Tayson: Here's the big question, how do we lighten our gear and build our confidence. So we can start living a life full of Outdoor Adventures and memories without having unlimited amounts of time, money and previous experience. That's the big question and we are here to help you find the answers. This is the Live Ultralight podcast power, bi Outdoor Vitals.
Tyler: Hey, what's up? Hope you try
Tayson: and Live Ultralight listeners. Welcome back to another episode of the Live Ultralight podcast. Today, we're gonna be talking about ultralight travel between some stories and tips, and just different experiences, we've had in the ultralight travel space. That's, that's the topic conversation today. So, we got Derek here from the marketing team. We got Tyler here from operations, and we're just gonna be having a conversation. So,
Tyler: you guys doing today, I'm doing great.
Tayson: If Derek didn't say that, he was doing great, if it was even good, I would be concerned Derek's response. Every time is awesome, living the dream. Great, if he says, I'm doing okay, or I'm doing good. It's pause and be concerned, you know? So that's good. Glad you're great. Derek. He's gonna Tyler
Tyler: doing really well. I'm excited because they were having a company barbecue.
Tayson: That's true. Now this is the first you'd think this is why we bring guys like Tyler on you know Derek's been harping on me for a while to do some more culture building type things and I'm always I don't know, just too focused on other things, so Tyler's making it happen. I haven't even been asked to do anything. So that's the best part about all this. Bring aside bring a side salad or something right?
Tyler: And that other cornhole board set.
Tayson: Okay, I can do that. Yeah,
Derek: I'm I've been pretty excited as well. Matty, she's been making some some desserts for it and tell you what they are good. I already have some last night.
Tyler: She said she overdid it but I told her that's not possible.
Tayson: That's exactly what. I bet you're like at home. She's probably got like, sample board. One, two, three, having you test through them.
Derek: There's five different flavors. Oh, and I tried all
Tayson: in a single dessert.
Derek: Yes, yeah. You'll see I won't break.
Tayson: we're gonna have to remember to bring that back up on a future podcast because If listeners are is interested as I am right now, then they're gonna want to know. but, Know how to be fun? We're gonna head up the canyon here in town and do barbecue. And there's a little Pond up there, so I'll probably be bringing a fishing pole in case kids want to play. But should be just a good time for this. There's quite a we're still not
Tayson: sure. Brigham is even married. I have seen as kids never met his wife in two and a half years so that's a problem, that's probably a problem. Maybe it's not, I don't know. But anyways, so stuff like that. That'll be fun, it'll be fun to get to know a few people. We have met and you guys will send me that aren't as familiar with my kids, looking to see, a little rascals and how crazy they are, but that'll be a good time. So yeah.
Tayson: today, like I mentioned in the beginning we wanted to talk about ultralight travels so let's just Briefly kind of give an idea of what the heck will try travel. Even is it's a new phrase, I would say like people used it but we're really wanting to kind of take that concept and expound upon it. And and just push that envelope forward. It's something that I've done for a long time. A lot of guys in the office of done for quite
Tayson: a while it's something that we've been doing R&D on for years just because it's a part of our life, we just This all the time
Derek: and I would add actually one more word to that phrase. You know, a lot of people have heard of ultralight travel, and I think the immediate feeling with just ultralight travels, that man, you just leave stuff behind and he goes light as possible and and you may or may not have, you know, a lot of stuff to be able to do all the things you want to do. But really what we're talking about here is ultralight adventure travel, which
Derek: kind of brings in the aspect of not only are you going ultralight but you actually do have the ability to do all the things you want to do to explore to have adventures and enjoy your trip. This is not just an ultralight, you know, quick business Ultra Lite travel that you just kind of travel light and fast. This is Going places doing things seeing things. but with that ultralight aspect, Yeah.
