Transcript auto-generated with Google Speech-to-Text diarization and lightly cleaned for speaker names. Speaker labels use first names only.
Tayson: Okay, So here's the big question, how do we live a life? full of adventures travel and memories on our terms without being millionaires without previous experience? And without unlimited amounts of time, that's the big question and this podcast will give you the answers. I'm your co-host Tayson and I'm Dave and you're listening to the Live Ultralight
Dave: podcast powered by Outdoor Vitals. On today's episode, we sat down with Brian, from Colorado Backcountry Adventures. He told us how he left his corporate job to live a life full-time on the road. By unspoken with this from outside Bears. Ears, National monument in rural Utah. So please excuse the sound quality for the first half of the recording, particularly my microphone. Let's welcome Brian to the show.
Tayson: Everybody thanks for joining us on the Live Ultralight podcast. We are super excited today to have Brian on the podcast. Brian is a true advocate of a little light lifestyle individual. I've been featured on his podcast, which we can touch on here in a little bit. But Brian, we're very excited to have you on the podcast and super excited to kind of dive into your lifestyle.
Brian: Awesome, I'm excited to be here. Thanks for having me.
Tayson: Yeah, I know, we definitely appreciate you coming on and providing our listeners with some of the information that you've, you know, developed over the years of doing what you do. But before we kind of dive into the nomadic lifestyle that you live, I just wanted to start by asking you a little bit about your backstory, you know, did you grow up in the outdoors? How did you develop that passion for the outdoors and let's just start right there?
Brian: Okay, sounds good. Well, I grew up in Kansas, but I grew up out in the country and we lived on a lake when I was growing up as a kid. And So I've got two brothers and older, brother and younger brother. And we, we spent all of our time Outdoors. Like we'd always be out at the lake we in the summertime. We'd we'd find trees that were dead standing and we knocked him over and make like Huck Finn rafts and try to paddle out to the middle of the lake and then the winter time, we'd we'd play Ice Hockey and and spend a bunch of time outdoors. And then my dad actually, my parents were kind of way ahead of their time when it comes to the whole van life thing. Because back in the early 80s, my dad would buy old used cargo van vans and then And build them out on the interior and we live out of those. While we go out and go to Colorado, or Wyoming, or California, and visit a bunch of national parks when I was growing up. And So that's what got us hooked on the outdoors, on my brothers. And I, we all love being outside because our parents just like, pushed us Outdoors, every chance we got and with us, living in somewhat of a nature setting in Kansas, it was great. And then we were next door to Colorado, and Wyoming, and we'd head over to Missouri, and go to the, you know, those arcs over there. So we always spent our time outdoors and that that bug got into me at a pretty young age.
Tayson: That's super interesting. So when you say your daughter to build out these Vans, would you live in them or would you just go on vacation in them?
Brian: Well, we'd we'd live on them while we're on vacation. So we'd go for like two or three weeks at a time and we never get a hotel room, we just always camp out of those. And typically it was my brother's and I would camp on inside and then my parents would get would sleep in a 10 outside. But if the weather was real bad, we'd all hunker down together inside the Vans. And So, it was fun. We love travel that way.
Tayson: Now it's like the opposite of my experience. My parents are like, I'm staying in the camper. You guys. Go find a place to lay down at night So that's that's super interesting and it definitely makes more sense how you're able to do what you do. So for those listeners just kind of describe a little bit. So Brian you have a website, an Instagram account a YouTube channel, called Colorado Backcountry Adventures. That's kind of how we initially got synced up with you. As you just me on your podcast, which I assume is also Colorado Backcountry Adventures and then I got to like, learn about you and I was more intrigued by you that, I think that I was probably intriguing to your listeners because you, you left it all behind, right? You left it all behind and you live a complete nomadic lifestyle, where you, you have a truck, you have a trailer, right? Or is it 100% of the truck,
Brian: 100% of the truck?
Tayson: Okay, So you have a truck. You live out of this truck, you travel all over. In fact, right now, we're just talking before you are down in Bear's. Ears, correct?
Brian: Yeah. That's correct. I'm on their volunteer. Visit with respect Ambassador crew for the next six weeks, full-time.
Tayson: Yeah. And and earlier you were down in California if I'm right like February. So you just you Just traveling around. Colorado, got crazy for you. This winter with all the snowpack coming in there and you're like, hey, I don't have to be here.
Brian: Yeah. Exactly. Typically, I like to spend my Winters doing winter camping, and are four seasons intent with the wood stove. And I've modified the what the stakes that I have. So I can even get them out of the ground or into the ground, if the ground's frozen. So I can still bounce around every two weeks and comply with stay limits in the National Forest, but this past winter. I thought, you know what? There's So much snow, and I'm tired of chopping wood. I'm gonna go live these easy life and the warm weather. The American South West. That's what I did. Well, after college, I went to Kansas State University and I graduated with the international business degree. With an emphasis in marketing. And my first job out of college, I was working for an internet startup. It was called move.com and a lot of people are familiar with realtor.com and we lost a great place to be all that. I guess the question is what we're doing? West Coast manager and that's what this is, what on California. You want to live there for 10 years before I start to Colorado in 2010? And when I came back to Colorado, I decided to switch gears and I went in to owning my own business, I owned a sign business that catered to real estate developments. And So on the weekends, we we put up all these temporary signs like hey, new homes, and come, check them out, all this good stuff. But then the weekdays my weekdays were free, which was perfect because I could avoid the crowds and go camping on the weekdays and have all the choice spots to myself without having to battle with The Weeknd crowd and for anybody who's been in Colorado as of late. And when I say, as of late, I mean, the last two decades, you know, he realized the summertime, it's pretty busy camping. So, being able to go on the off times was really nice for me and I started realizing that when I was out in nature and out. Course, I just was a better person. I just felt more relaxed and I was kinder to people, and I enjoyed life a lot more, it was kind of like a Reawakening for me when I was out there because for the 19th that I was in the corporate world. My strategy was, well, I'll just outwork everybody and that's how I get ahead. And when you do that, you have a tendency to Lose Yourself. And in hindsight, you know, I definitely lost myself in the corporate grind doing that. And So this was a total shift for me. And I remember when I told some family and friends about me thinking about going to live in my truck full-time and just bounce around and help out doing, you know, conservation, work on public lands. I remember a couple people asked me to like, hey, Is anybody after you? Are you like running from somebody? Like what's going on? You know, like, they couldn't believe that. I just wanted to go live in my truck and just have a great time out in nature and enjoy all that stuff. So, but after I got out here for a little while and this all that I could do this comfortably and still stay connected and and have a real good time, everybody kind of changes, their tune. And now, everybody just loves that. They think it's great, So I'm having a great time on here. Oh no. Haha. That's funny man. Oh yeah.
