This is the unedited version, about 15 minutes longer.
Kaskade trekker here in Poland still and I’m dying for a trek I missed the mountains so much so I’m planning a bicycle backpacking trip which is really becoming troublesome because I really don’t know what to take the plan is to bike down to this lake and follow the feeder creeks up to its source which is somewhere in here it’s about fifty kilometers one way and from here I might go into this forest it’s a park this is higher ground here the main concern will be getting water and how much water to carry and whether or not the water is going to be clean you know full of pesticides and herbicides my other dilemma is what tend to take this is my heavy three season tent but this is a lighter bivy tent it’s quite small this one is pretty much a freestanding tent which you know means you can put it anywhere this one I have to stake out this smaller one includes a very basic ground cover to set the tent on this one doesn’t I usually take this tarp to set on the ground but we’re talking weight concern this is a bug net which i think is absolutely necessary because these bugs are crazy here horse flies and mosquitoes are just rampant I’m taking the big pack of course that’s gonna be heavy water filter stove fuel just one pot for cooking coffee cup this is my stove headlamp which I don’t know if I really need or not bicycle pump I’ve got some bicycle repair items here basic necessities I’ve got two water bladders which is gonna add up to about four or five liters I have to take these heavy boots that’s also problematic you know I only have light tennis shoes which would be great for bicycling but you know I want to do some exploring very light clothing probably just one pair of pants that are convertible to shorts this go light rain jacket is pretty much shot it doesn’t really keep the water out but it’s small and fits in a pocket and it’s a good windbreak it stops the rain for like the first you know 15 1/2 hour and these are for the tarp and my food I’d like to have fruit every day this is my dinners are like these ramen meals which I add fresh vegetables I’ve got some beets carrots and potatoes that’s pretty much for dinners trail mix which is probably way too much this is for breakfast and this is like a split pea kasha what they call kasha here which while I will add to my dinners and coffee and bread cheese and cherries to add to this we’ll see how it goes okay I’ve decided to take the small vivvy tent and a light tarp it’s not really waterproof but it sheds water if you’ve got a good angle on it it’s also a good sunshade not taking this tarp in which I might regret and the heavy tent will stay here so we’ve got the baby tent in the bag and I wanted to show also when I take produce I don’t put it in plastic bags because of the moisture builds up and it rots faster so I tie it up in bandanna like this and I have a food bag which is like a date pad instead the closer service is about 30 kilometres away at 45 Sandra’s got a cousin these are my writing companions the skateboarder and the fat guy good morning we’ve been riding about two hours maybe maybe three and my my ass really hurts there’s a lot of weight on this seat and it it’s pretty sore I might bail out soon section of forest where the creek runs night right next to it that Creek is going to be really important right now the creek is over on the right can’t see it it’s in the trees hey watch out maybe it’s right down yeah I think so very pleasant ride we’re maybe 25 miles south of Lublin and very little traffic on these back roads the weather is perfect strippers pain in the ass well I just broke away from my friends not that long after filming on the bikes but I had to stop for this this is the best water I have seen in a long time I mean last year in the mountains I saw some pretty good water but this just Springs right from this hillside over here this is the road I was biking on there’s a trail here and here is this is the main creek or river that’s feeding the Soloff down by southern lublin we’ve been basically following this creek valley south slowly climbing it’s a little it’s a little dirty but not too bad I would filter this if I had to and I just might tomorrow or the next day but I’ll tell you that water it’s just such a treat to find now I’ve been looking at buildings and parks to see if there’s like a drinking fountain they don’t exist here and pull them drinking fountains Here I am at the spring it’s right here and filtering my water I use two of these platypus collapsible bags they’ve always worked well for me you have to be careful that you don’t pop them when you’re filling it up one of these will last me maybe two years if I’m really careful with it it’s great of course because you can just fold it right up as it’s being empty then I use this is an MSR water filter from the United States and I’ve got my collector under a small rock here these filters are notorious for breaking I’ve broke I broke two in one season a couple years ago because this part here is plastic in it it just snaps sometimes when you’re pumping too hard and your filters dirty so I self-educated myself and I clean that filter I carry a brush now and clean it so it’s nice and smooth goes pretty pretty darn quick this finding this water is the best thing that happened to me all day I’ll probably come back here and stock up definitely hit it on the way home it’s really not too far maybe two or three hours here well here I am somewhat away from civilization I can hear the road I heard a car it’s 50 yards 100 yards this way I followed it a dirt track down and this is like a sand pit so