HER FIRST SOLO VAN LIFE ADVENTURE (and biking 200+ miles)

real quick let me just say that this trip would not have been possible without our awesome support crew it also wouldn't have been possible without our van which is why we're super excited to be partnering with omaze again to give away a customized sprinter van we're gonna have all the details on this later in the video but if you can't wait anymore just go to omaze.com forward slash cara and nate [Music] we're kara nate and we've spent the last four years traveling full-time to 100 countries but 2020 brought us back to the us where we bought a converted sprinter van to explore our own backyard if you missed last week's video nate is currently undertaking the most physically demanding challenge of his entire life our friend rick talked nate and his brother dusty into riding the entire length of the colorado trail which stretches 500 miles across the state and has an elevation gain equivalent to climbing mount everest three times on a bike nate had been on a mountain bike approximately four times before he was tucked into this trip and his brother flew from practically sea level to attempt this high altitude challenge i'm not sure which one of us is more crazy for doing this me for having so little mountain biking experience or dusty from flying from sea level to go bike at over 10 000 feet for two weeks i would say needless to say the first day wasn't exactly the colorado trail's already putting us to the test it's drawn blood that's these tires already flat i mean it's completely glad thankfully the boys have a great support crew consisting of myself rick's wife beck and their two awesome kids my name is frankie my name is evie while the guys are out testing their physical limits each day we're moving the vans along with them so that they have a warm bed to sleep in each night and delicious calorie-rich dinners to fill them back up for the next cheers in the last episode the boys completed the first 30 miles of the trail which means there are still at least 470 grueling miles that lay between their current location and the finish line in durango [Music] oh pretty good little stuff morning dusty brought you a coffee all right here we go day two segment three 12 miles and 2 000 vertical feet minus my back i'm definitely feeling better than i thought i would this morning think nate stole my chapstick i guess he needs it more than i do he always steals my chapstick it's about nine o'clock boys just left and everybody seemed great this morning morning today is going to be another pretty long day but we are going to get to meet them halfway again to have lunch i've really enjoyed being the support van and taking care of everyone even though the van is an absolute disaster if you can't already tell there's literally a giant dirty cardboard box on our bed we've been storing dusty's bike box under the van because we can't really throw it away because he needs it to fly the bike home i was i was going to follow you and then at the last second i was like i shouldn't do that lucky for me the girls love to vacuum thanks for your help girls you're gonna get under the bed too since i'm not the one biking 30 miles today i'm making myself a smoothie for brunch i'm kind of acting like that's a bad thing but i actually love smoothies a little almond milk banana a few blueberries lots of spinach this little nut and spice mix thing that's gonna give us chia seed taxi functional mushrooms this green superfood marine good treat powder honey not very pretty okay whoops gosh she's always falling on me all right off to our next spot this is not good this is not good i left the sink full of water and now it's all over the ground i don't know why i did that but i tried to save water but here we are this is what happens when i'm in charge of the van that nate's not here needed a good mop anyways oh this is beautiful man segment three somehow we've done almost a thousand feet of vertical climbing but it feels like we've been riding downhill ninety percent of the time i think the ct is gonna have a way of alternating between this is the greatest thing in my life and i just love it too why the hell are we doing this it's terrible it feels nice to be able to take a full breath [Music] i uh spoke a little too soon back here at the creek it's been straight uphill since we left like 1100 feet in the past hour two or three miles well dang i have no idea how or when this happened is like cilantro home stretch of segment three they're back welcome home why are you only wearing one glove right briefly we have another plan your lesson no yes i was hoping it wasn't gonna be peanut butter this is service i haven't even gotten off a bike yet you deserve it so segment four of the colorado trail is located through a wilderness area which doesn't allow bikes which means that this will be our first detour of the trip this is what it looks like the purple line is the detour so if we were to do segment 4 of the trail we'd be doing about 24 miles and 3000 feet of vertical elevation but instead we have a 70 mile detour and 8 000 feet of vertical elevation and it's all on a road so i suspect that it'll be decently boring this could be the least fun part of the trip or maybe we'll feel like we're flying well it's pretty dark out it's only 3 30 in the afternoon it's starting to sprinkle a little bit hope it doesn't rain on the guy or maybe i hope it does why does this keep happening i gotta get blown off my bike storm blew in this is crazy seeing some major lightning now wow that came out of nowhere we were literally just sitting down having a snack and the next thing we know the wind picked up like 40 miles an hour and it just started pouring down rain the van survived those rough roads so did i i have a feeling that the guys are gonna be really tired when they get here and it might take a while so far this segment's been a little bit like a roller coaster slow uphill climbs with your [Music] bike down in the lowest gear and then just fly downhill oops nate usually pours the wine too i'm starting to learn that i'm a little useless without him i hope they're having fun yummy so before i get started on dinner we're having a little appetizer somehow before this whole trip started we started talking about spam we met this guy who always eats it when he's hiking and i don't know we talked about it so much that beck bought some for the trip and she said it kind of smells like cat food it also looks like cat food unfortunately but she fried a piece and i must say i came out of the van and i smelt it and i was thinking wow something smells really good and it was the spam you made it [Applause] day two day two in the books guess what you're just in time for what spam lettuce wrap spanx i think this is the first time i've ever had spam daddy kind of feels like fried bologna it does like fried bologna