicken Little Treks.

How do you prioritize backpacking and health while challenged with stressors of a newborn?

Why did that?

It was fun.

It's that's a tough one, ain't it?

You're.

Well for me I didn't start backpacking really, I mean really backpacking, doing it a lot until I had a 5 month old and a year old like a year and a half.

It's a tough time to start, so a lot.

Going on when I started, yeah, that's that's when I started.

And I remember my wife is probably the kindest, most gentle, gracious human being on the planet because she just let me she just rolled with it and let me do it.

I think you have to make sure you you always ask.

I think that's, I mean, maybe I don't know if you agree with me on that or not, Jeremy, but I, I think you always have to ask.

Well.

Because usually, I mean as long as as long as they feel like, as long as my wife feels like she has the ability to say no in case things are getting overwhelming, I'm usually pretty good.

Yeah, I'm right there with you.

I what works for you may work for a lot of people or may not.

What works for me, same thing.

So I'm a little bit different than John.

I think both of us has been married quite a while.

How many years has it been for you?

11 years, 11 years.

OK, so I'm coming up on 10 years.

So we're, we're right there together.

I, I try to keep an eye on things to try to make sure life is as balanced as possible because you, everybody's spinning all these plates, right?

And when one thing gets out of balance, then usually for me that creates quite a bit of anxiety.

So you're like, well, what?

How do I get that that part of my life back in balance?

And for me, I got, you know, spiritual minds, church life, I got work, you know, you got finances, relationships, you got, you know, your kids, you have all these plates spinning and then backpacking is a hobby.

So for me though, it's like integrated into my life.

I've literally spent thousands of dollars on it because it's something I'm super passionate about.

We flew over and done the Camino and took six weeks of our life just for backpacking.

Very unusual thing to do.

You know, if you compare that to just normal average person.

Yeah, well, Derwin has a great 1, he says.

My 25th anniversary was 1028.

She's putting up with a lot in her time.

Wow, I didn't know that, Derwin.

I didn't know you were that old.

Same here, I saw that 25 years and I was like what?

Did you get married when you were like 7?

Like maybe a little older?

I don't know, maybe I just.

You must have hit the fountain of youth, bro.

That's all I'm saying.

You must have the fountain of youth.

Got another question for you, Jeremiah.

Well, hold on, let me finish, let me finish.

Let me go ahead on this one.

Yep.

So for the backpacking and the newborn, my son's not a newborn anymore, but I, I try to, like I said, keep an eye on that balance so you can kind of read your partner, whoever it is and see where they're at.

But I like to have a conversation and we also sit down and do multiple things, but one of them is like looking at your calendar for the month.

You go through the calendar, you see, what do we have planned?

This week looks super busy.

Let's not plan this here.

And then that also helps you create a budget too.

So then ahead of time, you already know, like if I'm taking this backpacking trip and my budget's $250 for it, or maybe it's $50, I'm just getting gas and food or whatever.

Then you can work with your partner and then also make sure they have stuff too, that you're having to take care of the baby.

Like my wife does like a women's weekly group.

And so that's my not to make sure the baby's put down and bath and all that.

So for me, it's all about balance.

Yeah, and apparently Derwin's 50 next year.

Wow, joining the Big 5 O.

Club Hey buddy, welcome to the club.

I actually turned 52 in about a month.

So yes, I'm old as dirt.

All right, let's we got a we got another question here and I thought this was a great one.

This is this one's from Jeff Peters.

If price was no problem, what would be your top choices for your big 3 or 4?

Oh, what do you what?

Let's go shelter first.

You want to.

Yeah, let's go shelter.

You go first.

All right.

Everybody seems to be hopping on.

Not everybody, but a lot of people that I know been trying out the superior hammocks and that's with the that's with the under quilt that's sewn in and I think.

You can get something that button in too.

Yeah, I'd be more interested in that because I would like to switch them out, but I would like to try that.

And if not that, just outfitting my hammock, but probably getting the best of the best that I can from UGQ with exactly the custom stuff that I want.

I really love the custom option and if price is no problem, I can spend as much as I want.

Then I'm going to deck that sucker out.

I'm going to get the lightest weight, the best material.

The and it's all going to be blue and white and have UK plastered all over.

It you got it right baby.

That's what I'm talking about.

What about you on the shelter situation?

Yeah, yeah.

I, I kind of, I kind of assumed that's where we were going with this.

So, OK, So what are you doing as far as your tarp then as part of your shelter?

I probably, I don't know what the biggest Dyneema tarp that I could get.

I probably had to do custom, but I'd love to have a 13 foot Dyneema and I don't think anybody makes that.

I don't 13 foot.

I don't know about 13 foot.

Yeah, mine's a 12.

I've got a 12 foot.