Tayson: A one way to, like, one way to stop like say this very, very quickly and concisely is other people would call it single bag travel. We call it Ultra Lite travel because it's it's the same mindset that we use when we ultralight backpack and there's a lot more bleed over for us, that that needed to happen and that we want to see happen and that we've been doing for a long time too. Between those two, this just really, really important. So,
Tayson: I've ever heard a single bag, travel same, same type of concept, with some, with some different spins on it, I guess you could say. But the idea is that you're traveling, and you're only using one bag means you're not checking a bag. You're using a carry-on, if you're going on an airplane or even if it's in your own vehicle, like you've got one bag, like you don't need to fill up a full car worth the stuff and buy a big, you
Tayson: know, roof, top container and fill that up with stuff and, and do all this kind of those, those things it's really about, like Really everything you need considered into one bag, and it's just about being light and fast. To enable you to go and do more. And, and honestly, when you're when you're in that scenario, and you're in that mindset, it does allow you to do more. A lot of you to not only go more but also go farther and faster
Tayson: and simpler and enjoy the process of the traveling. Not just the destination. Once you find the get there and have to go through a whole bunch of painful things. In the process. So
Derek: some of you might be kind of bulking at that explanation. I'm thinking, you know what about all my stuff for camping. Like you know, there's a reason I bring it right but I would say maybe if we dive right into the why up front. That'll kind of help any listeners, understand kind of a little bit more of what we mean and where we're coming from for me the Big Y can be summed up in one word and that's freedom. The, why
Derek: is freedom? for example for me, you know, when we have family reunions my wife and I and we have a lot of family coming in town, we're gonna be camping for, you know, four or five days with relatives, you know, nieces and nephews all these different people and I don't have to pack a lot of gear for them and they're not as actively participating in outdoor activities. I should I guess I could say it that way. I really do not look
Derek: forward to packing for those and I really dragged my feet. I do have a fun time. I love these family reunions and and spending any time outdoor like I can. But the trip itself is just not something I look forward to preparing for, and actually getting, there is a struggle. It's a lot of work. but on the flip side, this is something my wife and I have literally done many times I get home from work on a Friday and it's 5
Derek: p.m. already and we just look at each other. Hey, what do you want? What do you want to do? And sometimes you said hey let's just go to the Grand Canyon and 20 minutes later, we are already in the car with everything we need and we're on our way and have a great weekend. and and I love those trips and they're so easy to just go and explore and how those adventures and those make those memories and spend that time Outdoors
Derek: But the reason is because of Ultra Lite travel and ultralight adventures, and this isn't backpacking. This is just The one bag travel aspect. And that's the why it is the freedom. It's the ability to have the confidence that you've got what you need and you've got enough to do all the things you want to do without having to spend two days Gathering gear packing it, making sure it's not going to fall off, you know, the top of your car. Or whatever
Derek: it is. And that's a really big reason why I think anyone and everyone should look into Ultra Lite travel and how they might benefit from it.
Tayson: and, Yeah. That was that was pretty good synopsis for sure, of kind of the why. But maybe let me kind of turn it over to you. Tyler and ask you two part of question first, like, Have you always traveled, you know, if you just always like gone places and done things or and maybe, maybe some up travel travel, to me, would be different than local, right? So, local might be two hours from your house, three hours from your house, even traveling.
Tayson: To me would be reaching out Beyond something like that to where it's logistically. You know, it's it's you're traveling. You're spending time in a car or an airplane or on a bus or we're on a train or whatever it is and you're moving somewhere. So did you grow up traveling?
Tyler: Tyler Yeah, in some ways they did I raced mountain bikes. Very competitively from the time I was like, 14 on. And there was a few Summers there, where as a teenager, I didn't come home for a couple months because we would just be on the road the entire time. And at that point, I had no concept of minimal travel or one bag, travel, or whatever it was just teenagers, getting all their bike gear and, and going out to Successful in the
Tyler: racing circuit as we could. And I went through phases there, like, when I first started going out, I probably just didn't have everything I needed, just wasn't thorough enough, but then I kind of went through this Preparatory phase where I wanted to have everything that I could possibly need and and did that for a little while and then started to feel pretty burdened by by a lot of this stuff. And so by the time I was racing like semi-professionally, we were
Tyler: pretty dialed like we knew what we needed, we knew. If if there was something crazy that happened, we'd be able to figure it out wherever we were. So there's always the option to buy something you need if you actually need it but not carry it just in case, you know, right? And so and then from there, that mentality just got carried on through like my through my 20s in the business that I started in Ran, we just tried to travel. So
Tyler: minimally, really not as much for freedom because I was traveling for business and but more to reduce Stress. Running a business with stressful and having the meetings and things that I is going to were stressful. And so the single bag travel, just streamlined everything and by by streamlining it and speeding us up everywhere, my wife and I went, there was less stress, which was great, so that's kind of where I Learned it and pushed for it. And then when it comes
Tyler: to Travel for fun. Well, for me that's kind of all always been mixed with business, you know. Like like in this day and age, you don't have to split them apart. You can usually find something amazing to do even if you're having to travel for business. So just being able to be really dialed when you go out and and still travel really light and accomplished multiple things, I think is really amazing as well.