between lettuce with some pesto i'm a fan it's amazing not just for wartime efforts anymore i mean in fairness anything in at this point would be pretty amazing oh this sounded like so much more fun when i was biking up the hill burning up oh that feels good on the legs it's uh it's not exactly fun in the moment but it's amazing how much better that'll make you feel i'm making one of my favorite stews of all time which is perfect because it's a little chilly tonight it's nice and filling we're pushing our bodies pretty hard each day but as soon as we get back to camp it's it's very luxurious girls are taking great care of us so about this giveaway we are super excited to be able to give you another chance to win the customized 4x4 mercedes sprinter van with over 40 000 worth of customizations by van smith and if you missed our last announcement you've never heard of omaze before they're an awesome company that partners with celebrities and content creators like us to do giveaways that raise money for charity this van that they're giving away it's way nicer than ours plus if you win you get a say in the customizations and it's four-wheel drive which we learn the importance of on this trip and the winner is going to get the van delivered to their house or they'll fly you out to the van smith shop here in colorado and you can road trip back home that's option that we would recommend because colorado is an absolutely incredible place to have a van which is why we've already spent two months here this year so if you go to omaze.com forward slash karen nate and you donate ten dollars your enter to win oh and you'll be supporting an awesome organization called access fund whose mission is to protect public lands restore climbing areas and repair impacted trails all of which are causes that are becoming a lot closer to our heart this summer as we spend more time outdoors all right day two i woke up this morning with a sore back but besides that feeling surprisingly good i think up to this point i've been really impressed with my endurance like i thought being the least experienced mountain biker in the group i'd be like lagging behind by this point but especially now that we're doing all these road miles i tend to lose everybody on the downhills but then as soon as we start going uphill i feel like i don't have any problem keeping up so man that was fun yeah i'm just feeling a lot better than i thought i would all right day two we uh woke up and had an awesome start to the day some wonderful flowy single track which was exactly what we needed i think after yesterday dusty was feeling a little worn out he could have some elevation stuff going on he's handling it well he doesn't complain well this is our fourth time meeting up with the van and it's the first time that i felt halfway decent had an appetite at all so i'm definitely riding a little bit of a high if anything he's just kind of quiet so we're never like 100 sure with that said all day i'm still lagging behind they'll usually pedal up ahead and then whenever we're gonna stop and eat a snack i'll eventually catch up so they're probably still doubting whether or not i'll make it and it's worthwhile doubt because i'm not sure but we'll see i also kind of want to get through these sections because tomorrow's this big road ride none of us looking forward to it kind of want to get out of the way we did like 17 of the 70 miles today and then tomorrow we do the rest i'm i'm dreading it a little because i think it could just be like really boring i think it's gonna be long hot boring [Music] morning feeling quite a bit more sore than i was yesterday is it the cold chamois yeah tell me about your cold shampoo you waiting for the ibuprofen to kick yet why was it going to work because i washed it delivered yesterday because how many did you bring who needs more than one chamomile every man needs more than one shaming which way's out love you love you all right the first thing beck and i need to figure out this morning is where to get water so we filled up their jugs problem is we usually get water by putting a hose pipe into here not sure how that's gonna work with the pump nate is the only one who's ever checked our water level and filled up our water oh wow it's low really low hmm i have no idea how to get water in here since we have hardly any water i'm gonna clean our dishes in the creek the soap is all natural without degradable that felt good it's 808 the sun is already baking and we start at the morning with about a 500 foot climb straight out of the campground [Applause] could be a long day all right we finished packing up camp we're gonna worry about the water thing later hopefully we'll get that figured out and we're going to meet the guys at the next meeting spot [Applause] control the breath keep the legs moving [Applause] [Music] this is the way the guys were going easy in the van but geez after climbing straight out of the campground up probably 800 feet we've got a beautiful downhill ride crisp morning air when you're not climbing so i have nate's find my iphone location on okay maybe his location is a little off because technically we should have like just run it i talked to the girls in the van in front of me with the walkie-talkie it's super fun i don't have a need for speed but i also want to keep it up as fast as possible so i have to pedal as little as possible also both of the both of our dresser drawers came out again the sprinter just can't handle this road sprinter it's all about just trying to avoid the bumps up on the smooth part of the road the fingertips on my right hand are so numb okay we're on a paved road now still not sure where the boys are wait is this been no it's not two different figures pavement [Music] wow we're going so fast this is crazy no so it's saying now that we're 5.5 miles from them and when we turned onto this road when we turned right it told me that they were 0.2 miles to the left i love that house i hated that weird now it says we're nine miles away yeah i'm gonna try to call you hi hey where are y'all on the road are you like on the paved big road yeah did y'all turn left or right you got it okay we turned right are you sure y'all are going the right way right i think they went the wrong way i'm never gonna catch him we have ridden downhill since we uh started so uh yeah that's what i'm thinking we have been crushing miles downhill i bet you have okay here we come all right see you soon i love you love you too support man to the rescue such an awesome long downhill i was like when we get to the bottom of this i'm going to choke them until we went in the wrong direction we are good to go whenever you guys are i love the radio i know it feels weird being in the car with you driving i know right oh this is the most grateful i've been to be supported yet the hot meals at night are nice but if i would have