I don't think I could do the 12 with the 12 foot hammock if I had to, but I would like a little extra coverage and I feel like if it's made of Dyneema, that extra foot wouldn't weigh that much and it gives you a lot of extra coverage.

Yeah, I'm not sure.

I'm going to, I'm going to agree with you on that.

I, I, I think I would like to do a superior hammock as well, except I would definitely want one that buttons and then to be able to have all the major temperature.

The, the three main ones, as I like to call them, you're, you're zero, you're like 20.

And then like something that's for summer in Kentucky.

So like a 50° setup for the summer, it's just, it's just too hot to use anything under 50 in the summertime.

It's just way too hot.

So if I could get all three sets of quilts that snap in or if I could get Superior and UGQ to work together, that would be ideal because I'm like you, UGQ quilts are like, those are my, those are my quilts I love.

And then I've already got a Dyneema tart, but I would like to get one that's a little bit longer on the sides, one that's a little more geared up.

So at winter time it actually goes down a little bit further, keeps up pretty much all drafting that you can really get it tied down pretty tight.

I'd like to do that.

So I guess that would be and then I am down with this.

I've got this Thermarest pillow right now that I'm using and I paid way too much money for it, but it's got, it's a blow up pillow but it's got down on the top of it and I've been using that for a little bit and I really like it so.

What about your suspension?

I would keep mine, I'm happy with it.

Yeah, I've, you know, I'm still playing with suspensions.

I've been doing different suspensions for a few years.

I did whoopie, I did whoopie slings for a little bit, but I just didn't like them.

That I always got that was make me nervous.

I don't know why, but they just make me nervous.

I did like the beetle buckle thing for a while.

I like that.

But right now I think the thing I like the most, I've got some soft shackles that I've been using.

So you have to use a few knots here and there, but I've been doing more of that with no metal hardware at all, and that's actually worked really well for me.

It's probably a little lighter too.

And in the comments I see some people talking about Z packs doing the dyneema tarps and I googled it while you're talking there and I see the ones that you set up on the ground and there's a 10 by 13 shelter, but that's another ground one.

I don't what I'm imagining if.

Hammock gear is the one I've got.

OK, I've got hammock gear and it says it's $395 plus $50 delivery.

Come on, hammock gear, you can't give me some shipping if I'm going to spend $400.00.

I don't know what the profit margins are, but $50.00 to ship that, there's no way, right?

That's got to be a, that can't be accurate.

7.28 oz, $400.00 and they only have 11 and 12 foot.

I'm wanting basically exactly what you're describing with the hammock gear, except I still want the doors longer.

Yeah, and I want it a foot longer.

And I actually, you know, Miyagi on the trail, he has his trail crafts designs.

I don't know if he's still doing it, but he as a hobby, makes hammocks and tarps and stuff.

And we had kind of come together and I'd send him some dimensions on tarps.

And we talked about doing the Dyneema.

But the problem that you run into is when you buy it, you can only buy it in certain widths.

So if you are seam taping it like across the top along the ridgeline, yeah.

And if it's, I don't know what the width is, if it's three foot on one side, 3 foot on the other, the only way to make it like you said wider so you get more coverage as you're getting closer to the ground.

The only way to do that that we had come up with, and this was like 4 or five years ago, so it might have changed now, but you can only buy it in that width.

So you would have to cut it and then use Dyneema tape to tape on an additional piece on each side.

And I was like, that seems like a workaround.

I guess it would work, but yeah, I don't know the structural integrity and it kind of complicates things.

Well, apparently High Tail Designs makes custom dining tarps, so.

Hot, tall, high tail.

High tail, high tail designs, I think I actually got a like a buff from them years ago like a neck gaiter.

I want to throw this out there real quick because it's going, it's going up the list here, but Backcountry exposure said we plan 3 months at a time.

Each month gets dedicated alone time or personal weekends and balance it that way.

He's talking about the question about with family and.

Everything.

Oh yeah, he takes.

He's, I'll tell you what, Devin is a family man.

Like I have a lot of respect for Devin.

So if Devin's saying do that, it's probably a good thing to do.

Yeah, and he's classically trained in backpacking too, so.

And being and being an adult.

Yeah, he's much more adult than me, bro.

He's got it going on.

I don't see you great for another question here.

Yeah, by the way, I didn't see the the the custom tarp.

So Dave, if you have a a link to that, drop it in the comments and I'll, I'll check it out later.

Yeah, private message us and we'll go check it out.

That'd be great.

So next question, do you have a favorite one person freestanding backpacking tent?

One person.

Freestanding.

Freestanding the closest I can go.

I don't actually even own a freestanding tent if I'm being completely honest.

Every tent I have is a is not freestanding.

Well you got non backpacking tents that are freestanding.