Tayson: So So let's talk a little bit about the financial side, So you have this business, like you kind of left corporate a little bit, you got involved with your own business and then you, you know, from there you jumped into just 100% on the road that's that's extreme for most people. They still typically reporting to a day job. But you're, you've got kind of that entrepreneur bug. It sounds like and And whatnot. So what do you feel like was it enabled you to be able to make that jump? Did you have a secure mobile job already? Did you just have an idea that you have a sum of money or planning on kind of spending through as you tried to, to make something out of this?
Brian: Yeah, that's, that's a good question. And I get asked this question all the time, because people are wondering how you can make it happen, and it's definitely different living on the road full time. Because when you don't have a physical address, I think most employers. If you're applying for a job, they look at you and kind of be like, okay, what's up with this person? You know, and I understand that because when I had, you know, my business, I'd have people apply that say, oh, I love my vehicle full-time, and I think, well, I don't know if this person is quite suited for, you know, the job here, but that, but then that, you know, when we can get into this later about perspective, it's like, you know, that was my old perspective of what I thought, how people should live So live on the road. Like, this is really open up a lot of doors from me and not just new ways of thinking, but when it goes back to the money, when I first got on the road, I still own my sign business and I hadn't hadn't gotten rid of That yet my cousin acquired it from me at a later date. So that was kind of nice to have a little interjection of funds with that, but when I got on the road, YouTube was actually paying me pretty, pretty good and I was able to To live off the YouTube revenue, and their algorithms change a little bit from time to time, So, your Revenue fluctuates. But I also started to pick up odd jobs around some of the ranches that I would would be hiking around. I'd see, I'd see signs that said, hey, you know, we need Ranch hands or whatever and I love physical activity work, that's that's geared towards around that stuff. So I called those people up and said, hey, what do you need? And most of the times I was hiking on on properties, working on water rights, or irrigation ditches. Or, you know, it's different different sort of ranch Opera Ranch duties, if you will, and then I started getting into working with some of the outdoor companies for doing different photo shoots for him and marketing, collaborations and all those things. So I've got a number of different ways that I bring in Revenue but I'd say YouTube is definitely first and foremost the biggest Revenue earner for me. Well, it's kind of funny. I was talking to a friend of mine about that this morning, who's another YouTuber? We were camping together out here at Bears ears, and he asked me about that. I told him, I said, you know, I my first went out winter camping was in 2015 and I was in the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness or not Wilderness Area, but on the border of the Wilderness Area there, right on the edge. And I remember I made two videos and I put them up on YouTube and I just completely forgot about him for like a year and a half. And end up logging back onto YouTube and thinking, oh, I wonder how those videos ever did. And each one of them had like, 300,000 views and all these people going to, hey, we need more content like where are you, what happened? Did you die in the woods? Like what's going on? And and So I thought, well I just something to this. Like maybe I should focus on this a little bit and started putting up truck camping videos and that just really took off and then the winter camping stuff. People go crazy about that.
Dave: And
Brian: now, I'm getting in the world where I was wanting to feature more of the conservation stuff, but I'm doing because for the last three years in Colorado and Central Colorado, I had 15, motorized trails that I maintained for the forest service and formally adopted those from the forest service. So I would go out pretty much starting in like April and run all the way through October and run, those Trails every week, and do trash patrols, and any sort of Trail maintenance and stuff like that, and had some videos that I used to do about that. But I want to take it to the next level. And really explain why it's important to take care of these these outdoor places and and be a good stewards of the land. Oh, yeah, yeah, definitely. I mean, I could, I could stay at the different Camp campsites at no charge and also use their trash facilities, because I'm picking up trash when I'm out there and things of that nature. But my commitment to them, is for all out of each week. I'm four days on the monument and three days off. And So I'm here through April 30th and I've committed to those four days doing 32 hours of volunteer work per week. and So, I've been assigned a number of sites that are Basically, like ruins and petroglyphs and caves that have pottery and things of that nature and these sites are open to the public yet and So my responsibility is to hike back in there and just do an inventory of the area. Make sure that there's no new graffiti make sure that there's no one back in there. Do you face in any of the the sights or do anything that they shouldn't do? You know what exactly are you? So that's why are you in this area? Won't be able to get into some of those sites and on the runs because they just have a tendency to be kind of clumsy and sometimes they can knock stuff over. And then the third thing, I'm going to be doing is that the education center. I'll be selling in from time to time. When there's, you know, somebody calls in sick and they have a gap in the schedule there. Then I'll be able to go in and visit with people that are visiting the monument and the education center. So Three things, we'll be doing. Yeah. Well, this is new, you know, the stuff I did for the forest Service. A lot of times I was solo because I just go I just make my own schedule and just run the trails according to, you know, my availability which was, which is pretty much every day, but I take off, you know, a couple days on the weekends and stuff like that. But this will be the first one where I'm actually working on ruins or Petroglyph panels or anything like that before. It was just keeping an eye on the motorized trails and taking care of hiking, trailheads and things of that nature. So it's it's nice to change it up a little bit because for the last three years just doing those things in central, Colorado, I, you know, right, he's kind of a little bit So it's nice to change things up a bit.