had to turn around and ride five miles straight back up here we were going so fast love you what'd you make um i'm almost starting to feel bad about how good we have it bagel with cream cheese and salmon for lunch feels a little unfair to the other people we're passing out here on the trail don't go left all right our goal is to knock out the last 35 miles of the detour and the last 4 000 feet of vertical elevation always get a little bit of a side cramp after once trying to shove as much food and water in my body as possible so we're driving to the next meeting point and we just passed this public toilet so we pulled over to dump our pee tanks and if you've been following along in our van journey you'll know that this is nate's job usually and i've never done it so wish me luck oh gosh there's so much stuff in here if i drop any pee it's gonna be really gross maybe i should move the food at least okay what's funny is i kind of knew i would be the one who ended up doing it this time so i've been using the bathroom in alternative places on this trip anytime there's another option i use it instead of hours so now i know how night feels i honestly don't know what to do oh no there's another one okay that's not so bad it's not so bad i thought i thought the road was going to be easier and it would be but there's a massive heaven wind my bathroom was pretty gross but this went well [Music] um here all right my job here is done so we just turned on this little dirt road and beck had this brilliant idea to wrap some beers in some foil with some ice and leave it on the side of the road for the guys as a surprise and we're writing a message with rocks what are you writing look an arrow hopefully they see this i hope they don't ride right past it that would be so sad it doesn't help that the bag is brown and blends in with everything [Music] i highly doubt you can see it but i'm just documenting that we saw a bald eagle he's somewhere in the sky we just drove about 15 minutes out of the way to this town called fair play it's quite unique because apparently this town is where the show south park is based off this is unbelievable they also have a gas station with diesel so that's really why we're here i can't forget diesel diesel i've never done this either whoa it's gold and windy ah what is going on gosh the door's not slamming this is crazy getting diesel knock out also getting it on my hand apparently now we're going to the market the wind out here on the road has been brutal we are riding downhill right now but i'm pedaling like i'm climbing a hill this for 35 miles and it's boring these boys are eating a lot got a surprise for nate donut apple fritters this is like his favorite food of all time pasta because more carbs potato chips garb bad news is i'm eating all this too and i am not biking 30 miles away chocolate chip cookies a whole bunch of fruit and veg because there is some nutrition around here and of course bubbly water that's mostly for me though this road riding it's just weird i thought this was gonna be the easy part but outside of the wind i'm just like developing numbness in my hands and then uh one more place that i'll let you guess i think it's just from constantly sitting on the seat as opposed to when you're going down trails you're standing up and sitting down this is just so we just got a text from the guys saying that they were feeling a little shaky and if there was a campsite even a few miles before the trailhead that they would be open to stopping a little early the problem with that is we went a different route than they did to go to this town but i'm a little worried that they're fading and might need us sooner and so we just went ahead and turned around it's looking like we're going to get to their surprise beard about the same time really hoping they get their first though i love surprises this is true support i think a message we sent got blown a little out of proportion we just happened to make it to the beer at the exact same time and i think they rode right past it rick said we were feeling shaky and the girls came after us we just meant like it was a little bit of a low point not necessarily we need to be rescued yeah they wrote right past it what the heck thanks getting out to get it well no wonder they didn't see just as good here as it would have been on that corner [Music] i'm tired my body hurts and i don't want to set up the confessional camera but i'm gonna do it day three i think this is the first day that i've just been like really glad for it to be over today was definitely the hardest day for me but it was also a day where dusty i think was feeling a little bit better i think i'm finally getting a little acclimated to the altitude because for the first time today there was a moment where my energy levels were higher than rick and nate's so that was a big accomplishment for me even though i kind of hit a wall i think nate kind of hit a wall for a minute where we got a little bit shaky because we probably weren't eating like we should i don't know if it was like lack of food or just like more miles than usual but it felt awesome at lunch and then kind of didn't think about the 45 minute eating thing we just got a bit careless and i had a beer alone two beers at lunch anyway it kind of got it caught up to us this morning was the first morning that when i sat down on my seat it kind of felt like hot coals but after a couple minutes everything just goes numb you get over it it's important that we all know that we're all going to have different emotions at different times and we just have to stick together and kind of get through that so there was a moment where that happened today it was cool i mean like all in all like the the pain i'm experiencing right now is very manageable like today wasn't that bad i got through it it's just more of the idea of like i hope this gets better because i still have to do this for at least 11 more days i think we all realize we can do a big day it's been a confidence builder we learned a good lesson the team got a little stronger today all right day four we're gonna do a little experiment today rick's fitting me out with this this heart rate monitor and it's on the watch showing what my heart rate is 101 oh it's because i get stressed out when i look at it plus we're at 10 000 feet i also don't really feel good this morning but um but wearing this all day should give us an idea of how many calories we're burning which will give us a better idea of how much we need to be eating love you love you 20 cows oh gosh that's a good way to knock out your momentum before the climb there you go that was the easy three and a half miles for the day all right we are on the road in route to kenosha pass to meet the guys for lunch unfortunately i'm worried about nate today he just he seemed a little off this morning i woke up this morning with