Well, yeah, but I mean, I'm tougher backpacking.

I don't have any backpacking tents that are freestanding.

Yeah.

And why would you have a freestanding one person if you were car camping?

That would kind of defeat, I guess if you were like motorcycle camping, that would make sense because you don't have very much space to store stuff with a motorcycle.

I don't have a specific one person freestanding.

The closest I can get is the Lunar Solo.

I don't know.

I might have sold that.

Actually, I think I did.

I think I sold my Lunar Solo.

Don't even remember.

Now I will say I would like know what I like to try one.

I would like to try the Durstin freestanding one thing.

It's one person though.

Yeah, they got a one person freestanding.

Do you think that the weight savings that you get from the one person is worth it for the lack of room?

That's that's what I run into man.

Imagine you're in the right.

Store that one, when I've looked at it, I mean it weighs.

Let me let me look it up.

I'll look it up.

We'll put it on the screen here in a second and we'll take a look at it, OK.

But that one I think was just phenomenal, doesn't weigh much anything.

Let me see here the X Dome one.

It's called the OnePlus.

That's cheat code.

That's not a one person, that's a 1 1/2.

But that's what you want, right?

That's kind of what the Lunar Solo was, yeah.

It's kind of stretched out every on one side.

I don't.

So let me let me see if I can't.

If I can't share this with you real quick.

Yeah, go ahead.

And while you're working on that, I wanted to mention again the people that are on here live at the moment.

We got a little Q&A episode maybe amongst other things, we'll see.

But if you got questions about anything outdoors related or non outdoors related, could be live, could be career, could be past, could be future, or like I said, backpacking, feel free to comment that we'd love to get some more of y'all's questions live on the air in real time.

Yes, you can see it right here.

I mean it's a it's a pretty sweet tent like it looks like they're sold out right now, but I mean it's it's pretty spacious.

Let me let me get some of these pictures.

Let's go back up here and look at some of these pictures.

And you want to describe it for the listeners.

Yeah, it's just a simple freestanding tent.

It doesn't have a huge footprint, but the thing that's really cool about it, they're showing a, a pad in here and that's probably what that's probably not a a 25 inch pad or anything, but I mean that's a lot of space for a one person tent.

A lot of the websites have a picture of the dimensions like the blueprint.

Is there one of those on there?

I'd like to see what.

Yeah, let me, let me get to that.

OK.

There's what it looks like, and Derson does a really good job with with geometry on his tents.

Yeah, he's a man.

To make the most possible space out of what they have.

So here we go on the foot and you're looking at 50 inches or whichever way you want to use it.

The head inch, one side's 50, the other side's 29.

So however you like to sleep, if you like to sleep with your head by all your stuff, if you like to sleep with your feet by all your stuff, it's up to you.

But but yeah, that's, that's massive, dude.

That's actually really great for a one person tent.

Yeah, I agree.

The peak hot 45 inches and that's wow.

That's on the outside, looks on the inside it's.

42 Yeah, you're right, 42.

Inches.

Yeah, I still though I don't love like if if it's been a rainstorm or something and I want to put all my stuff inside the tent.

That's good camera work, whoever took that picture.

It looks like you can put it all there right, man, I mean.

Well, it, it looks like that in the picture, but I think if I get in there, it may not be the case.

No, No offense, Dan.

I mean, 50 inches is.

Wide dude, I know that would fit 2 normal sleeping pads on one end.

Of course it's tapering.

It's it basically the shape of a trapezoid on the bottom?

The complete tent is just a shade over 2 lbs 34.6 oz.

That's everything.

That's the fly, the inner tent in the poles.

What about the stakes?

And then it looks like it looks like it's also with the stuff sack, the stakes, the whole thing.

Wow, yeah, not bad man for freestanding 1 and well 1 1/2 conda.

Well, no, hold on.

It's 36.5 total.

So it's 4 oz.

A little over 4 oz more than a than a than 2 lbs.

So 2 lbs four ounces.

Yeah, Dan knows what's up.

He's he does a good job.

He must have a unique business model.

They do like drops or something like it comes out and then they sell out and then that like that, like that's it.

I don't know if that's a fake scarcity and that creates more sales or how that works.

But I don't know.

But it's it's pretty Dang cool, man.

Yeah, and it's working.

Yeah, that's pretty Dang cool that like I said, if I was going to find one that's a one person like that, that's probably what I'd do.

Sure.

So all right, you ready for the next one?

Yeah, hit me.

OK, this one comes from KG wash or KG wash.

That's a heck of a name.

And he asked the question or she has, I don't know.

He or she winter sock under quote protector or winter cover, combo cover and UGQ protector New England backpacking.

OK, is this are we supposed to pick one on the under?

Quote it's looking like for for a hammock.