Tayson: Yeah, what about you Eric? Did you do you grow up traveling or or not so much? Like I know me. Personally, I would classify myself as not growing up a traveling person. Like I from Utah, we drove to Disneyland. Like one time. And that was a big trip for us like leaving the state essentially. And
Tayson: and then when my brother graduated from chiropractic school in Texas, I flew down there and then drove back with him and Those might have been like some of the only other than like we've you know we've been to Vegas, you know once or so and so. So like that was about the only time I left the state as a kid, you know. So I didn't I didn't grow up traveling but
Derek: I mean I I didn't grow up internationally traveling but I did travel a little bit around the United States growing up as a little kid ever. Since I was pretty little, I had go up to Montana for, you know, one to three months. And just live up there for the summer and just take you out in the woods. Yeah
Tayson: like Derek, that's why
Derek: I have grandparents that live out in the middle of guys, so I basically was living out in the woods.
Tayson: Chasing sheep around, or something.
Derek: I was. No, there was a deer everywhere. There's elk everywhere, foxes, and there's everything, anything you can think of was up there, they live in my grandparents living, in the bedroom Valley, it's just kind of close to Missoula. One of the most, pretty parts of the country that I've ever seen. And yeah, I would just live there for pretty much every summer going up. So, I did that and I go other states a few times with my family, but never anything
Derek: too far. It was always kind of in the Western United States.
Tayson: so I know that both of you guys travel a lot now, Both internationally and domestically and we'll say you know you're in Hawaii this summer which we'll get to which I'll call Semi International. Yeah. But yeah I mean what do you guys what's what's the reasons that you travel like what makes you want to travel? I think some people I know like I took my parents. To. And to me, it was like, it was nothing, right? Like I'd done that. So
Tayson: many times and traveled internationally so many times that in the preparation side of things like I was literally a day out and I would have just thrown stuff in the bag and been gone. Like I just but like weeks ahead of time and months ahead of time, they're asking me questions and they're you know, this and that and they've got all these different things. But anyways, I feel like there's there's I might just totally lost my train of thought here, but
Tayson: I guess going back to it. and the why, like why we travel and and I've completely lost. I think
Tyler: that was what you're asking, was just why we travel we
Derek: travel now and that's thinking. Yeah, yeah,
Derek: travel so much before. I mean,
Tayson: I don't know how that story tied in that was Dang.
Tyler: Well I can tell you
Tayson: I completely this might be a first where I've completely gone blank on the podcast. But anyways, um, yeah, so I guess, I guess dive in a little bit more to the why, why do you guys like choose to travel? Is it in what polls you to do the traveling? Because, oh, here's what it was some people. I feel like the fear of going to say Mexico, Or anywhere internationally the pains and the fears of that, keep them from ever doing it.
Tayson: So, some level, you've got to have enough. Why? Or your fears? Have got to be small enough. That you, you go and do it. So, talk to me a little bit about what makes you guys want to go and do it and drives you to continue to do it. So,
Tyler: Yeah. So really, it's a lot of the same reasons that I love backpacking. For me, one of the biggest things is just exploration. I feel like I learn and grow so much when I'm out exploring and seeing new things, gaining different perspectives, and just, Getting out of my normal comfort zone, you know. So I like that feeling and I like what it does for me. And so that's a big part of the reason that I like to travel
Derek: for me, I think it's pretty similar. I think a part of it is just the Natural Curiosity. That I've always had. I want to know something. I want to go see Some and the inner kind of explore if you will. But I've had some of that. Tendency in my entire life where, you know, even even if I just am going by a mountain that I live by or something. And I see something up there. Some rock. I just want to go
Derek: straight up to it. Like even if there's no Trails throughout my entire life ever since I was a kid, I'll just go. Straight up a mountain to go. Look at something. I think looks cool. Doesn't need to be a trail and it's the same reasoning with travel. I want to go experience something for myself. And another part of it is, I think the wide range of emotions you feel from adrenaline, to just the amount of Peace you feel. And this is
Derek: again the same with backpacking or their Outdoor Adventures. You can feel so much excitement and some moments and so much peace. And those things are so contrasting. But you get, I would say Just the extremes on both ends of the extract of the spectrum when you're traveling or exploring, especially with the people that you're with, you know, sometimes it's you with good buddies that, you know, they're excited to go see things, check things out, do something a little bit crazy. I
Derek: also, you know, done some mountain biking and do a lot of repelling and other things, that'll get your blood pumping in the moments. but then, other nights when you're sitting out in the stars or learning some Story. Some background story of one of the locals that you're meeting some new country new place, you've never been and just the amount of peace and connection that you can build all of those things to me all tie in the little bit. Why a little
Derek: bit of why I like to travel. There's just so many reasons to do it.