a throbbing headache and a pretty upset stomach just really low energy so i'm being completely honest i'm a little worried about how today's gonna go but thankfully the first five miles have come pretty easy have a feeling that's not indicative of the rest of the day though i think the last three days i've just caught up with him but i'm hoping he once he gets on the bike he feels better get those endorphins going also we're about 10 000 feet and those those fires that we were kind of worried about before the ride are definitely pushing smoke into the area that we're in now trying to just embrace this because but i want it was a challenge and that's definitely what i'm getting right now oh you think that's not the way we go yeah we should be able to pick it up here we're out of the wilderness area ride to kenosha pass after yesterday we're making sure to look at every map if we see anything that even looks like a trail splitting off we're pulling out the gps all right i think it's uphill for a long way from here this is one of many snack breaks our goal that we're trying to be better about after yesterday is stopping every 45 minutes and making sure we eat something before the trip we got some advice that we should try to consume somewhere between 200 and 500 calories per hour which at that point you're just like dead food doesn't even taste good anymore you're just stuffing it down it's going to take me 20 minutes to eat this i've been going with the strategy of you take one bite a bar you gotta take some water just even chew the idea of getting to eat every 45 minutes before we started the trail sounded really fun and then when you get out here it's work wow this is beautiful going way too fast wow i felt like i could die at any moment i love this this is the colorado trail i signed up for absolutely this is the most aspens i've ever seen man that's the way to end the segment oh it's awesome that was fine any karen nate fan show up with beer gut or what yes this is awesome i was at low point this morning i was just like waiting for my body to just completely give out on me and it just never happened thanks frankie if you don't follow us on instagram you're probably wondering what this whole beer thing is all about so i'll fill you in real quick on day one i posted this a little satellite gps tracker rick attached to his bike that allowed us to message them and see their exact location at all times we thought it would be fun for others to follow the journey to and have the option to send the guys encouraging messages along the way rick jokingly made their team name send beer and some people actually did it just kidding so many roots [Music] we are completely out of water i think it's this one this i think goes on the other one wish me luck okay okay this goes in here take this side over here [Music] there we go and then if you just turn it on i'll hold this little bag thank you i hear water gosh how does nate do this without you do you want it how did you fall like my front wheel fell off and then i just like went on my back right here you just never really know what the colorado trail is gonna throw at you we started with it's a beautiful downhill after lunch and then as soon as we feel like we're making progress there's so many big rocks and roots and you just almost can't even ride over it i mean it's definitely writable but when you're doing 500 miles you just kind of have to make the make the choice on what's worth expending the energy and what's not this is not what a mess water is everywhere i wasn't recording i pulled out the hose thinking like oh it's full not only was the hose pipe blasting water everywhere but it was overflowing out of our tank and i didn't know how to stop it maybe i should pay attention more when nate's doing this stuff ouch pinch my finger snack number four of the day the girls got tired of listening to his complaint about eating bars so they started making us curried potatoes all right the support vans are separating the girls are going to a park to play for the rest of the afternoon unfortunately i've been having so much fun that i have done zero work so i'm going to attempt to find our next camp spot all by myself but i'm a little nervous i've been driving by myself obviously for the last three and a half days i've been following back the reason i'm extra nervous is because it's not like we're going to a campground that i can just put my maps and drive straight there it's this very vague paragraph in a really old guidebook that's like turn on this road whenever the drainage of the river oh i feel so alone without back [Music] we just got to the top of kenosha pass which is the highest elevation that we'll reach today we're currently at 11 880 feet and the crazy part is we have seven miles to go and according to the chart it's all downhill which honestly sounds absolutely terrifying fun but terrifying if i get down seven miles of downhill without going wheels up all right i've officially gone as far as the maps are going to take me and i'm on my own now i'm just looking for that intersection with the drainage of the river it's gonna be sweet here we go [Applause] [Music] oh it's gonna be a long seven miles oh man colorado trail really [Music] [Music] ah maybe this is the rope maybe this is the left it wasn't quite seven miles i don't see drainage from uh maybe that pond thing was drainage from the okay i'm just gonna go left and see what happens it's good to do things on your own [Music] oh thank goodness man this road is brutal i see a camper here we go again smash my foot part of the riding uphill i think this is it i mean i just have no way of knowing if i'm in the right place and i have no cell phone service this is such a weird feeling i like our spot though and i think i'm gonna get to work downhill separates the men from the boys hello i'm in the right place are the dads there not yet they call the guys the dads cracks me up because only one of them's a dad oh mountain bikes are truly amazing huh oh i like i think i fully came over the handlebars but somehow don't think i'm hurt the glove saved me this time ah i'm down but i'm good oh i reopened the cuts on my hand but it could have been a lot worse so yeah we gotta make them a sign we just realized the boys don't know which way to go when they get off the trail i'm gonna help next time let me get my markers out i'm gonna help so if he's gonna pens and paper so um we're gonna build a sign for the dad so they know where to go everyone's here for the dad so i'm already broken everything yeah so we're gonna put this on 100 miles away so the dads know where to go i don't know where to stay but i think it's gonna say come this way i don't know so bye like the whole bike like fell on top of me that happened quite a bit actually this is craziness thanks for waiting on me and checking on me back on the horse gosh