Do you use the winter sock, the under quote protector?

Let me pull it back up here.

The winter sock, the under quote protector or the winter cover, You know, like the zip on cover.

So you've got the ones you can pull over like a sock.

You've got the the under quote protector, which we both have those Mr.

Back and Jason gave us those.

And then there's a combo cover and UG and under quote protector.

Do you use it all?

What do you do when it's really cold out, Jeremiah?

I do 0° under 0° over.

I typically take my UGQ 0° under with 950 feel.

I take my outdoor vitals 0° over.

They are a title sponsor but I love their 0° top quilt.

I don't really use the sleeping bags much because in the hammock, I mean, I have basically a cocoon.

So I'm like, why would I want the sleeping bag?

But their 0° top is legit.

And then I do the under quilt protector, but really only for precipitation times.

I'm like, or if it's windy, you know, it does help a little bit with the wind, but I don't want the water if if I don't have enough clearance with my tarp, I don't want the water splashing and then, you know, getting on my under quilt and get me cold.

Yeah, yeah, I think for me, I I do use the under quilt protector in the winter time.

It's amazing how much that little thing actually blocks out any kind of draft I use.

I use a 0° under quilt, 0° top quilt.

Both of them are from UGQ.

And then I have a winter dream tarp from UGQ as well.

It was the first tarp I actually ever bought for him for my hammock.

And that thing in the winter time is bulletproof.

It's awesome.

I actually took that one on a backpacking trip with Ben McMillan up in Pennsylvania a few years back and we got dumped on that night.

Didn't affect the Tarpon the least bit.

And it was it literally when it's when it's when it's set up right, you've got maybe 3 or 4 inches from it to the ground.

So it keeps everything out.

Man the I went up on a Pennsylvania trip and it was snowing and I double stacked the under quilts.

Oh yeah, yeah, that works.

I got so hot.

I think the low was like 10° or 15°, and there's also like a foot of snow on the ground.

I literally wore muck boots to the campsite.

We had to hike in like a mile and drag sleds behind us with all of our backpacking equipment and took those sleds over the hill.

But I slept in the hammock.

That was my first night in that hammock and I borrowed an extra under quilt and I woke up at

like 3:00 AM just pouring the sweat.

I had to ditch one of the top quilts.

Get both the under quilts.

It'll keep you nice and warm so a little little hack there for you.

Pro tip, if you don't have warm enough under quilt, double stack them.

Yeah, I actually did a video a few years ago called Why I Sleep Warmer in a Hammock than I do in a Tent.

And that was actually from the video that that was when I was backpacking with, with Ben.

And I remember that year, I didn't realize it was going to be as humid cold, like wet cold as it was.

And so I actually was wearing a raincoat over my, my hoodie or over my, my, my puffy jacket because it was so Dang moist.

Like it was, it was brutal.

Like it just wasn't comfortable.

And yeah, and that was that video was proven right.

Like I can't sleep warmer in a tent than I can in a hammock.

I mean, when you're like in that beautiful cocoon of wonderful fluffy down, your whole body is very happy.

That's all I'm going to say.

OK, we got a great question and I got a quick answer for you.

When is JK putting out a new trip video?

That's that's actually a really easy answer?

I have no idea.

Easy answer.

Not a great answer, but it easier.

I'm hoping to go out next weekend.

Me and a buddy are hoping to go out next weekend and if I if I get a chance I'll bring it.

I'll film and I'll I'll put at least something out but I can't promise like I I'd be a liar if I said I want to do like 10 videos next week for YouTube.

That'd be a total lie.

I'm busy.

Guy like.

Hey, I put one out this summer and a lot of people were shocked by that one.

So and I still have, I still have the off road video.

I did that you and I and Jason and bunch and Jeremy and all them we all went on.

Jonathan was there.

I still haven't posted that video and I haven't even edited that.

I need to get that together.

It's got a lot of good stuff in it.

David Gray was out there with us and it was a good time, man.

We're holding our breath, man.

I'm over here suffocating.

Waiting on that.

Don't hold your breath.

Don't hold your breath.

I don't want people getting like getting hurt.

Next question, hiking with Cam.

What hobbies are you all into besides backpacking?

I'll let you go first, Jeremiah.

OK well my hobbies have evolved.

Seems like every 4-5 years I find new hobbies.

That's OK.

I was super into video games.

I was logging like in college man.

I bet I, I bet I was doing 40 hours a week gaming, you know?

Wow, that's impressive.

Yeah.

And then I got a big boy job because you graduate college, you got your degrees, and you're like, hey, let me actually make some money instead of going into 10s of thousands of dollars of student loan debt.

And I still kept playing video games.

And then I don't know if I just got tired of them or what.

So it kind of felt like I was doing the same thing over and over.