Tayson: Yeah, as you as you were talking, it actually made me think about, you know, the concept of snowflakes, right? They say there's no two snowflakes the same. And to me, that's how I would like to pick to travel is no matter where you go, what mountain ranges. You see what cities? You see? What people you meet. you're seeing something new every single time, and every single location is unique and I I love that aspect about it. Like you could have two
Tayson: mountain ranges that have similarities, even, let's just say it's like, you know, the Elena's and the Wind Rivers, you know, they're they're little ways apart, 200 miles apart. They've got some similarities in those High basins, but there's snowflakes they're completely different mountains and I just want to experience both of them. I want to experience and see it and know it and, and another thing that I guess comes to mind for me is I remember where I heard this. Someone was talking
Tayson: about how like, you know, if I asked you what you ate for breakfast last week on Wednesday, you don't have no idea because typically, that kind of stuff is the same every single day or similar to the same. And, and you just your brain, literally will forget. It just goes in one ear, you know, just happens and then it's gone, but what you don't forget, is anything you need. So anything that's repetitive your brain can filter through and delete it. I
Tayson: mean, I think about like going to school as a kid. How many things were repetitive in grade school? Say the third grade like you in the same class every day, did the same type of work on the same schedule. Can't remember her name? Anything that happened in that class? And if I do, it's only the unique things. The teacher through the papers in the air and walked out of class and didn't come back the rest of the day, you know, like
Tayson: I remember that you know, but that's the unique thing in a circle of the same. And so to me when I think of travel and exploring just like with backpacking for me and traveling its Getting those types of experiences of seeing something new that you've never seen before because those are the things you remember in your life.
Tyler: I have a couple things. so, the other one that that we haven't mentioned, that is actually pretty important for me with travel is the different flavors.
Tayson: Food. Yeah. Kind of opposite of backpacking because and Mexico it doesn't mean yes and yeah
Tyler: no I think I think that's one of my favorite parts of travel is experienced in a different food and finding
Tayson: I remember when we took you to Mexico and we had your first mango with chili powder on it.
Tyler: Oh yeah. I mean you still talk about that. Yeah I feel like that's a
Tayson: Commenting that just comes up in in our conversations. We're hanging out as families. But
Tyler: so the other thing that I wanted to bring up real quick, is we now have it recorded of Derek saying he doesn't need a trail when we go somewhere. So when he's complaining about our navigation,
Tayson: when there's some boundaries or something, you no longer gets, yeah, exactly. You know,
Tayson: only, we could get Brigham to say that
Derek: that's gonna say, I'm not the one to worry about here. Yeah,
Tayson: anytime a trail might have potentially down trees. We all got a dig in our packs and find some some gummies. Some fruit snacks or something to give to Brigham the down. Yeah, he does not love down trees.
Tyler: So the last thing I was gonna say about why I travel is, um, I usually have a specific experience that I'm chasing and not just exploration. There's usually something that has piqued my interest that I want to go and experience that up front and close, you know, so I think that's a big part of. It is kind of like, Chasing those new experiences and making those memories with with the people that I love. Because I'm, I'm the type of person who
Tyler: will just always want to share those experiences with other people, or help give those experiences to other people. So that's a big part of the reason That I travel.
Tayson: Yeah. So I think this is a good section. Part of this is that I wanted to dive a little bit deeper into just to the stories of what we've been up to this summer and give some examples of this. I hope that as we go through some of these stories it's it's interesting. You guys, learn stuff, maybe a little tips and tricks on how we did it how we did the different types of travel and but more so just inspire you
Tayson: to get out and do different types of travel. Yes, we absolutely level trip backpacking but Lot of scenarios, we can tie travel to backpacking or just take principles from it and move and have different experiences as well. So actually you start with you Tyler. I already kind of said earlier that you'd gone to Hawaii this summer, with your family. So maybe just take us through that process, starting from kind of the planning stages and, and the logistics to get to Hawaii
Tayson: and then we can kind of go from there.