this is about as bad as it's ever going to get pretty bad i hope so all right going to tape the sign to the trailhead adventure go this way take this sign too hopefully they know that we're talking to them we don't get random hikers at our campsite now we've all three had a wreck today rick road all of that incredibly hard downhill that i walked like a pro and then fell over in the parking lot my cleat came loose so i couldn't get my foot off my bike and just proceeded to smash directly under the ground [Music] where are the dads it's about to get dark i'm getting a little nervous and then we just i just no don't pour it in there okay hold it at the end over there [Music] okay they should have been back about an hour ago we're both a little nervous so i'm gonna drive into town so i can get reception so i can see if i can find my location this is much faster than i came down this road all right back on the paved road still no service okay it's so slow okay according to this it looks like they're right here and that's where we're camping so i think they're okay i think they're okay i think they're really close i'm so nervous oh i hate this we made it i'm so mad at you why because i didn't know that would make it are you okay [Music] [Music] it's uh day five and we just pulled the data off the heart rate monitor that i was wearing yesterday according to this my average heart rate was 115 beats per minute max heart rate of 151 beats per minute and i think they determine the calories you burn based off of your weight and your average heartbeat so according to this app i've earned 3867 calories which is honestly quite a bit less than i thought it was gonna say especially with everything we've been eating we might be the first group to finish the ct and actually gain weight it also says that we need 47 hours to recover it's been uh 12 and a half since we got off the bikes segment seven so i specifically have written really hard i think we're going to be hiking most of that so pack extra food maybe a headlamp just to be safe that's what we're doing today today might be a little longer of a day than we're anticipating but i'm sure we'll be fine it's always hard to start with a big climb but i put as much food and water in my body as it'll take usually get a pretty good side cramp to start the morning ready girls ready i'm nervous about the fist bump let's take it nice and slow forgot i was on rocks i hope i closed everything okay i am not sad that this is the last time i will ever drive down this road oh that didn't sound good i have so much stuff in here right now i know really i don't really want to kind bar but it's the only thing i can find ginger kombucha all over my pants i realized how much i was shaking up over here that was rude literally just got run off the road with those big four-wheeler things you know what i'm just going to put this in the door 45 minutes in first snack break and we've already climbed a thousand feet definitely the hardest start to a day yet we're filming flowing strong anyways day five part of me feels like i can't believe it's already day five but the other part of me is like i don't remember what life was like before the bike trip before i was a support man aha didn't even fall so far so good after yesterday i'm like wow smooth single track nicely done so today is the first day that we are not meeting up with the guys for lunch we're driving straight into the town of breckenridge however i kind of have a boring day ahead of me i have to finish this video today how good is that all right if this next part looks way more intense it's because i've given rick the chest strap don't show off for the camera and hurt yourself i'm in hospital later today it's because of this gesture i'm gonna go 10 bigger what's up okay i lied we're not in brick we came to frisco and oh my gosh it is so cute and there are mountains everywhere it basically looks just like wreck maybe better wow pretty cool civilization that's a break-and-roll this looks absolutely terrifying good luck guys all right i just got settled in our new friend's driveway for the night and now i'm gonna get to work but first i'm gonna make myself another cup of coffee this is the first time we're not rolling into a freshly cooked meal from the girls for lunch instead we're sitting under a bridge with leftover pasta in a bag but in some ways it kind of feels like this is what we should be doing because all the other people that we meet on the trail are camping in their tent every night carrying enough food for four days we've got it good one night all right we're about to start segment seven this is the one that rick was talking about this morning that's supposed to be one of the harder ones on the trail lots of hiking we think and from what we've been told these next few segments is where a lot of people tend to drop out so we're gonna power through survival all right you can find me here the rest of the day i think we're all feeling a little defeated at the moment just got a text from nate that said we're not going to make it over the past before darks we're going to turn around and head into town that's been really tough we just made a really tough team decision we're all feeling strong like we have plenty of energy to make it over the past but we realize that it's four o'clock and at the rate that we've been going we'll be coming down the other side of the pass in the dark none of us have had lamps the only responsible option is to turn around and head back into town so day five and this will be the first time that we haven't made the goal that we set out to make in the morning which is a little bit of a bummer but at least it's the first day we have a town to go to hang out civilization for the night rest up a little bit come back strong tomorrow this feels weird civilization been having as much fun as me this is gonna be beautiful five days of dirt is about to be gone i've been wearing shoes the whole time and somehow my toes look like this ugh i'm looking rough no better feeling than taking off bike shorts oh i feel like a new man after that shower also discovered about 10 000 new cuts everything burned as i washed myself i also realized that i was so excited to get myself clean that i completely forgot to explain what's going on rick actually has a friend who lives in frisco which is right outside of breckenridge and he's been nice enough to let us park in his driveway for the night and also get a shower and do some laundry oh and all i want to do is take a nap now that i'm clean [Music] weird kind of halfway like i feel like very desperate not to have to do an extra four miles up the mountain [Music] oh this is what we do oh yeah oh there was a side on the tree back here that said end of road like a mile ago everything looks to be more or less intact all right oh man we'll save travels yeah thanks for the ride