And you would sit there and you'd be like, well, I just played Call of Duty for three hours.

That didn't feel very productive, so I don't know if I outgrew them or what.

I also was super into fishing.

I still love to fish casually.

I love fishing.

But I used to go all the time, like I grew up dad fishing tournaments, bass fishing, you know, take the boat out and stuff.

So that dabbled in hunting, camping of course.

And then my big one is sports basketball.

I haven't got to play much since baby is born because I'm trying to keep things in balance.

But I whenever I was trying to cut weight, I was around £300 and I was going to the gym every morning before work and then I get off work and I go play pick up basketball for like 2 hours.

So I just fell in love with basketball.

And then of of course, backpacking can't go as much maybe once a month, once every three weeks, but those are those are kind of it for me.

Yeah, I would say obviously backpacking because we've talked about that, but for me, a lot of people don't notice.

I was a professional musician for years when I was in college.

I toured with a band all over the East Coast and down through Texas and up into like Ohio, New York.

That area did that for years.

And then for a long time I was travelling as a worship leader.

So I've I've been into music for a long time, a lot of playing guitar, singing, that kind of thing.

And I've genuinely enjoyed that.

But I've been doing that for 30 plus years.

Recently, if you picked up, if you listen to the podcast, I got into hunting last year and specifically duck hunting.

I don't deer hunting is fine, but duck hunting, man, like I love it.

It's so much fun.

It's like it's the social hunting is what I like to call it because you sit with your buddies, you talk, you talk, and as the deer come, you get a little quiet, then they get there, you light them up, bring them in, and then you go home after just being out for a few hours.

You don't have to be out there all day, you don't have to take a weekend to do it and just spend 3 or 4 hours.

Then you go home and you've got delicious duck to eat at the house.

And so I've become a huge fan of that and watch way too many YouTube videos of people duck hunting now.

Which is really strange.

It's crazy.

You get obsessed with the hobby and then you watch a bunch of YouTube about it.

That's why I'm telling you, when I got into backpacking, I watched more Darwin, Dixie.

Let's see who else was at the time.

Oh, Bigfoot.

You remember Bigfoot?

Yeah, he just stopped posting all of a sudden.

You know he runs McDonald's.

Oh yeah, he's like every big week at McDonald's now or something.

Yeah, yeah.

But he, I, I watched a lot of his stuff.

Used to do a lot of wood duck hunting, according to Stone Ape Adventures.

Awesome, awesome.

They're such beautiful birds.

Have you ever seen a?

Have you ever seen a wood duck, Jeremiah?

Not in person only, only pictures.

They're beautiful, absolutely beautiful, but let's see.

Music hunting.

Those are probably the two big ones.

There are other things I would love to get into, but the problem is if I do, I obsess.

So I have to dial back what I do because I when I get in, I really get in and so I have to be careful with that.

Me too man.

During COVID I've decided I wanted to learn to ride a motorcycle.

Mom would never let me have one and she still doesn't like that I own one.

Which I understand you know they're pretty dangerous.

But I got deep into motorcycling so I constant loop of YouTube motorcycle videos, how to ride, how to corn, all kinds of different stuff.

Tricking out bikes, watching Moto vlogs.

And then I was riding that bike, Dude, it would be.

I remember it was so cold.

The snow had melted off, so the roads were dry, but there was still ice on the shoulders.

And then here I was in heated gear out there and I'm like, I don't care that it's 34°.

Yeah, these people that think it's ridiculous that I'm on the motorcycle.

Joke's on them, loser.

I'm on a motorcycle.

You know, you just get obsessed with it.

You know what I mean?

You're you can't, you just can't stop.

So I, and with the music too, like I taught myself to play guitar with YouTube and stuff, just like campfire style tabs and chords.

But, you know, it's crazy.

We've known each other for so long and never jammed together.

What all instruments do you play?

And do you do vocals as well?

Yeah, definitely.

Yeah, I, I play, I play guitar, I play bass.

I can, I can mess around a little bit on a keyboard.

I sing, obviously, and I play a little bit of drums.

If, if like we're in a pinch, I can play enough.

But you don't want me playing in your band.

Let's just put it that way.

I'm not your full time traveler.

One other thing, on the guitar, do you do mostly rhythm or lead?

I would be more and then I can play rhythm pretty well.

Lead, I don't know, not my thing so much, but I'm definitely I'm definitely more the rhythm.

It's so much cooler though.

Don't.

You think, don't you think like just jamming out and you're.

Here's the thing though, man, in in my life there there, there's really been no time where the word cool was a defining word for me.

So I and I'm good with that.

Like, but yeah, but either way, hey, got a great, this one's great.

We got to talk about this one.

I think this one's fantastic.

This is from the Nipan fan and this is off of YouTube.