Dave: Nice to be in that part of the country. This time of the year too.
Brian: Yeah. And I'm actually floored like, you know, I'll go out and do I've done. So, I got here last Wednesday and it was raining like crazy when I got here. So the last like, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. You couldn't even get into the monument because the roads are So messy. But I went on Saturday and Sunday and then I've been out the past three days, just doing patrols and going on hiking trails, and things of that nature. And I'm really, really impressed with the fact that there's not much trash around here. I haven't seen hardly any So people are not a lot, that's not leaving any trace or anything like that. So let's get to see.
Tayson: Yeah, I would, I would think, like, I mean, the people of landing and run, not down there. I think they're, you know, they they obviously were kind of against Bears years because they wanted all private or not, not private, but to them, it was kind of private. They're down there. This tiny little town, it's all them. And I feel like they took care of it probably, but I would imagine that all the attention that's come to it. It's probably like, it's, it's more the die-hards that are gonna go there. First, they're gonna be like the first ones like Man, I gotta go see Bears here, see what it is and hopefully those people are really responsible and, you know, they're real active members of the outdoor community and hopefully they're, you know, like you say taking care of their trash and not.
Brian: Yeah.
Tayson: Not vandalizing or really just you know, not analyzing but like doing damage. You know just by being there.
Brian: Yeah I would agree because this area is it's kind of off the beaten path and you have to make it a point to go here. There's not going to be anything else that that brings you to this place. Like the bluff area. Bluff doesn't have very much to offer other than Bears here, which is a ton to offer. But as far as the town goes, You know, people aren't going to Bluff to vacation just for the town and So I think that you're right, the people that are out here that they intend to come that they're making it a point to come out here. And as a result of that, I think that that crowd cares a little bit more than just the normal individual that may come
Tayson: Yeah, So I'm on your website here and I clicked on the Bears ears area in the table and it and it kind of brought up a little bit about potentially donating and it looks like that donations going to help you in your volunteer service, but that brings up kind of a question for me and maybe this will tie together with the Bears ears portion. But when you went full-time on the road, did you find that? You're like, monthly expenses went down or
Brian: oh, yeah. Yeah, totally down. I can get by, and, and travel up to about roughly 1400 miles a month and have all my meals, taking care of my car insurance, my health insurance, and everything, I can do it for about 1200 bucks a month.
Tayson: Wow. Yeah. That's That's like most people's rent if they're lucky.
Brian: Yeah, I mean like my rent in Denver was 2000 a month So you know it's crazy to think that I'm getting by on 800 dollars less than my just my rent and it's and I'm having a blast and I'm going all over the place.
Tayson: So what are you what are you leaving out? I mean, are you leaving out convenience? Is it a harder lifestyle or doing that? The money is in really a factor of the quality of the life style.
Brian: And the morning is not really the factor because the more, the majority of things that I do when I'm out here, is I'll go hiking, I'll go fly fishing, or I'll go backpacking or just explore different areas. And once you have the gear, all that stuff is pretty much free besides they used fees and So the recreation activities that I engage in out here, Don't cost anything. Whereas when I was in the house, you go to dinner. And So you go to dinner and drinks with your girlfriend or wife or whatever and you're out and about, I mean, it's like and probably minimum of a hundred bucks. And So the expenses as with what you do out here, you can line it up to where the majority of your Recreation is is free or next to free. Whereas when I was living in the city, you got to pay for everything. So that's a big difference right there. Also too, just not having the rent payment. That's huge of being able to save that money. And then things like, you know, I don't have a gym because I work out all the time on the trail. And So I don't need to have the gym, nor would I have access to it? Don't have the big data plan for, you know, the internet at home. And just just every way I think just simplifying your life as a whole is, a way of downsizing and then also too, when you live out here and you live in this manner, you know, I'm in a Toyota Tacoma. So it's a pretty small space. Yeah, that's where I've adopted the minimalist lifestyle and the ultralight Lifestyles because I've only got So much space to carry gear, So gear. Has to be really important to me. So, I've gone from the mindset of, like, I want to buy some stuff because I because I can, and I and I'm bored and I want to get some new things. And although all that stuff and I might in the past I would buy luxury items and say, well, I might use this every once in a while. Well, that doesn't that doesn't fit out here. Living this way. Like every item that you carry, I say you need to have a dual dual use for each item that you have. And So with that, you kind of change your mind when it comes to consumerism as well. Because you're not out buying the latest and greatest things. You're just getting the stuff that works for your lifestyle. So, living this way, it's like the whole perspective, change, it's hard to explain how the person that I was before is So different than the person I am now. And just, just a span of a four years that I've been on the road. It's like I went from being very entrenched on the corporate world. You know, going out and going to dinners all the time and going on cool vacations and you know, enjoying life and that and that respect. But then I came out Here. And just like, I do everything completely different than what I did before. Just even two, just like looking at my resources, like, my water and stuff like that. I'm So much more careful with those resources that I have. Because, you know, you're operating out here and you don't have to make a undo trip to town if you don't have to for, for something, for a plan for appropriately. So it's it's been an eye opener out here and it's changed. Me and everybody. And finances has been a big one.
Tayson: know that there's a ton to unpack right there, but No, yeah, I'm I want to back up almost and just go through some of that piece by piece. I'm first off when you talk about like the gym membership, man. I wish So bad. I could work out more like you and I and I need to because I feel like a hamster on a wheel, you know, every time I go to the gym, like on the treadmill running and I'm like, what am I I'm running in place. Like this provides no value. It's just So stupid and yet you have to do it because then I go sit in a chair for hours, you know, working and anyways it's a whole different thing. But Dave over here he's a foodie and He needs to go eat out, you know, occasionally occasionally once a day now, okay. But It doesn't cost
Dave: anything.
Brian: Yeah.