I’m looking for a place to camp it would be nice to be in the open we’ve got a bunch of animal tracks I don’t know what hey I saw some small deer tracks no real signs of people you can see that people have come up here with them there’s a footprint here people print not that old so I’m trying to just get some peace and solitude it would be nice to camp someplace close oh this looks nice some place close to this clearing to get you know some nice peaceful views we’ve got a whole movie tomorrow gonna be darn close but this looks real nice it’s flat this baby tent I have it’s just a little sliver I smell like it’s dead this is nice too if if I can squeeze in up here I might do it this might be nice it’s dry we’ll see I like these pine trees I saw a big cluster back in here you know there’s you know farms and houses and things around I hear dogs barking and chickens it’s like an urban Cascade trucker adventure well in 15 or 20 minutes I got the tent set up back here it’s well camouflaged I’m really happy I have this bright blue sort of rain fly it’s a tarp actually but I’m not gonna put that on until the end of the day or unless it starts to rain very nice here it’ll be always a special thing at night here the wind blowing through these trees and making the leaves rustle it is sad little busy I was thinking of selling it but man it’s so nice nice and light and just perfect I can’t wait to get in there in a few minutes and lay down maybe rest sleep get away from the bugs this sure came out these mosquitoes and out in the open there’s the biting flies got the bike locked up here and it’s about it’s just a nice somewhat grassy area I’m gonna sleep hard this is the view from inside my tent and I’ve been just chilling here for three hours tried to sleep but couldn’t I haven’t wanted to put the rain fly on because it would destroy this just fabulous view would make me feel closed in away from the environment oh it’s just so nice to be out here and away from the bustle of the city and the noises that’s my crazy setup but this thing here it just makes keep she keeps me from going insane it is this bug net and you see now inside the tent it looks all dark it’s like a coffin when you get this fly and this extra tarp covers the backend and covers the backpack and this tent is now waterproof I had a bad experience last time with it I’m thinking of going down here to do some snooping around in the forest you can see there’s the animal trail right through here but I’m a little concerned about running into somebody because I hear people over this way I hear a dog over here but I haven’t really heard anything over this way so maybe we’ll angle down off to the left it’s a garbage dump over here the animals coming through here the mosquitoes are just ferocious there’s a well-worn animal path here and there’s a really big footprint there I almost boy what the heck is that maybe a deer slid in this mud but I think what they do is they mound up or dig down into this mud to create drinking holes it’s not really fun down here these balls are crazy going back up to the clearing morning has come quite pleasant last night the breeze stopped it was very still I had to wear earplugs the dogs were barking from every direction the mosquitos got really really heavy last night afternoon but now it’s cooled off it was quite cool last night and they’re not so bad and as I was putting on my boots I remembered that you should always shake out your boot before you put them on if you leave them outside because once I I squished a millipede in my boot it was such a bad thing okay let’s start the day I was out here yesterday I’m just sitting on the mound looking at the surroundings and after a while I was thinking well you know I never really walked down this way and I was thinking well maybe it connects to a road and that this is not the only way and sure enough it there’s a small farm back here and I decided to go back into my little hiding area and within minutes there were two guys out here I could hear them talking and I was back here getting ready for dinner and I I said to myself that was a close call because I’m I’m on private property and I don’t speak the language here and who knows what might happen but this mosquito net is really a great camouflage for the tent you can see the the blue tarp but in front here which was the main part of the tent that you could see well it’s it’s camouflaged very well with this mosquito net and so I’m also taking down this tarp now because it’s not gonna rain I wanted to show you some of the things that I bring with me for tying up the tarp I bring various lengths well I think I have two lengths of this heavy rope and I use this rope to tie to this branch and I use the stake here an extra stake to stake out the bottom and here I’ve got a shoelace holding this side and of course you know a shoelace can be used to tie your shoe if you break a shoelace I think the most effective item I have tying up things and fastening is this small bungee cord can be used for so many things I’ve got one here and one over there for the mosquito net it’s not really cold I’m wearing this jacket for the bugs one thing that always gets me with these reality shows survivor shows is they never really talk about where they do their business how they do their business their bodily function you know you got to go how do you do it where do you do it what I generally do is I you know look for a place in in the forest on the floor where this is a good example you can see there’s some dirt and it looks looks a little loose you look for some loose area so that you can dig a shallow hole and many times if