He asked this question.

He said not as much a question as it is a suggestion.

I feel like you guys should revisit how you met and pack each other's packs and go for a weekend maybe to celebrate the 300th episode.

Now for people who don't know what that is, the very first time Jeremiah and I ever went backpacking together, we went on a switch, switch it up kind of trip where I gave him my pack, he gave me his pack and whatever was in it, we had to use.

That was the food, that was the equipment.

We even had to use the hiking poles at the height that we would use them at.

That was ridiculous.

Yeah, you're and what's your?

What's your hot?

I'm 5 foot 8 and I have arms like AT Rex.

OK, I'm, I'm 6 foot four with a 6 foot 5 wingspan.

Yeah, Yep, yeah.

This John's holding the poles and you're holding below the grips here.

Not very much.

But the great thing was the poles you had had, like, court grips underneath them.

Yeah.

And so I was able to hold those and I was fine.

You on the other hand, you were basically like straight Armin the whole time.

Felt like I was walking with a walking cane.

You know you got your hand on top of the pole instead of through the loop.

Oh yeah?

Well then I remember you.

You packed 2 tents.

That was on purpose.

I know, I know.

That's that is literally the first time.

That was only the second time we ever hung out.

Yeah, we at that point, we had talked on the phone one time.

We'd had coffee together once, and then we went on that trip.

So that was that was how we became friends.

Yeah.

Look at us now, man.

That was, what, 2018 or 2019?

Yeah.

Whatever year you did, The trail that will not be mentioned shall not be named.

Nobody's drinking.

During this podcast.

Oh, here's a good one.

This is.

This is great because I'm kind of curious too.

I might send these guys a message.

I wonder what happened to the Shield brothers and Bryce.

Well, I think they're still alive.

They probably just found other hobbies too.

I would love to.

Yeah.

I need to text them if even if they have even the same phone numbers.

Might have to Instagram message them.

Yeah, I'm kind of the same way.

See if see if they want to catch up sometime because they're actually really they're super cool people and they're, you know, that's where the Gonex for those who are long time listeners and I seen Gonex in the comments earlier it it's still haunts me to this day.

That's where the Gonex originated.

So super cool guys.

Bryce too.

He's a really cool.

I met him at the Indiana meet up and I think he might have beat us in cornhole.

I can't remember.

You know, I never met Bryce in person, but we talked, we we sent messages back and forth quite a bit and we had him on the podcast the one time.

And honestly, if there was anybody who at the beginning that I was kind of really excited to have on the show, it was Bryce just because I really enjoyed how he did his videos.

He did his way different than everybody else.

There was always humor in it, but his camera quality was always like top notch.

And so I always thought that dude was pretty cool.

I don't know if he said this in the videos, but he had this.

It was like a lean to kinda shelter area.

I don't know if you remember what I'm talking about.

Yeah, that he'd go out to, that was.

His mom's property or something like that, Yeah.

And I talked to him about it and it was a really good setup for him because he could go out there and film videos.

And it's also like, I don't know if it's his mom or grandma or somebody.

But the house was not very far either, you know, it's like a 2 minute walk or something.

It's very close and so that's a perfect setup because the like you said, the video quality to get that good video quality, especially like five years ago, eight years ago, you know, whenever he's really pumping them out, you had to have good camera body, good lens, and those aren't exactly super fun to lug around while you're backpacking.

So being able.

To feel that, not even just that he had an eye that other guys didn't have.

He's he was just very, he just had a good eye.

And I always, I always appreciated that about him.

I'm going to see when his last video was was put out.

Oh, and we got a question here from Alex.

This is a good one.

Yeah, go ahead, because I don't know about it and I want to find out about it.

Says what do you guys think about the 2026 Cherry Creek meet up?

Cherry Creek meet up.

That's down in the that's down in Tennessee, right?

That's the that's actually along the shell TOWIE that's.

Is that the chair?

Creek Lodge is where they're what?

Who said that?

Who was it that made that comment?

That was Alex.

Pull it back up.

That was Alex and Jay.

Alex and Jay, well, I don't know anything about it.

Are you suggesting having a meet up there?

Are you hosting a meet up?

And I have talked to a couple of people that are on staff there and they're open to us doing the show.

I think we talked about it on air before.

They have Starlink down there.

I don't think their Wi-Fi would reach, so we'd had to do a pre recorded show.

But yeah, I think that'd be awesome.

And Cher, especially the Cherry Creek Lodge area has some big open areas.

Yeah.

And it's a cool place it I I've stayed there.

It's it's a really cool place.

I'd be down for that.

So if you're suggesting moving the location from the Gorge, no reservations there, although you couldn't really call it the Kentucky meet up that's technically just across the Tennessee border, but it would open up.