Tayson: Right. But but to my yeah and I can definitely that's definitely true. Yeah no but back on the just a love to eat. Do you eat less quality food or you like man? I really could just go for a pizza right now or you like every day. You're like man I said and
Brian: it's all right man I don't
Tayson: Burgers
Brian: for Real Estate. So it kind of goes back and forth. But during the summertime, I definitely do clean up my eating because I'm on the trails hiking So much that I can't, I can't put junk food into my body and expect to perform well out there. And So in the summertime smaller meal, I may do different on the trail. I'll usually do like a dehydrated meal or maybe just some oatmeal or something like that. Just something with some quick carbs. And then for dinner, I'll do a big meal. I'll do like chicken breast with sweet potato and asparagus, you know, for that. Now, I do get myself into trouble in the winter time a lot. Well, I was thinking about when
Dave: you said that, it's like a different form of entertainment. That's a really good. Baseball. Biking, skiing hiking, running camping, whatever it may be. So it's just a different that that's kind of how I look at it. It's a different form of entertainment and oh,
Brian: Yeah, I'm not gonna buy any junk food. I'm not gonna buy, you know? He cookie. But cookies are candy bars and
Dave: I do love dude.
Brian: I know it's like I do that. I'm not gonna break down to go back in town to buy that stuff. And So I'll go back, I'll say like all right, you know, it's sometimes I am successful with another times, I'm not. But for the most part, I just try to keep it to where the stuff that I have in my cooler is, is just health food and just healthy for me. So,
Tayson: I honestly, it sounds like you eat, probably better than me. Like, my wife cooks, great dinners for me. And So I get to enjoy that every night, but, you know, lunch and breakfast. I'm like a shake and then I'm like, you know, a sandwich for lunch and sounds like you were like, I don't know, practicing is not just So busy and in that, like, go go, go, go mentality. You're absolutely down and making a breakfast burrito and yep, things like that. So yeah interesting is I mean
Brian: yeah I was talking about I was talking about that was still this morning and my buddy, he's on the road full-time as well and and he's like man it's great. We have all this extra room or all this extra time to make great meals. He's like, I never had that time when I was in the corporate world and I was like, yeah, that's one thing I love about living like this is I can take two hours and make a really great breakfast, a really great dinner and it's fine. Like, I don't have to be any place that has a specific time. So
Tayson: yeah. It's like that is your entertainment like is the preparation of the food and then getting to enjoy it and I mean that's the process. That's the yeah. It's So simplistic, but it sounds So appealing to sit and listen to that.
Brian: Yeah. Yeah, it's fun too, because I'll put on like a podcast and just make a, it's like, an experience to cook dinner.
Dave: Yeah,
Brian: I'm not personal failure to my truck and usually, I'm either.
Dave: I was insane, just living on the road, just like that. They always try to abortion, try to make dinner,
Brian: like you close, things like that. So you kind of have
Dave: a nice view and you're cooking. Yeah. Can you look yeah, yeah,
Brian: definitely and I that's something I've been thinking about because When I had my, when I designed the the slide out extension out of my top, or I've got the short bed, the Tacoma short bed. So it's only five feet long, I'm six feet tall. So for the first two years and I don't know how I did this. I I slept in a platform bed diagonally in my truck and I would barely fit, like I would get in there. My feet would be right in the corner of of like the driver's side corner, you know, up close to the cabin in my head would be towards the tailgate on the passenger side. And I slept like that for two years doing Trail work for the forest service. And the reason why I didn't get a slide in camper was because I didn't want to compromise having a really heavy duty roof rack to carry all the tools that I needed for the rock work. And So, I had that slide out extension which was great because it takes the five foot bed and makes it a seven foot bed for sleeping and then it just slides back in when I'm ready to pack up and thank you. Shut the tailgate hit the road again. But you know before next month and as much as I hate to admit it, you know, father time is this creeping up with me and they aches and pains that you have just from General, just every day hiking and all that stuff. It's a little bit more than he used to be and I'd like to do either either. I'd like to take off the bed of my truck and build a custom camper box on the back that would have a popup on it or get a new rig. With like I really like those old-school Chinook Toyota campers like the 70s and 80s style, something. I don't know if you guys have seen those
Dave: but
Brian: they're really cool. Toyota used to make these really awesome vintage truck campers and they were attached to the The truck that that was the predecessor to the Tacoma and I've got a really bulletproof engine on it and then the Chinook camper on the back of it, has this cool pop up and it has like a bed back in there and everything but it just looks like a pickup truck and So I'd like to get into something like that or go with like a 140 Sprinter 4 by 4 and then really do it up with a really nice build out with that. So that's probably what I'll be looking at eventually. If I stay on the road full time, I'd like to do it for a decade So we'll see. I've been on the road for years So far.
Tayson: Yeah, four years is an incredible achievement. And I would agree man, if you like being able to sleep in the back of your truck, has to have some appeal because you wouldn't have to set up a tent every night. And if you'd really be in Mobile and not that does sound appealing all though, you know, your wood stove and things sounds really nice as well. I want to jump into gear at some point but I want to put that a little bit on hold and back up to when you very, very first got out there like like If we talked a little bit about how I mean, it seems like you kind of had a softer transition as far as starting to do this in the weekdays maybe and then you kind of went full-time and then you eased into it. Which is how I think most people should do this. But but usually people look at that and it's like this, the scary part but you know, after you started going out there, let's say you're like fully committed at this point, you're you've been doing this. You've now sold your business, the dribbler like hit a wall where you're just like, man, I don't want to do this anymore. What do you sometimes still hit a wall? We're just like, I just want to go home.