Tyler: Yeah. So this is a trip that my brother and sister instigated to just go with our whole family because our family hadn't traveled together as an entire family. Since we've all been adults. So we didn't have, I didn't have a ton of influence on on what we did, but we wanted to go and that was one of the easier trips to take an entire family on during the pandemic. Obviously, a travel has been limited quite a bit since the pandemic has
Tyler: Has slowed everything down and so the plan was to go to Maui and I'm one who likes to get off the beaten path as as much as possible. So once we started to look at that, we just started to look at like, how to go Backcountry in Maui, or like, how to how to get away from the crowds and everything. And there's actually a lot of amazing backpacking in Hawaii. We've done some in Kauai on the backside of the napali coast
Tyler: which is definitely like some amazing adventure travel opportunities but then in Maui it's similar up in the mount haleah Park. I can't remember what the exact Park is called but the there's a mountain on the island of Maui that comes right up out of the ocean and goes up over 10,000 feet and and the top of the mountain is rarely visible because the clouds are always surrounding it and there's a lot of good hiking and backpacking up in there. So that
Tyler: was like, Goal number one, for the trip, was to be able to get up there. See the sunrise above the clouds and and over the crater of that volcano and and then to be able to do some of the other waterfall hikes and see a lot of that. We also we were there for like seven or eight days and so we got a lot of beach time too. But we did, we did a good amount of hiking while we were there.
Tyler: Struggle was. I have a three and a half year old and she would have been a six-month-old at that point in time. And so thinking about taking Two children, two, Hawaii, with all the swimming gear, and all the, all that kind of stuff and strollers. And, and then I was like, That was definitely more complicated than, than our true. One bag travel that we would do before we had kids, but we applied those same principles. And when it came down to
Tyler: it Carla, my wife had one backpack with all of her gear for the week. I had one backpack with all of my gear for the week, and then we had this wagon. Convertible stroller thing that we were able to put both girls in their car seats in. And And my sister. She thinks we're crazy for traveling. Traveling minimally. She checked a few bags and had multiple strollers and her and her husband, both had multiple bags and and just traveling alongside them.
Tyler: Like our trip was way less stressful in that sense. So so that was we did the best we could with the kids and it helped a lot.
Tayson: So just completely smooth sailing through the airport.
Tyler: Well like you can't control the kids emotions and when they get hangry like as you're going through TSA so I wouldn't say completely smooth sailing but it was about as smooth as it can go with two kids that age. So and
Tyler: Got all your gear through TSA. Yeah no problem. It was
Tayson: enough to do any light jogging in the airport.
Tyler: We actually on the way home we had a delayed flight and so our changeover left us like 12 minutes to get from one end of the Honolulu airport to the other. And that was where the one bag travel really shines because you just put your bag on your back and mine was our new prototype bag. And it's got a really good hip belt. So I just scrapped that thing up and, and I wasn't worried about where all of our luggage was,
Tyler: as we were running through the airport to get to the other end. So yeah, yeah, that speed was
Tayson: was I experience that you get Once in Phoenix? Yeah, I literally Phoenix. Airport's probably a little bigger than the Honolulu one but Yeah, I was like, 10 solid minutes of me, sprinting from one end to the other with
Tayson: the backpack on, it would have been fine. But I was actually sent my pregnant wife ahead. So, I had a backpack on my back and then the other backpack in my arms running through the airport, but there's moments like that, that The backpack really can't pay dividends. I think you also had mentioned that you forgot some shoes in the car. I do a little back jogging then too. Oh that was on the way.
Tyler: The way out of Vegas. So when we're flying there. Yeah. It was funny. We we got our three year old all the way like into the TSA line and realized her shoes were still
Derek: in the car because she was just in her kicked booster seat. My kids always kick off their shoes. If they're sitting in their car seats.
Tyler: Yeah, exactly. So it was a good thing. We were training for that, fast packing trip there because I still had my pack on and I had to run all the way across two Terminals and get to the car and get back with it. So yeah, I forgot about that.
Tayson: Yeah, all good little Snippets of where having a lighter pack and a faster setup. Just makes it easier. I feel like but I can definitely picture kind of your sister and just the amount of stuff that they probably checked in took and the shuttling of stuff, like even from airport to car and then car into hotel and and vice versa. It's massive amount of moving Parts sometimes when it really boils down to it, which doesn't seem like a lot, but it
Tayson: All Odds up into that full on experience. So talk to me a little bit about just once you were there, you guys rented a car, right? And then where you stand in a hotel or you shifting hotels or even one location the whole time.