The cool thing about moving locations, we've been doing this annual meet up for years now and we kind of spearheaded it this year.

But the cool thing about moving locations like the border of Kentucky and Tennessee, it opens up a possibility for different people that that weren't, that weren't able to make the drive all the way up to the gorge.

You know, it would shave off two or three hours for them.

So you might you might meet some new faces.

Yeah, but it could 'cause some people to come from the North not to come.

So we'll just see what happens.

Yeah, the Pennsylvania people especially, it's already a long drive from them.

And also Melissa coming from New York, that's.

And Speaking of Melissa, she has a question.

Would you like to hear a question?

Oh yeah, what is it?

She says you don't have a bidet and you ran out of wipes and or TP.

No one is around to save you.

Do you choose a smooth rock, a pine cone, ferns, or your hand?

That's tough choices there.

I'll let you answer first on this one.

Is it one smooth rock?

I've done this before and I've had to do this before.

I had explosive diarrhea on a trip and ran out of toilet paper the first night and I was by myself.

So I had, I didn't want to go home, I wanted to stay out.

But I, I, I definitely had to figure this out.

So I was in the gorge and what are those plants that have the huge?

Is it the rhododendrons that have the huge leaves?

No, I think those we call them like banana plants or something, I don't know.

Yeah.

Well, if you take those and you kind of mess them a little bit, they soften up real nice and they're as big as your hand.

And let's just say with enough of them, you can take care of your business.

Well, that's a nice way to put it.

I'm going to eliminate the pine cone.

That's probably a no go for me.

There is no pine cone anywhere near me.

I'm good on that one.

So you got the smooth rock that's probably going to be my #1, followed by the ferns.

But ferns, you'd have to stack a bunch of Fern leaves, you know, 'cause those a Fern has a lot of gaps between the leaves.

So you're kind of accidentally using your hand probably if you go, if you go with the Fern.

So smooth, smooth rock.

Smooth rock.

Still not great, James says.

Use your socks.

Sometimes you do have to sacrifice a sock.

It ain't happened to me.

Yet I don't know if I could do that one man, I don't know if I could do that one.

Apparently we got a super chat and it didn't show up on our thing here.

So I'm going to, I'm going to see if I can't figure out what happened there and.

We like the Super chats.

I think Darwin Off the Rails single handedly funded this last week on the backpacking podcast So.

I think he did.

I think we, I think we both bought new cars and everything it was.

Great.

Yeah, Yeah.

At least we didn't buy them, just leased them.

Yeah, yeah, it was, it was fantastic.

No, let's see.

We, I'm, I'm looking through here right now.

Socks.

Would you use socks, Jeremiah?

I would use the socks if I had to, but probably not.

If it was my only pair of socks I would I I don't want to use my hand, but I've heard people using sticks, rocks, leaves.

I've used leaves multiple times.

Especially when you're a kid, you're out on the farm, you head up into the woods, you got to poop leaves is that's the only thing around.

Just don't grab the wrong one.

Yeah, yeah.

So Derwin off the Rails gave us $4.99 instead.

Mitch says his 12 foot Dynamo tarp is from Hammock Gear and it's called the Winter Palace.

OK, let me write that down, Winter Palace.

The Winter Palace.

From Hammock gear.

Yes.

What was the size on that?

Now you ask me like 12 foot, it's a 12 foot dynamic tarp.

OK.

Yeah, I see.

It's 500 bucks, 12 foot.

It's the same price for the 11 foot and 12 foot, $500.

It sounds like the guys buying the 12 foot are getting the deal.

Yeah, it sounds like if I was the person making this for hammock gear, I'm like, I hope everybody gets 11 foot 'cause that dynamic is expensive.

That extra foot cost you quite a bit to make.

9.4 oz Very light.

It does.

Let me see.

I'm going to look for another question here.

We got we got a minute.

So we're going to get one more question in here.

Let me let me make sure it's a good one though.

They're all good ones, John.

Man.

We have the best, best audience out there and all the land.

Well, this is definitely true.

Only the best questions from our audience.

OK, this is a good one.

It's a little dated, it's a couple weeks late, but I'm still going to do it because I like it.

This is from Sean R6117 and let me get this put into the chat real quick so we could see this here or let me put this in here so we can see it.

Look at this on air.

It says what Halloween treats would you most likely and least likely pack for a hike?

Oh, I got you, man.

Anything chocolate and peanut butter, especially those Reese's pumpkins.

I'm excited for the Christmas Reese's pumpkins.

And what do you eliminate anything that is not chocolate?

We have half a bag of Halloween candy.

We got those little gummy bears.

We got Starburst, We got Jolly Ranch.

I said, who's passing out this?

If you're not buying chocolate Halloween candy, you're buying the wrong thing.