Brian: Yeah, yeah. And usually I've always noticed that that is generally speaking, when the weather is really bad because weather can complicate things for you So much, especially when it's cold you get up at 7:00 in the morning and it's 14 degrees outside and you've got to get out your truck to make breakfast and that's not fun. And I've never found that to be fun. So typically when it's cold out and if I'm not in the forces and with the woods, So that's my question what I'm doing, but then it's like I'll get through the that cold period and then I'll be warm again. I'm like man, I'm So glad I didn't go back to like living in a house and going back to the the previous video that I used to live because I love living this way in the weather's. Nice. She's can't be like this morning. I woke up got out of the topper. It was 60 degrees already. The birds are chirping my dogs running around having a ball. I'm cooking breakfast and went Butler Wash here at bears and it's like you know who wouldn't want to start their daylight that that's an awesome way to start the day. So, but it, but I do every once in a while, you know, I'll see. It's it's kind of actually I call it, I call it the compare and compete mindset. That seems like most people are in these days, like special when you see stuff online, you'll see somebody that is doing something awesome or has something awesome or doing something great with their life. And you think well I should do that too. And you want to compete with that and every, once while that will come into my into my mind and I'll see somebody that maybe they are on a killer vacation or they're they Move to a new house and then or whatever, whatever may be and everyone So I think like, oh maybe I should go back to doing that and I'm like, wait a minute. I haven't come this far to give up, you know, and I I had challenges when I was in the corporate world and you know, you have challenges out here, too, it's still real life. But the challenge is out. Here are much easier to manage given the environment that you're in.
Tayson: I want to jump into gear at some point. Yeah,
Brian: that's that's why that's why I started doing this winter. When I went down at first, I was in Sedona and I thought I was gonna escape the the winner apocalypse. And then I got hit with a freak 2 foot snowstorm, which was great because I got really awesome photography of all the red rocks out there. But but that was, that was on characteristic for Sedona. And then I from there, once that snow storm hit, I went on to end the Borrego and So in California, but I think going forward in the winter time. I definitely would like to travel a little more and And head down to the South and and follow some warmer weather and maybe even go International and start heading to Mexico and Central America and things of that nature.
Tayson: Yeah. Would you do you ever think that this will end? Yeah I come a time when you're just like I think it's time to to park it.
Brian: Yeah, definitely because I I think that Living this way. It's a very Physically Active lifestyle and I don't see myself doing this 20 years from now. I see myself maybe on a ranch or off-grid. I definitely want to live off grid for the rest of my life. I think it's just a simpler way to live and it's your carbon footprint is much less and So that's the thing I want to continue doing. Even if I'm not a truck camping, I want to do that when I get back into a structure. But eventually I think I would like to have a sense of community, like a, like, a stabilized sense of community that I'm plugged into, but as it stands right now, I just I just feel like there's more adventuring that I have to do. And plus I want to volunteer more places across the country and get to know other areas other national monuments and things like that. it's funny that you say, because I've been actually been giving thought to that Over the past, I'd say month, month or two months, not not that. I wanted to get off the road anytime soon, but I started pondering like. Okay, what's life gonna look like when I'm no longer truck, camping, full-time, and going, all these amazing areas and in my mind, I think that I, I definitely want to continue to stay living off grid. So I would probably look at getting a piece of land and in a remote section of the country, hopefully in a mountainous area and build an off-grid property. And just keep my carbon footprint in a small as possible because I think it's important to be mindful of that.
Tayson: yeah, no, I think the interesting part there is You know, people look at someone like you and they think well I could never go do that and then they also think in terms of of like continuums, right? So it's like well then if I did that after that forever and you know when I'm 70, I don't want to be doing that and we're not. But like what's So interesting about you? Is it seems like you phased in and then you're saying you know there's gonna come a time that I'll probably phase back out and neither of it is like the end of the world, right?
Brian: Absolutely. I look at it, it's just part of growing. And I tell people, it's because people ask me about that. I'll say, yeah, eventually I'll get off the road. They're like, well, I'll be hard to go back to You know, the your previous life? I'm like, well, I'll go back to it with, with a much healthier perspective about, making sure. I take enough time to be out in nature and do the outdoor things that I like that. That recharges my soul, So that I don't get drugged down and lose myself. Like I did, you know, previously in the corporate world by working too much. So I think that life is about Evolution and not about staying stagnant in one spot, because I think if you stay stagnant in one spot in life, you don't have a chance to learn if you're not push beyond your boundaries or to your boundaries, you really never really know what you're capable of. And So I've told some of my friends, one of the main reasons why I came out here and did this. It was just to see how far I could push it and see how far I could push myself and it's amazing. You get out here and you do these things and you go a lot further, new thing. And I also tell people too, some people say, well, you know, you've got this amazing life and then you're out there truck camping. And I'd love to have that too, but I just can't do it. I'm like, well, I'm putting four years of planning before I before I came out and did this. And So you I don't think it would be possible just to get a pickup today and just go do it tomorrow. So you Have to plan and put those things in place. And if you do that, you can anybody can get out here and do this.
Tayson: That's interesting. Four years of planning. I think that's where most people are really going to be interested. They're going to be like, okay, let's say I want to do this on a small scale. I want to do this for two weeks first. Like I've got two weeks of vacation I can take off and maybe I want to try this, you know, for a Time Walk us through what that would look like. As far as preparation you know, big gear things that you need. I really loved what you said earlier about, you know, ultralight to you as it needs to be small compact. But also dual purpose, I really resonate with that, you know, a big part of things is just not, not needing. You know, one backpack for this one, backpack for that or one jacket for this and three for that. And I think that's huge. But but walk us through that, if you were, if you were in, you know, listeners footsteps, they've they've got backpacking gear, let's say just regular backpacking gear and they're thinking, maybe I want to go try this out of a vehicle for for two weeks or three weeks maximum during some paid time off or some time off that I have or a break in school or something like that. What would you do to prepare for that?