nice to meet you we're about two miles into the trail and so far we've managed to ride our bikes about 100 yards but the only thing that we're trying to accomplish today is getting up and over the pass that we turned around at yesterday so it should be a relatively short day i think it's about 10 miles and 2500 feet but it is over an exposed path that sits somewhere around 12 500 feet a little gray today so a storm could definitely make it interesting it's really hard to push a bike let's one day it's not even i don't even know what time it is okay it's lighter than i thought it's noon it's already been such a morning i ended up staying up till four to finish the vlog and then we woke up to no power it's been a while since that's happened unfortunately i think with all the crazy bumps in the road that i've been driving on lately something came unplugged so we couldn't make coffee nothing was charging it was just a mess then the guys leave and i've never plugged in the van before i didn't know what chords to use we had all these cords thankfully bet came and helped and we're plugged in and we're charging and now i'm about to take my first shower in six days so today is looking up stressful start but it's gonna be a good day ready yeah this is ah it's like hard to get enough traction steven push your bike up it's so steep [Music] i am a new woman we pretty much just pushed our bike left him out for three hours straight looking forward to a little bit of a rest and a snack at the top but the storm's blowing in so we got to get down as quickly as we can here we go all right i'm gonna leave the van charging here for the day and the girls and i are going shopping i think we deserve this hi so right now my mom and kara are in rei then we're gonna go to rainbow park and have a little play so from where we are at the top of the mountain right now we're riding all the way down to the bottom of the copper mountain ski resort which is which is down there down there in the valley it looks really cloudy right now it's pretty cloudy and smoky because there's a big fire going on so that's the schedule the dads on the colorado trail they are probably i mean i don't know what we're gonna have to text dusty nate and my dad to see what's going on there and see where they are okay so that is our plan for the day [Music] i forgot my gloves in the van and i just felt like i was riding naked the whole time oh my gosh no crashes though i don't i didn't sweet i only spent a little money the ultimate snack 400 calories i hate this drawer i just want to get on a bike i found my shorts well that's weird they're in a drawer exactly where i told you they might be who puts dirty shorts back in a drawer with clean clothes i do and you leave them on the floor it's day seven what did you do i bet my fingernail back so far why were you biting your fingernail i bent it down why are you being so difficult this morning i need my beats okay today i'm driving the van for the fourth time and we're gonna get an oil change which i'm nervous about because i've never done this before i mean nate's been doing good keeping up with dustin rick so far but i'm still nervous and i really hope he remembers his clubs today omg thanks turning your entire drawer just i'm glad it didn't follow your butt all right see ya we literally just dropped the guys off on the side of the ride all right day seven segment eight spirits are high everyone's feeling good we are starting the day with a huge climb right up the copper mountain ski resort believe segment 8 is something like 25 miles and 4 500 feet of vertical elevation gain but after two short days i think we're all hoping we can do a little more it doesn't sound like we're doing good right now but i think everybody's kind of falling into the rhythm of the bike ride either that or the the two short days and a little extra rest has everyone feeling a little over optimistic wow so like nate said i'm going to get our oil change today which i've never done in any vehicle that i've ever owned i guess i'm super spoiled and i'm just gonna fall back the only advice nay gave me is don't let them talk me into buying a bunch of expensive stuff they're gonna come back with like tinted windows we'll get that blue light they have huge plans to go all the way back to leadville today which is where rickenbeck's house is there's a pizza place right across the street from their house and i think that might be their motivation so we will see that made us these beautiful bagels we've got avocado turkey two types of cheese some kind of berry sauce and not a bad view the crazy thing is yesterday we actually came over top of that mountain right there rode down the face and this morning we've worked our way all the way up this valley well deserved lunch in one mile keep right down to north poplar street this is fun but also terrifying i'm just waiting for my pedal to clip the edge all right well you dropped the bands off and now me and the girls are getting sweet that's so good frankie uh-huh yeah kara [Music] made it to the top of the first pass these signs are keeping us on track so we're riding this path all the way across here somewhere down through here and it wraps up we're going over that ridge right there i feel like it looks a lot closer in the camera vans still aren't ready [Music] man this is great out out wow apparently getting your oil changed takes forever and costs about 200 now i know it is already 3 41. you guys are almost to the peak and i guess we're heading to ledville now all right we just reached the peak of our climb we're coming over kokomo pass at 12 300 feet it's about to be seven miles of downhill from here which means i'll be lucky if i don't go over the handlebars that's terrifying now i'm on the walk i'm on the walk not dying today all right here we go [Music] oh going into the bush that was so fast let's go higher this is definitely one of the highlights of the trail so far i'm sure it's going to be impossible to see in the gopro but right up here on the ridge there's about 40 mountain goats [Applause] [Music] [Applause] heads up sheep that was too good we're about a ten minute drive away from leadful but we just pulled over on the side of the road because according to their gps tracker the boys should be driving up any minute so we're going to see if we can catch them maybe give them a snack or a cold drink all right making the handoff no pressure this is awesome right here too these trees it's amazing i gotta take a hand break ah my hand that was awesome so good [Music] oh segment eight is in the books two of the three of us are feeling good dusty's stomach not so much planning to take the road all the way into wedville another eight miles and stay at rick's house tonight but still waiting on destiny so we'll see how he [Applause] [Music] feels all right dusty's pushing through we're gonna try