Tyler: Yeah, we chose a pretty central location. And and didn't have to change hotels, but because we knew we were packing light. We went with an economy car and so I actually typically always like to travel with with the economy rental because there's so much easier to park. My sister had gotten a Jeep because they knew they were gonna have a lot of gear and and everything and even just the four-door Jeep, they had a hard time parking it in a lot
Tyler: of the places that we went. So, yeah, we we rented a car circled, the island like a few times in our in our different Adventures, like learning about things from locals and thinking, oh, we have to backtrack to go see that. Well, let's do it. We're here again, you know, so we did that, but Yeah, we kept it fairly simple and because we had the kids and because we're with the, the rest of my family who's not nearly as mobile as
Tyler: our family, we didn't actually do any overnight. Backpacking up around haleah like I wanted to but Yeah, it was we did a lot of day hiking. And things like that. So
Tayson: yeah, it's awesome. And this probably doesn't pertain as heavily to the ultralight side of travel. But something that's definitely really interesting to us is the ability to do just, like, what you mentioned, maybe you're flying to an area and then you backpack, do you know one night out of your backpack to go? See A specific waterfall or specific destination? And some of some of the day hiking stuff that might not be as important, but I know that even while you were
Tayson: day hiking, you were using our code to UL pack. That you guys will hear more about and the next couple months, but you, you were carrying stuff for people, right? Were they geared to carry stuff? Or were you just kind of? Like, I'll take it because I've got this pack already.
Tyler: Yeah. They had more like beach oriented gear, you know. But then when we start looking in Maui, there's this really cool area called Hannah. It's a it's a city on the far. I'm trying to picture them out. South. West corner of the island and and the road to get out there is a single Lane Road that hugs these Cliffs and goes through the jungle in it. Like it feels like you're on some crazy Jungle Safari as you're driving out there and
Tyler: and but getting out there, you get away from the majority of the tourists and you get to see some of amazing stuff and we went to this waterfall that was like I think around 300 feet tall, just an amazing sight. And and you hike through this awesome bamboo forest to get there and there's tons of roots everywhere and it's, like, raining non-stop at that area. And so, when we got there and we're looking at trail conditions and weather and everything, pretty
Tyler: much everyone was like on underprepared in some way or another. So having duck with the frame in it made a difference. I ended up carrying everyone's whole like picnic, tons of Like Water for six, or eight people and, and all of their lunches, and all of that. And it was, it worked out great for us because Could handle it and it made it a lot less stressful for everyone else. Yeah. But
Tayson: Yeah, now that's that's awesome. Okay. Any I mean, what else what did I miss Derek digging into Tyler's trip as far as just I don't know. Is there any any big Pro tips? I guess that you have from from doing that? I guess, one of the things I like about like that particular story and just talking about, you know, that part compared to what me and Derek will probably talk about is just that you had kids and you're still able to
Tayson: pack lighter and that makes a difference for sure. You already got a keep your, you know, kids in hand and whatnot. And if you have luggage and stuff that just makes that much more hard to even, you know, hold on to him running through an airport or whatever it is. Easy for my kids to take off on a dead Sprint somewhere. And if I've got a big old rolling luggage and I go to chase him down, it's the sounds a little
Tayson: harder than, you know, being more hands-free. But yeah, just any other big tips or takeaways I guess in the Ultra Lite travel side or maybe something that would Inspire someone else to go and try a trip like this.
Tyler: yeah, I mean it's easy to try because you just it's just a thought process her mentality, you know you just say okay I'm gonna try to only take what I know I will need and and then just be confident that if you you like if you forget something or if you find you need, Something there's always places to buy it pretty much anywhere. You go in the world, you can get what you need. So I would say like one pro tip
Tyler: that reduces stress and helps your packing is to buy like those short four or six inch long charge cords. Like at this point, having kids and then having like my fitness watch and and the phone and some of the other stuff you end up with like a lot of different charge cords and just having like, the really short ones means that they're lighter weight. But it also means they won't turn into a tangled mess like in your pack. And, and that's
Tyler: just like, one little thing that reduces just a little bit of stress or or creates a little bit more Freedom by. That much more dialed
Tayson: yeah if I'm gonna play The Devil's Advocate here, let's say like people are like man fitting in one backpack you know like what
Tayson: did you have? Like one swimsuit. Me. Yeah.
Tyler: Um, I think I had three right, I had. Three really lightweight pairs of shorts. I know my brother and I had like seven.