Brian: Yeah, that's a great question. First off, I would say going back to what you were talking about with the Dual Purpose gear items. You know, if you're gonna be out there and you're going to be living in your vehicle, it's a very small space and So you want to have the least amount of gear as possible because you don't want to spend your entire day, rummaging through your stuff, trying to find that one item that you want to locate. So what I, what I let me turn off my email. I apologize for that. So I would recommend that people. Number one, downsize. Look at all, your gear and say, okay, is this a luxury item? Or is this an eye? Is this an item that I can really use when I back there, that I'll be using pretty much on a daily basis. And So eliminate the items that are that are just luxury items that are one off, know what you're going to be doing when you're out there and build your gear around that. So if you're gonna be doing a bunch of hiking, make sure that you've got plenty of good stocks. Make sure you've got Moleskine, make sure you're hiking poles and your backpack and all the different things you need in your water purifier and your sunscreen, and don't go out there with just like a shotgun approach. Go out there and be be have like a method to your Madness about where you're going and what gear you have. Because you can match that gear up with your activities and then you can do a bunch of crossovers. So if like if you're doing a bunch of different hiking hiking trails are doing backpacking trips or whatever it may be they're gonna be using that same gear over and over when you're out there for that two or three week period So just as design your your vacation according to that and then build your gear around it and then another thing I'd really recommend is to start prepping your meals. Do it at your house before you leave. Because you don't want to like have your first introduction to your camp stove when you're out in the backcountry because it may not work properly. And So if you can practice cooking all of your meals, I'd say a month prior to you. Going out, just start cooking on on your, on your gear that you're going to be using. When you're out traveling for those two or three period, and it's gonna make meals much easier for you and it's just gonna make things simpler. And then when you're out there, test out, if you've got a cell phone that has a wireless hotspot test out trying to send some emails from the field, you'd be surprised how much work you can get done out here with no distractions. And that's one thing I love about being out here is that I can set up a wireless hotspot, get all my work done and then just go on to the next destination. I don't have to go into the office to do that and I found that when I'm out on these environments, a much more focused to get things done, because my agreement with my self is like, okay, if you get all your work done, then you can go hiking. So it's like, I'll stay laser focusing and get all that work done. So I can get out and go hiking and I just spend the whole day, you know, behind the keyboard of a computer.
Tayson: Now that's that's a lot of great advice. I can agree. You know, sometimes I go and hide in different corners of the office when I need to get some work done but I'm sure I could be even more focused on a mountain peak or something. But So, talking talking about some of the gear items I'm thinking about this, and Like to me if I'm a Backpacker and I look at the gear that I have, you know, and I've got like a backpacking tent and I've got a backpacking pad and, and, you know, stuff that I'm typically going out for a week, maximum maximum, but I'm also typically out of my backpack. You know what, what Comfort gear do you think you need to have in order to stand the test of time to not be like I need to, you know, like like this ultralight piece of gear. Yeah, it's light for backpacking but I'm just sick of it and I need something more comfortable that might be heavier or might be, you know, what do you think those items are specifically that you're like yeah, I just can't make that work in the situation. If I want to stay comfortable and happy out here.
Brian: Yeah, I would definitely say you're sleeping set up. You want to have a really comfortable sleeping pad, I believe it or not, I slept on a one and a half inch sleeping pad for two years on top of a plywood platform. And I don't know how I did that and, like, sanity and not have aches and pains all over my body. So, now, I've upgraded, and I've got a two and a half inch inflatable sea to Summit, it's really comfortable, but in my truck set up, I've got a 4 inch mattress in there because that's like, I've got to make sure I rest properly. Rest is So key when you're out here and you're using a lot more energy than you normally would in a traditional living Arrangement. And So if you're not resting properly, you're gonna break down quick and this this situation will become miserable. So I would say definitely invest make sure that you're sleeping set. Up is as comfortable. Make sure you have a good sleeping pad and also a good sleeping bag because sleeping bags, it was like, oh I picked up a good sleeping bag for 30 bucks. Okay. Well, I don't know how good that will be when the temperature is 70 degrees outside and you're in a tent or if you're in your truck, or your van, or whatever it may be, if it's gonna keep you warm. So those things I think I really would recommend investing heavily in an excellent gear for your sleeping setup and then also too with your cooking. I think it's really important to have good cooking gear. You don't want to have it to where you get, So minimal with your cooking that you can only develop only cook a few meals. Because then you're gonna calorically, you're going to restrict yourself and you need to make sure you bring in a bunch of calories to slow this way. And So, I would say the two things. Definitely invest and the sleeping setup, the cooking setup and I'd say a close, third would be any sort of weather gear, whether it's rain gear or winter gear. If you're going to be out in the cold, you got to make sure those layers are Top Notch. And if you do those three things, I think that will cover the pretty much of the basics of being able to stay out there longer because you want to make sure you're comfortable. So your body isn't overworking. That's what I'd recommend.
Dave: I would say to I'm a big advocate of borrowing gear and things like that to see kind of what you like, or what you don't like. So for someone starting out, maybe you have a friend or someone that can, you know, like let you borrow their their stove or something like that and see what you like, don't like, okay. That's a great recommendation because the gear is
Brian: expensive and you can definitely break the bank going out and buying a whole setup. And then you may realize that after you buy that whole setup, you like that. Actually wasn't what I needed. Yeah.
Tayson: Totally. That's interesting. Like I would have definitely thought the Sleep setup, you know, because if you're just getting crappy, sleep every night, yeah, it's gonna affect you fast. But yeah, the cooking part is, is very interesting to me. I mean, it makes total sense when you say it, but, you know, initially, I probably would have thought I can get away with my, my backpacking stove or something like that. So, So in the cooking setup are using like, a full-fledged Camp Chef or using like a Smaller one burner type thing. You're putting on the tailgate.
Brian: I've got both. I've got the small one burner for one. I just want to pull over and make a cup of coffee or a cup of tea. If I'm driving and on the road. And then for for meal setups, I actually have a two burner stove. It's a Coleman. It's a smaller one, though. It's not the, like the big Triton or anything like that. I've got a real small, two burner stove, and then I do like to do a lot of cooking, like I was talking about what that Dutch oven. If I have a campfire going, I'll bake stuff or I'll cook things in the cast iron and cast iron, man. I just eaten on that. That's that makes the best food on the planet. I know you guys know I'm talking about, but it's awesome. So he's a lot of cast iron at home, So good. Yeah, it's So good. So that's, that's what I do, though. That's
Dave: awesome. And if you like, it seems like you like to eat. So that that's all another good investment like that. For me, I like to cook, I like to eat. So I have a lot of nice Camp stuff and knives. And things like that that I'll use in the in the backcountry and I would use it, you know, at home too.