to knock out another nine miles and a thousand vertical feet before it gets dark on us segment nine is another wilderness area so we're on another road detour which should make you go by faster [Music] oh it's empty this is beautiful we're home who are dusty this is why we rode the extra leg today just for the pizza oh it's so beautiful [Music] i almost forgot my sunglasses would have been tragic a week ago he had never even ridden 30 miles in his life oh how quickly things change we are going to be at rickenbeck's house for the next two nights which means i don't have to do any driving today i'm gonna be here all day long and i'm so excited because look at this mess i'm gonna clean out the van i'm gonna wash our oh clothes thankfully we at wrecking backs out so we have plenty of water [Music] whoops once again we crushed the first 11 miles of the morning in just under an hour because it was mostly downhill and now we're literally pushing our bikes up the side of the tallest mountain in colorado the amount of dirt that is in our bed right now oh my gosh there are actual rocks in the bed ah that feels good i think that's the longest we've gone without converting the bed i just feel so productive when it's a desk i still have lots of cleaning to do pretty much been storing everything under the bed since i could i don't even know where these came from uh oh it's looking pretty dark out there and now it's raining i just want to pick them up though so i think they'll be okay i think i probably feel better than i look right now after one week i've been over the handlebars three times this afternoon being one of them which is what this is all about my hand from the first wreck is healing up nicely stiffer that's starting to look a little infected huh yeah okay maybe not that one hurts as you can tell i just got out of the shower so it's a good day also just started raining a little bit but we didn't get rained on at all while we were riding today even though it did turn into a little bit bigger of a ride than we were expecting i kind of figured out as we get going through these days that it's the unexpected that makes it hard you kind of get used to just the grind of wake up sit on your bike all day pedal eat a snack but when you start feeling it is when maybe you kind of have a headache or your stomach hurts or the maps aren't right and so you got to go way higher than you thought and it's those unexpected things that you really got to kind of dig deep and find another gear to get through but that's part of the journey and it's all been great at this point i thought it was just going to be a miserable experience to like get on the bike and just keep pedaling every day but so far like physically or like stamina wise i've held up a lot better than i thought i would it's like these unexpected things that are kind of nagging me at this point like i think i have about 50 strength in this hand i don't know if you've ever like tried to like open something like right when you wake up and you feel like you have no strength that's what this hand feels like and i don't know if it's from from the crashes or like your hands just kind of get beat to death as you're riding downhill but but it doesn't hurt i just don't have any strength in it then i had this like really sore spot on my butt but that's probably to be expected after over 200 miles week 7 it's been a blast i think we're starting to enjoy it maybe more than we were initially it was just there was a lot of walk a bike we're like a bike we're kind of used to that now um you know we kind of know each other's pace we know when they take breaks we know when to eat a lot of stuff we do is just not spoken we just know to do it so kind of just come together as a nice little team after the first couple days whenever i was talking to the camera a little bit there was definitely more of like a hopefully i make it through the colorado trail i'm not positive i'll make it now i'm feeling way more optimistic and i think something really bad would have to happen for me not to be able to make it even though we're only about halfway through now so fingers crossed no wrecks or serious injuries at least there's gonna probably be some more wrecks when we first started this i really thought there was like a 50 50 chance i would finish at this point a weekend not quite halfway but almost i'm feeling like definitely make it to durango as long as i don't end up in the hospital you have to try to get down to the finish by september 2nd so dusty's wife doesn't get too upset but i also think it's a good goal i say we've got that i think at this point like it's easy to just have fun with this and like not take it too serious even though it is hard there's a lot of excuses to get off trail and do things so if we didn't have like a deadline of some sort we could very easily be distracted and take probably take way longer so it's good that we've got this like 16 day time frame gotta say i'm just happy to be doing this we've been biking through probably some of the best single track in the world especially just natural single track you know no man-made jumps it's just all raw earth and it's beautiful bike up a mountain in the morning go across the top of it for a couple miles bite back down it couldn't be better okay we're staying at rick and beck's bed and breakfast for the night so i'm gonna go take a shower hey before you go don't forget to check out omaze.com forward slash karen nate for your chance to win the customized 4x4 mercedes sprinter van there's jammies up on you on it it's not even that wet no i don't know why everybody's making a big deal about my chamois as soon as you put that in the river i was thinking man that is not a kid you tried to tell me before it's not wet and it doesn't go wet [Laughter] all right we'll just push you're flying how far was our last nine miles we've done 38.17 miles today so our last nine was i guess about 14. rick is trying to convince us that he's seen a bear but i'm skeptical because we have a bet going on and whoever sees a bear first other two have to eat a piece of toast with chamomile butter on it i don't get eaten by the bear just so you guys have to eat oh well no i had maybe the sun is there it's like behind that pine that's where he ran to go up there nick you guys sit here you'll have proof at least oh wow oh yeah yeah see if it appears that we're injured or in distress zoom in a little closer it could be the breakfast hi now i'm gonna read a book to you it's called a lesson before talking he says there's another van it's a colorado trail about that i feel like i'm horrible at vlogging okay i'm gonna stop recording bye and this is the funnest place ever no i headed out i remember this place i knew nothing i this is my split why is mommy's bike on the ground look at it can i move it somewhere be careful i am i'm always careless here