I'm a little bit biased.

I'm a huge chocolate lover.

You know me.

That's fine.

OK so I've got 1 and I don't know if it's like as popular as some of these other ones but I'm going to go with Sweet Tart Ropes.

Sweet.

Tart ropes.

Oh my gosh, those things are good.

If you've not had those, those things are so good.

And I'm not kidding.

They are so good.

It's it's kind of like a Twizzler and there's there's filling on the inside of them.

And if you've ever had like cow tails, imagine like sweet tart cow tails.

It's kind of what it is.

But they're really good, man, really good.

I like those a lot.

And then I'm also a huge fan of, I mean, I love all the chocolate stuff.

Yeah, the chocolate.

Have you had the Nerds gummy rope?

Yes.

Have you heard?

Have you had the gummy clusters instead of the?

Rough, no?

I was about to say I love the gummy clusters.

Overrated bro, I bought 2.

Packs.

No, no, I disagree.

Disagree completely.

Well, we'll have to agree to disagree on that one because I didn't even finish them.

They expired before I made it through.

If that had have been chocolate and never would have made it home.

You're gummy racist man.

That's what it is.

I'm a gummy.

Racist.

You're gummy racist.

But as far as I'm, there's no way I'm bringing it, man.

You know what drives you nuts?

There's always that one old couple that puts like the watermelon hard candies.

What is up with that?

You can only eat those at Yeah.

Like don't.

That's not a Halloween.

Thing yeah, like like it's not even the caramels, like it's not even like Werther's or something good.

It's like these like generic hard candies that are like different fruit flavors and never get eaten.

They'll be in the They're going to be in our candy jar till probably Easter, then we're going to throw them away.

That that trip, the West Virginia trip that I referenced earlier with Rich, we had swung by a Walmart on the way and I bought a giant pack of hard candy.

And this was months ago.

Still haven't made it through it.

And I even gave some to everybody that was with us and people at the trailhead.

And I still haven't made it through the heart.

The butterscotch, peppermint of the whole, like the whole, you know, if you if there's like an old person at church and ask them for candy and they reach into their jacket pocket and they pull out a wad of candy, that is another wrap.

Well, I don't I never got the unwrapped.

Got a little hairball in there.

Some pocket leads who's.

In the Kevin Hart LeBron James commercial about.

That Yeah, yeah, they, they talked about that.

Yeah.

I still got some, though, and, you know, I'll probably throw it away.

Here's one for you.

Freaking bubble gum.

Freaking bubble gum.

Can you let me ask you this?

In fact, check me here.

Can you just throw out your bubble gum?

Is that littering?

Is it biodegradable?

The birds really eat it and it gets stuck in their stomach Or is it poor form?

What are you supposed to do with this bubble gum whenever you're backpacking or like not at home wadded up in the tissue and stick it in your trash bag is it?

How bad is it to just toss it?

Yeah, I would say just toss it.

Oh, you say?

Just toss it, Don't even worry about it.

I mean, here's the thing, we probably shouldn't be eating it anyways.

Yeah, but we all love it.

Yeah, through that, through that.

So, all right, well, folks, we thank you for muscling through this one with us because like I said, we, I got somebody commented that I was blurry through this.

We're learning on this, this new program, the the video feed is a little different.

We'll see what happens.

We may not be using this company in a week.

We'll find out, get a shot and see what happens.

We're shopping around a little bit right now, but thanks for cowering.

Yeah, if you know of a good company we should try out, let us know cuz we're down for just about anything at this point.

But don't forget to get on over to outdoorvitals.com and check out their Black Friday sale.

Go buy us some cheap gear that's really good stuff and save a few bucks in the process.

And Jeremiah, you got anything else you want to say before we get out of here?

A lot of fun on last week's episode 2.

So if you're not happy with the video quality on this stream, go check out last week's and enjoy.

And yes, I do have one other thing I am working on getting a Mr.

Lemon.

You don't know him, but a former student of mine and he solicited me for advice on the Camino and has since taken that advice, bought all kinds of gear, actually done the Camino and arrived back last month from completing his Camino multiple weeks.

So I have loved seeing it come to fruition.

Went to church with the kid.

It it's amazing to see now he's a grown adult and enjoying some of the same things that I've enjoyed.

And I got to be a little part of that.

And that's that's kind of one of the reasons why I'm a teacher is, you know, to pour into these people.

So I'm working on getting him on the show.

It'll probably be around.

Thanksgiving or Christmas time, but something to look forward to coming up hearing his experience, just a raw experience on what his Camino was like and.

We've only got 8 more episodes until we're at 300.

Insane isn't.

It insane in the membrane.

All right, with that said, thank you guys for tuning in.

We are so thankful you're here with us and we will catch you on the next one.