Brian: Yeah. And it's kind of fun too. Like you get out here and you might be Seven or eight miles deep. And I really remote area of the of the backcountry and you're making Port tenderloin tacos or something? Yeah, it's like you that people people say, like, oh my gosh, why would you go camping the food horrible? I'm like, well, it's only horrible. If you take that too, just say good food. You'll be great. It tastes better at Camp anyway.
Tayson: How often are you like restocking food? Are you just keeping it cold in a cooler? So yeah, seven days. Maybe
Brian: I would say I would I restock about every five days because I'm using a cooler that it's a little bit of an upgraded cooler. So it has like, you know the good insulation quality So I can get about seven days out of a bag of ice, even in the summertime and then I just make sure that ice has drained constantly. So it's not not melting too fast and I typically try to mix up my food with a mixture of dry goods that don't need to be refrigerated and then things that need to be refrigerated. So I'll plan my my diet around that my meals are on that. So that that way I've only got a limited amount of space in the small little cooler. I carry but I can still have about a week's worth of meals with me.
Tayson: Super good advice. Definitely interesting. I'm feeling I always do this. I bring guests on and I get more and more inspired to do something. I'm gonna go home and be like all right talk to my we're gonna go do this for a couple, you know, I get I get super inspired by this stuff So hopefully I met, you know, I go make something like this happen and have something to report at some point, but
Brian: the awesome meet up and we can go truck Camp over the place.
Tayson: Yeah, yeah. I mean, I, I've got a little bit different scenario. We mentioned this, but, you know, I've got a wife and a kid and another one on the way, but at the same time, like I, you know, I the reasonably I could work on the road and make things happen there. And So I might not be, like, out of my truck, but maybe I could do, like, out of out of a trailer.
Brian: Yeah, yeah. And you know, it's good, it's great. I bet a bunch of people that do that and it's just seems like a great experience for the family.
Dave: My I have a question too, with podcasting and blogging and things like that on the road and Jason just was talking about working from the road. What kind of challenges are gear? Do you use for that? Or for someone that wants to maybe get into blogging or living a, you know, a van life?
Brian: Yeah. Well you know, Well, as far as connectivity is concerned, I've got a cell phone booster in my truck. It's from, we boost the Wilson Electronics company and, and that's great because that whatever reason, it increases my data speeds on my wireless hotspot, that I create with my phone. And So, the, with the data connectivity, I've got the plan through AT&T, I think it's 75 bucks a month for the for the plan and that includes Unlimited, wireless unlimited data for the phone and then 10 gigs of data for a wireless hotspot. So, all all reserved that wireless hotspot just for uploading YouTube videos, or podcasts or working on my website or or fundraising, or whatever it may be. Only use the, the wireless hotspot, for that, and everything else, I'll do on my phone. And So, you really have to be mindful of your data. You can't just like surf, the web non-stop when you have the wireless hotspot up because it's, you know, it's limited to 10 gigs So you can run out of that, pretty fast if you don't want it. So one resource that I tell people is that if they're traveling, I've always found that most most cities that have community centers will have an open wi-fi, and it's usually pretty fast. And the same with libraries have lightning fast wife. So if you're traveling in town, that has a library, you more often, you can just go in there and you show me your ID, get in, and you can sit there and work all day, and I was joking with my friends that I was gonna move into the Sedona library, because it was So comfortable and inviting. And there was So nice people there, and I loved working there, when I was there. So, But you yeah you can find something most laundromats have Wi-Fi too. So if you go do laundry then you can do stuff while you're there. And So what I'll do is I'll load up my emails of, you know, I'll be at camp and say I've got a ton of emails to respond to, I'll load them up like crazy. If I know I'm gonna go in town the next day and then I'll just hop on Wi-Fi and hit the send button. They all send it the same time and I'm good to go.
Dave: That's good idea. Yeah,
Brian: So
Dave: I feel like I'm not this. I've spent a lot of time and public libraries across the country. Just same thing, just cooling off in the summer. Yeah, using the internet. Moab actually has a really nice Public Library. If you're in that area. Oh
Brian: cool. I'll be up there later this later. Yeah. After this one up there So also check that out. Yeah, for
Tayson: selfish reasons this, this we boosting is that boosting your signal to and from your cell phone or just your cell phone to your laptop
Brian: from the to and from my cell phone. So what it does is it has a little antenna on the top of your vehicle and then it has a an antenna. That you put inside your vehicle. So the one on top receives the signal, if you have like, a trace amount of cell signal, whether its data or voice, it can boost it up to 32 times. So, for example, here, it Bears ears. For whatever reason, in the town of bluff, I don't get cell reception but if I turn on the booster, there's enough of a trace of a signal in the area to where it bumps it up to three bars of Lte. And So I found that you know when you go camping and you probably notice this is if you go to some of your favorite spots and you know exactly where the cell service ends areas, that's where everybody camps at because they're going to be right on the edge. They want to be as far back as possible but with the booster I can go back in another three or four miles and set up and then what's nice is you can have connectivity when you want. So you turn on your booster, your connected, you're good to go. And then you want some peace and quiet, you just turn off and you want to sell service.
Tayson: That's, that's amazing. And people can actually see some of this stuff on your website. Correct. You've got some links there. Yeah, yes. So on the store on my website. At I talk about the weboost and some of the things that I use and then yeah. All that. All that information is there. Here, I'm gonna have to look into that. That's, that's a really cool. That's just a piece of gear that I just wasn't familiar. Even existed.