you’re near some pine trees you can find some Duff a very thick coating of the pine needles and it’s very loose not the case here this you can even feel with your foot this is not bad it pushes down a little bit this this was disturbed here by an animal and this is quite loose so I just take my heel oh yeah this is really good and that’s that’s where I’m gonna do my number two if I had to but I already did it it’s like the first thing I do I sometimes barely get out of that tent and so business done you you can even if you have to urinate urinate on top of it to help break it down urinate on the paper if it’s white paper that’s going to really show over time if it’s not buried just kind of starting if you got a pee just urinate right on top of it and it’ll help break it down just cover it up cover it up as well as you can make it look natural like nothing ever happened that was that was Kurt Kraft 101 my favorite part of the day Coffee time now that’s hitting the spot got some cherries for breakfast hand-picked personally an oatmeal not sure what the plan is for today actually I’m just enjoying being here I could go over this small range I’m almost at the top of it and and it drops back down on the north side there are some parks but I have a feeling they’ll be very buggy and there could be a chance that I might get lost so I have the factor of water availability to think of I’ve got the factor of my energy to bicycle over this Ridge range whatever you might call it and drop back down and have to come back up I think I’ll start out and continue tracing the the creek that feeds the Soloff go to the beginning and see if there’s some decent water to get there and decide from there we’ll see how I affair on this bicycle today my my goal will be to eat some of these heavier things like the cherries maybe an apple just to lower the weight of the pack I just caught a fleeting glimpse of a small deer it’s really interesting because in my tent I heard what sounded like somebody blowing their nose and I heard that noise yesterday over here and then I heard a branch snap so I came out but I doubt I’ll be able to see this animal I saw it in the Sun right over here chance it’s been a little hit-or-miss today it’s been a few hours now on the bike maybe two and a half I took a wrong turn and I think the forest that I want to be in is over here I believe that this road there there will be an intersection and a road going through the middle of this forest is what I hope I was on the other side of this forest and I was following the the creeks the feeder creeks to the lake that we’ve been following all along and it eventually dried up and I saw the problem is the the roads don’t have any names here and there aren’t really good directions the map I have is a regional map so it’s not very precise and so what occasionally a road sign telling you that you’re entering a city and that you’re leaving a city okay and sometimes you’ll get a road sign at an intersection saying X amount of kilometers to this city so that’s basically the only way I’ve been able able to navigate and it’s not a problem because you know it’s just really really a great trip just you know meander around on these country roads I’m not lost yet and the fact is Lublin is only four hours this way and if I go this way I can find the city look at the map and go that you know the other way I’ve only had to turn around once and that was yesterday to get the water water was an issue today I stopped in a small hamlet and asked for some water it took a few times but the third time and I think it was a school these ladies helped me so I’m loaded with water for tonight and tomorrow and I’ve been carrying that for like an hour so things are getting a little heavy a little tired and I’m hoping this forest is my destination here we are in the thick of that forest minutes from last film segment I took a tractor trail that went straight to the woods maybe 500 meters or so and I think I’m gonna set a tent right here and put the bug screen in this branch here I’m really surprised there’s bugs in here because there’s no real water source up here maybe just from rain we’ve got some mosquitoes and the biting flies were on the edge of the forest still not sure what to expect about contact here with people we’ll see nice nice big trees this one’s got to be two to three hundred years old nice big pine tree I came to this clumping of big trees because I figured there would be sort of an open canopy floor whereas along the edge it was pretty thick with berries as I was deciding to come down this tractor trail I saw a small cat it looked almost like a house cat but it didn’t have a tail and I wasn’t sure if it was a bobcat I didn’t get a chance really to see its its head or her ears to see if they were like I had had pointed hair but there were no houses around very interesting because I was I was stopped and it was just sitting right next to the road and didn’t move until I moved towards it also on my might be camping below this Widowmaker I heard some like thuds and I realized that there are branches hitting each other with the wind most likely the wind will die down tonight like last night it’s a better view than yesterday and so when I get my tent set up many times I’ll toss the sleeping bag in here and it’ll make a perfect backrest for a chill away from the mosquitoes very nice very nice just on a short jaunt through the forest when the bugs are pretty bad this is why I’m layered up in the middle of the summer like this even keep my hands inside of the coat but here’s one of the harmless fields here of wheat and I followed this road here it kind