Channel: Kara and Nate

Views: 877,748

Rating: 4.942615 out of 5

Keywords: van life, sprinter van conversion, living in a van, travel vlog, van life vlog, van living, couple vlog, kara and nate, van build, tiny home on wheels, van life couple, tiny house, travel couple, off grid, husband and wife travel, what to do in colorado, colorado vlog, sprinter van camper, tiny house on wheels, how to van life, off grid tiny house, van life with kids, camper van conversion, camper van with bathroom, travel vlog 2020, mountain biking, colorado trail

Id: 20LYSvpz7GY

Length: 75min 22sec (4522 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 13 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Knittergail]

I've enjoyed the series with the Colorado trail bike trip. I did crack up in the first video where she talked about how much food she's stocked up with, and then showed us a few cabinets. But this episode, you can tell the van is overflowing with supplies.

The food they've been making looks great. I'm also surprised at how well Nate is doing, despite his inexperience.

[u/theworkoutqueen]

I actually loved this

[u/DifferentJaguar]

Nate imitating Kara was hilarious. I really like their sense of humor (and obviously their sense of adventure as well). I’m glad they decided to make it into a documentary. Well worth the extra week’s wait!

[u/cinnamongirlxo]

I’ve been very impressed with Nate!

[u/Sailor-Vi]

What was that day 1 stew?