Tayson: Yeah. Like but like for me two would have been plenty because it was he kind of got it switching him. Halfway through the day, too. He's like yeah, afternoon better put on my afternoon swimsuit.
Tyler: Yeah. I think their thoughts with process was like, okay, we're gonna get all Sandy and wet and wet and dirty at the beach and then we'll need something to change into for dinner. Okay,
Tyler: you know, and, and so like they were that's why they had a lot. But like, for me it was like, well, if I have two pairs of shorts, then if I get one all Sandy and dirty, I'll just make sure that the other one is drying and ready to be used when I needed, you know, and just rotate those. So
Tayson: I think. A good way to help people with that. As you're like, oh, what if I get a dirty or this that the other take a tiny little bottle, fill it up with some detergent and Sink washed something. If you have to, you know, what I mean? That's like, worst case scenario if you even have to. But no, I think I think that's that's a good tip between charging cables and just different things like that. There's Little things like that, that
Tayson: all add up to a lot bigger things. Well, I'll get i'll get to some more tips, I guess in mine. I won't share anymore, but anything else for Tyler, Derek before I We talk about what you've been up to
Derek: know. I just think that's a great example of what it means to like Live Ultralight, which is, which is kind of what we're getting at with this whole podcast and everything. We do on any podcasts living ultralight is more than just backpacking. It is really applicable to Every day, anything you do anytime. And I think that's just been a good example of that. And Simplifying in the freedom. That brings the confidence you can have and if you have the right stuff
Derek: and not how to use it, How
Derek: much more you can really enjoy the things you do in your life? yeah, and I
Tyler: will say like, before we move on from Hawaii, like Hawaii is is a common Destination for people to want to travel to. And so if you're the type of person who Doesn't like to go to the cliche places, you might Overlook it but if you're a Backpacker you can still get way off the beaten path by Bhai backpacking Hawaii. And those could be just amazing trips. So you got to look into how late a calla or the napali coastline. Both are amazing.
Tayson: I've never had interested in Hawaii and last year I have developed one and I think that's a big part of it is just seeing some of that kind of stuff and But yeah, not I think that's awesome. Okay, let's move to Derek, Derek. He took a trip this year, where the heck did you go? Well which one
Tayson: besides getting kicked out in the wilderness of Montana to look for Sasquatch. Now let's go with your international trip this year.
Derek: Well internationally, we've been to the Dominican Republic this year, we're thinking about going to Iceland but that might not happen until March just depending on just different scheduling issues, but Just about every weekend, we've been somewhere this whole entire summer. So we've gone on so many trips and so many different places, and every single one, we've been able to use the same kind of ultralight principles and and loved loved that. We didn't have to teach Derek
Tayson: how to be Ultra Lite. I think when we taught him how to build your life and started bringing him on trips, he started bringing more stuff. Because I think he's the kind of guy that like he could grab a toothbrush and
Tayson: just go, you know, I feel like you could probably get categorized. This is that sometimes where it's like as long as Derek it has like I don't know, I say that because he's the only guy in the office. I know that like we'll just sleep on a tarp and set a setting up a shelter or just things like that he's just he's just that style. So I know you this this
Tayson: concept of just being minimalist is just been up your alley for a long time.
Derek: Well, it goes. It goes back to what I said at the beginning of the podcast. For me like why would I waste a trip by making it less enjoyable from bringing extra stuff. Like to me, it taints the trip right off the get-go. If you're grumbling and having a terrible time, preparing to go Gathering all this stuff and making a big castle of it. So to me some not want to
Derek: it's like I don't even want to go anymore. Like yeah, I don't
Derek: even want to go if I take a whole day to get ready to go. Like you know, to me that's kind of been a thing that I learned a long time ago. And so for me, the simpler, the better, the quicker, the better to me that just makes any trip or any Adventure, a lot more fun. But when we went to the Dominican Republic, this last summer is the same thing. We've mentioned, the Cody UL backpack prototypes that we've been testing
Derek: and using and my wife and I we use a couple of those and we just packed up and we went there for about a week. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law came as well as two other friends that my wife and I often go on different trips and adventures together with these are the kind of friends that they just bought a sailboat just because and one of the learn how to mail a lot of. Yep. What the heck? He found it. He found
Derek: on Facebook Marketplace for 1,000 bucks and just like, all right, I'm in and he bought it and He usually you want probably three to four people to figure out how to sail it. And so he asked my wife and I had to be you know crew members of Figuring out how the heck to sell, you know, in the middle of Utah desert. So we took it to, this is a side story, but we took a to a lake, just a small
Derek: little Lake. and for our first time, Trying to set up the sales and the rigs, right? And we did it upside down on accident. How big of a sailboat? Are we talking? We're talking like 20 feet long and oh, wow, solid
Derek: solid, you could sleep four people down underneath in the cabin.