of goes through the edge of the forest I followed it this way and I heard what I thought was a tractor getting closer so I took off running back to this very faint trail which might just be an animal trail this could very well be private property and I could be trespassing and I could get in trouble so I’m just gonna try to minimize all contact when I’m camping but I think maybe later I’ll take a walk down this road again or maybe cut through the forest like cut through the forest I take a chance of getting lost but only for a short time because I know these fields are south there’s been some logging in here like maybe last year but just like one tree at a time you can see here this was all disturbed by an animal I saw some broken fern leaves may have been by a human I think maybe me but I don’t know so I’ve been trying to take care with my footfalls so I slept not to leave a mark like here this is fern that was broken right here and that was not done by me it was little longer here’s my sight it’s about this far from the road I can see the clearing way through here it’s about how far I am away from the farm fields and the dirt tracks through the forest I could have hidden it a little more like back in here there’s some really thick trees and shrubs I’m just gonna gonna go with this I wanted to experience this open area here with these larger trees and be able to look up dinnertime is here and this is what my dinners are looking like we’ve got the produce the onions potatoes and beets with the ramen packet and also there are split peas and kasha very steamy but it’s quite filling it’s just lacking a little salt I didn’t pack any extra salt usually I do and same with the breakfast it’s lacking sugar this oatmeal tomorrow I might put an apple in with it sweeten it up a bit but I’ve just been pretty much hanging in the tent here because the bugs are pretty ferocious as I’ve said many times I’m seeing some birds fly by and hearing some odd noises here in the forest it’s quite interesting very calm and peaceful here as opposed to last night well we had some Ravens up in here hear them flying away and their eyesight is so precise he saw me squat down he somewhere up in here but this is my my masterpiece because I didn’t plan for any trees or anything when I selected this location I again need to have this tarp setup for the back end of this tent because the rain will just pretty much flood it and also my backpack that was under there but what I had to do was tie this tree which is almost dead lying on the ground I tied it to this limb to get a little height on this corner and this is the high corner and I’ve staked this corner and this is a reach to another dead limb that just about broke but if it rains the water is just going to go down off this off the bottom unless it pools here and it might seep through I hope not if if that’s the case you know I could even use a stick to prop it up but I don’t think it’s gonna rain the wind is stopped and it’s humid it’s hot I can’t wait to get back in this tent even though it’s gonna be warm I just hope the night cools off there is this guy was chewing on the bottom of my tent all last night and I think there were three or so under here he’s a big one I’m glad I didn’t squash him very strange night because it was so hot and muggy to begin with I was sweating in the sleeping bag then in the middle of the night it was cold quite chilly very strange that I had these like vertigo sensations when I was laying on my back it felt like I was falling backwards pretty rough night come on out of there big guy back out into civilization and able to have shorts and no jacket and scarf just right in there is bug chaos that’s where I was this morning so I haven’t really filmed much of my journey through the villages and cities they’re very interesting and I’m gonna try to do that today but it’s really tricky with you know the the bike in the bag and getting the camera out and stopping taking a pack off the whole deal so I’m gonna try to somehow Clary the camera while I bike which you know I’m taking a risk of damaging the camera but we’ll see also my food supply is running short I have enough for two dinners but the question is lunches and snacks today lunches and snacks tomorrow and a snack to get home the final leg it’s going to be really close I might have to hit up some of these berry patches and there’s actually some right here which I’m gonna hit right now I don’t like hitting here last night and there’s the beginning of the village but I think nobody cares much about these berries anymore and he’s probably a little dirty I see some foot like a path right here let’s see you’re doable but I don’t think they’re quite right very meaty berries and I’ve seen these growing everywhere maybe next time bitter and got a meeting like was whether he but these are these are the same berries that are over here I think a whole lot of agriculture going on here you don’t see like cow farms dairy farms and things like then you see just agriculture anywhere it’s great this is the forest that I camped in last night I’m getting a good shot of it yeah back in there you can see these forests way over here then in the far distance this one oh that just might be my destination I mentioned earlier being on top of this range not very high it’s pretty long and I’m on top now and so if I continue South it will drop back down continuing north it will drop back down but I’m going in this direction in search of a water source which I’m not sure about actually my water usage has been quite low so we’ll see how things go this forest just might very well be my intended destination