Brian: Yeah, you know, and they they contacted me out of the blue. I guess. They saw one of my videos on YouTube and they're they just say, hey, if you'd be interested we'll send you a free boost or just give us a review and and I had heard about cell phone boosters, but I, but what I had heard generally speaking was that they weren't very effective and this one, I turned it in and I was like, okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna give this one like the trial by fire test. I'm gonna go up one of my adopted Trails, way back up to the Wilderness Area boundary and see if this thing works because I would never get service on this one trail and I had service almost the entire way on that Three Mile Trail. Except for like two sections that were really low line and I was floored on and I was calling people. I'm like I'm on the trail. I can't believe I get service on the 15th that I had. There was only one Trail where it didn't work and that was 10 miles deep way. Back in this Canyon I wasn't expecting to get any Trace signal anyway
Tayson: That's amazing. Yeah, that's
Dave: a lot of people building out their trucks and vans shoes and these and they have really good things to say about them. I don't know what particular Brands but similar Concepts.
Brian: Yeah, most everyone that I meet on the road, I asked him what they have. If I see a booster antenna and nine times out of 10, they tell me we just
Dave: Do not.
Brian: Yeah, they're good. They're real good company.
Tayson: Well, you've you've inspired a lot of people. You've taught us a lot. I want to turn this back on you and let you use, you know, the close of this podcast to talk to us a little bit about some things that you have going on. I know that you have kind of a movie premiere if you want to talk a little bit about bears ears. You mentioned a few things off, you know is there anything like that that you want to touch on and maybe maybe people can learn more about this type of a lifestyle from you?
Brian: Yeah, sure. Yeah, I'd love to share information. If anybody wants to hit me up directly, they're welcome to contact me through my website on my website, the website address, it's kind of a long one. It's Colorado that country adventures.com. And on that page, on that website, you'll see the different things that I'm involved and I put up all the information, all the information for the different Endeavors that I'm currently working on. And as you mentioned, I've got a movie coming out. We worked on a documentary. My movie partner on, this is Adam stielstra. He owns a company called pictures heal based on a Boulder Colorado. He's been doing documentaries for 21 years and the documentary is about living on the road full time and why somebody would choose to abandon the previous life to go with the simple life of living out of their truck working on public lands and how it's changed my perspective. And I want to share that with other people and, you know, and share that story and hopefully Inspire them to follow their own dreams as well. And I've got the podcast and the podcast, we actually renamed it. First, it was Colorado Backcountry conversations but now it's Nomad rambling, conversations from the road. So we've got that going and that's been that's been going really good. We've we've had, I think we've got around 10,000 subscribers on that. So, that's a lot of fun. And I enjoy talking to different people. And, and I've just now been meeting other people on the road, which has been fun to interview them and get their perspectives and their view on living the mobile living. And then the Bears here isn't, did you have a question?
Tayson: I was just gonna say about you can meet some characters out there
Brian: and
Tayson: Oh, you know, interviewing people. I'm sure that there's some good conversations you have there.
Brian: Yeah, there's some interesting conversations, for sure. There's like, well, this is out here, you know,
Tayson: I think there's probably like this perspective that, like, people that lived a life like you like, like, Something not ticking right with them. Yeah, like obviously like we talked to you and it's like man, this guy's a normal dude, doing some awesome stuff, but I'm sure if you're just like rubbing shoulders all this, you're gonna come across a few. That would be fun to have on a podcast.
Brian: Oh yeah.
Dave: Go back to to what you said in the beginning, when you're hiring people or interviewing people and they were living that lifestyle. You're like, I don't know about this guy.
Brian: Yeah, yeah. There's some people you come across, you're like, wow. I bet you spend a lot of time by yourself thinking of these crazy, you know, conspiracy theories or whatever. Maybe. And but most of the people, I would say 99% of the times I meet people on the road they're just they're stoked for life is unreal. It's like oh man. Have you seen this? Have you done that? Oh my gosh. Everything's great. It's just refreshing because you know it's like if I tell people like if you listen to the news you think the world was falling apart. But if you go on the road meet people, everybody's happy. So you know it's it's refreshing to get that side of life.
Tayson: Totally, you know, I'm I bet they're just really, I mean, the people you're meeting. I'm sure are besides maybe conspiracy type people. I bet they're all just really optimistic. So
Brian: yep. Yeah. And like, you know, everything's gonna be fine. It's all gonna work out. Like, no matter if the weather's bad or they're rigged is, you know, in the shop or whatever. But it's like, there's no bad days, you know? And that's great to be around those positive people. And that's what I wanted. I wanted to be around a community or align myself with a community that was all about, just doing positive things, and living a simple life, and living a life with intent. And So, it's been nice to strip down all of the distractions, out of my life and able to boil it down to just focus on the things that I really think is important for me.
Tayson: Totally and then you mentioned Bears ears.
Dave: Yeah, So the Bears where that, where that donations and things. I see you have a little breakdown of it on here but kind of yeah, those donations are going and what you're using those funds for?
Tayson: Now, I I think it's amazing. I think it's crazy. Like it's So interesting to talk to someone like you that. It's like, it's like once my needs are met, everything else? I Want to give, right? Which is which is a crazy. Amazing place to be. So I definitely, you know, appreciate the work that you're doing out there, whether it be, you know, in Colorado, just on the trails or or here in Bear's ears. There's just a lot of good that you're obviously doing. It's very inspiring. It's It's a it's it's inspiring and makes me want to Aspire, you know, to to continue to give and figure out ways that I can. I can help others, but
Brian: that's
Tayson: not. Just just yeah. Just want to thank you for for the time and energy and effort that you're put into this stuff. It's it's not easy to donate 32 hours a week.
Brian: Yeah. I mean,
Tayson: people would have to like, give up Netflix and stuff to do. Yeah.
Tayson: Awesome. Yeah. For sure. Being boots on the ground is worth. A lot more than than just cruising from your laptop, trying to figure out the ins and outs of an area. So,
Brian: yeah, and then I
