- on a scale of one to 10,how experienced i am with hiking and backpackingand 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, badassguide, and let's just go. - i am helen sweanyand i am a survivalist.
i have been hiking, camping,and backpacking my whole life. - thank heavens we havehelen because if we did not i would be right atthe 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 30pounds and they take up
my entire back and going downto basically below my butt. - my pack is so heavy, buti 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 theway up to the pines today. (upbeat music) - i'm in. - [safiya] jen, come on, here. - we started off prettyfine, we all had our packs on
we were just trying to sortof figure out everything. - it is hour one of our hikeand it's going pretty well. i did catch a little hornytoad, 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 wasjust to filter water. - these lovely ladies are trying to figure out how to puttogether this water purifier. - we had a water filterthat 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 filteredthree gallons of water. meanwhile we have all these pieces. - at the fall, i ended upbeing the designated person who just held the bottomfilter in the pool.
- we just finished fillingup saf's camel back, and so now she's going totaste 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 hadeven 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 momentswhere i was just like, what did i get myself into? i genuinely, genuinely was very afraid. - i think all of us weresort of a little bit shocked at just how precariousthe 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 tostart 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 settledand start actually setting up your area with tents andthings, and just getting more at home, you just kindof relax a little bit.
- we learned how to makecordage 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 verygood 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 abunch of water on hand, on standby in case it getsa 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 andwe'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. - 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 thefact 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 allmoderately satisfied. - getting late. we don't want to get bears, sowe're gonna go tree the food,
which means tie a ropeto a rock and throw it, and then hoist the food andleftover stuff high in the air, so the bears can't get it. - [helen] oh, my gosh, that was it. you did, well... it has to go down a little bit. - [chantel] if youjumped, 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. - 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 thatit got down to the 30's. at one point i was justlike, jen, i am so cold. and she's like, do you wantto 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 cansee, this is jen's pack. i don't know if you guyscan tell, but she has both the kettle and the pooptrowel 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.
- 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 amhappy that we took this trip. - my feet do hurt a bit,and i think that i've got
some shoulder pain, but i'mfeeling pretty good, honestly. i feel like, weirdly, rejuvenated. - i knew that if we had funand no one died it would be a success, and we definitelycrossed that metric. - i hope that you all willlook at this as the beginning of a backpacking experience that on your own you'll find otherplaces to backpack and you'll keep on going from this point. - i feel proud to say thati have gone backpacking.
it wasn't on my bucket list,but now that i've done it i'm putting it on there sothat i can check it off. ("make me feel good") (swooshing)
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