but I haven’t been on the bike for maybe more than an hour hour and a half and it’s nice to be away from all these blood-sucking mosquitoes and flies out here in the open you don’t have them as much so I’m also getting a little concerned about the weather I’m still within like a 5 to 6 hour maybe 7 hour ride back to Lublin and if it starts raining things will get pretty dismal I don’t really have serious rain gear guess I’m gonna go for it you know only live once it’s almost terminal-velocity my hat’s about to blow off a nice day I’m chilling in bot orders and just came from over here this exciting downhill bicycle ride and just came through this alleyway I guess to the football field and now the big question of the day is there a water supply just at the end of this field if it’s all mucky and nasty I’m not gonna do it and I’m gonna go back I’m gonna turn back and hit that really nice spring earlier and I’ll get some water there and there’s a forest just past that water stop but I’m just sitting here chillin it’s quite nice nobody’s around and if there is some water here well then I’m going to find someplace up in up in this forest here to camp side of this hill almost looks like a landfill or something I don’t need to get far away maybe try and follow a road this way towards the forest I’ll let you know how things go there it is it’s not horribly bad because I thought it might be it’s not moving very quickly but it’s not horribly murky which is a good sign I don’t know if I’m feeling staying here though if this is where I was at a few minutes ago but there’s some development right here it’s gonna be a road I guess and I don’t have a really good map and I’m still concerned about the weather but if I decide to stay I’ll get this water I might follow it a little farther up because just up in here there are some houses and most likely there’s some sewage drainage into this water which I don’t want to be near but the the map indicates that this water just starts a little farther up and it flows this way guess I’m happy to find it I’m waiting on some information about the weather so maybe maybe I’ll just follow this road up see what I come up with well I’ve got a weather update it’s not going to rain tomorrow but it will rain the next day and so this gives me a change of plans I’m not going to stay here I’m going to start back and tomorrow will be the final leg home you know chances are I’ve seen these weather reports Vasiliy so much originally that it showed rain tomorrow afternoon and so now that it’s offset the Thursday I’m gonna head back I found this water good to know it’s here because you know as a current urban adventurer freshwater supply is keen so you know here we go we’re gonna start back and I did reach my destination so I’m not I’m not unhappy and also this food supply will be a little better it’s been quite windy today it’s really slowing me down that’s blowing right in my face and I’m glad I’m heading back today because if I would have had to push hard all the way to get back it would have just beat me up so pretty mellow and maybe another hour I’ll be back at that spring well here I am kind of hiding in a farmer’s field I got my water stocked up and I went to see this small patch of forest to camp in and it’s all open and there’s trails and I saw some guy in there picking mushrooms and so I left went farther up the dirt road to look in some of these you know groupings of trees for a place to camp and like there’s a tractor trailer right through the middle of that it would just be real spooky if someone came through there and I had my tent you know I can see some forests way over there and if there was a straight road going right to them I would do it but I have to do some serious backtracking go down a kind of a highway I just want to set my town up and chill out right now and now I hear in the direction that I came from somebody’s weed-whacking and I think it was a private road there’s the continuing road down here so that’s my story and the skies are getting thicker with clouds the feeling might rain tonight well I just said screw it I dropped the tent in a really tight place we’ve got nettles here I’m all stung up I had to climb through thorns and stuff to get here and some really low branches the tent just barely fit I didn’t go more than 5 feet from the last time I videotaped but I don’t think anybody will see through this and there’s a huge wheat field I don’t think anybody’s gonna come up here tonight and there’s no bugs hardly any bugs here so I don’t have to deal with the screens and I’ll tell you what happens if it happens back in there that’s camped last night let me tell you it was just crazy I’m 95% done with getting out of here without being in trouble but just past these trees here there’s a road and I swear I thought they saw me in this this little grouping here of trees and weeds so I was up at a quarter after four to get packed and now I have to go up this little road right past the front of their house and then I’m done and thank God none of these dogs were off leash because they heard me a couple times I don’t know how I’m going home it’s a little after 7:00 I’ve been going hard I am now at the southern edge of Lublin and the lake and it’s about an hour left to get back there’s some nice forests here some pretty big trees left I I just might plan next time to explore some of these forests here because that’s close and quite extensive it’s a good choice to come home today because it’s chilly overcast and when you stop the cold kind of sets in if you’re sweaty all right this was a great trip probably close to 200 kilometres maybe 75 miles yeah