Tayson: Oh, it's got a cabin on it. Well, yes. So
Tayson: it's not like a double pontoon Style.
Derek: No, no, this is a sailboat. And so, there's a cavity where he kill off the hole, and yeah, deep kill off middle of the hole and so we could sleep for people in that thing. And anyways, we're always thought that so both for awesome.
Tayson: So now that Another Side Story, I guess on the Civil side, probably side, good boy. Scouts growing up. I mean I'm an eagles Scout, right? And probably my favorite Mary Badger ever. Got was sailing and it was like, we were out of scout camp. They had these little tiny sailboats, you know, like talking like seven foot sailboats, right? And the whole reason I got the merit badges, I thought it'd be so cool. Once you had the merit badge, you could go
Tayson: take these sailboats whenever you wanted and Salem around, and that was a blast. But I remember one of the requirements is, you had to tip your sailboat over. And then basically get it back to shore. So people would tip it over and then like drag it back to Shore and I tipped it over and I'm like started to try to like drag it back to turn. My this is way too hard. So somehow I flipped it back upright and the thing
Tayson: is completely full of water and I just saved it right back to the dock. Ever, that's the guys. Like I've never seen anyone do that. I'm like, why not? Why would I swim this thing? It's got a sale on it, but no sailboats are awesome. I thought I've always thought I'd be way cool one day, like, you know, Kids are out of the house and I got nothing to do and to go like sail from one end to the other of
Tayson: like lake or something like that if that's even possible. But
Derek: yeah, this this friend of mine, Matt, his goal in life is own a catamaran and just kind of live in it. Yeah, a big catamaran so he started
Tayson: I met people that Island hop like that when I was in South East Asia. So
Derek: anyways, that that's the, I mean, coming all back to where we were. That's the Dr. No no. But that's the crew, we had a couple friends, some family members and my wife and I and we took off and went to the Dominican Republic and I actually lived there for a couple of years a while back. And so I'm fluent in Spanish and I knew a few things about the Dominican Republic and and have some friends there. But yeah, we packed up
Derek: these Cody UL backpacks. And we were meeting my mother and sister-in-law in Las Vegas Airport. They live in Mesa, we live here in Cedar City and so we met them at the airport before we all flew over there. And, and when we got there, they actually had some other things, like those big snorkeling kits, you know, flippers, and the mask. And like, the, the breathing hose. I don't know what to call it actually.
Derek: Yeah, the snorkeling. And so, I had so much room left in my pack, still, that was like, I just shoved that thing. That whole numbers and everything inside my pack just fine. And basically we treated our Backpacks like a personal item on the plane Matty and I actually do that. Almost every single trip is we have one backpack and most of the time works just as a personal item, would not even a carry on. And I think that's the best way
Derek: to go and save a little money on the trip as well.
Tayson: um, So we get what we're like was everyone else checking bags?
Derek: No, no we are, we kind of as well, my wife and I we'd spend some time convincing them. We're like we're not We're not gonna go wait around for luggage and and trying to find that afterwards. So we kind of told everybody else coming on this trip with us like This spring one back. And that's what we kind of made them do. Yeah, because we're, like, we're gonna enjoy this and we're gonna just make it simple in the travel aspect. And,
Derek: and so we didn't force them to, but also the same time, we kind of twist their arm a bit like not just one bag. That's all you need. And, and they were hard to convince like these. Like I said, these friends that we've done a lot of trips with their, their You know, they could see the benefit of that and same with my mother and sister in law. But We get to the Dominican Republic and have a great time. On this
Derek: particular trip, we stayed in the same place every night for the week. So we did have one place to come back to and we didn't have to Carry our stuff with us day to day because we were moving, you know, to different towns or Villages. So, In that aspect, it was really easy.
Tayson: Not quite as much travel as when you were in Guatemala. And yeah, the city to city. But
Derek: yeah, not when we say we did just live with that backpack on our backs and every night we are in a new place. But on this trip that was not the case. But like I said, I do have some friends that live in the Dominican Republic that are locals there and we were able to have them stay with us and and Kind of give us an in to all the different local things and and a lot of people, if you've traveled
