My friends, welcome to this adventure. I headed out onto a closed mountain pass while a cold, heavy rain swept through the area—39 degrees, frozen ground, and that kind of weather that tells you real quick what’s going to work and what’s going to fail. With the national forests shut down from recent snow and ice storms, I took advantage of the closure to hike the paved road and check out one of my favorite spots: an impressive bridge that wraps around the mountainside, high above the trees. It’s a marvel of engineering—no blasting—this thing was epoxied into place. The plan was simple: get underneath that bridge, hunker down, make coffee, and eat lunch. That didn’t happen. Between water splattering off the bridge and a piece of graffiti that would’ve been in the background the whole time, I had to scrap the idea and pivot back to the vehicle—especially after my waterproof pants split down the middle (yep… smooth move). From there I cooked lunch and tested a new Primus stove in the cold rain, talked about the changing conditions, and shared a big channel update: moto camping is coming in 2026. The plan was one thing, we ended up doing another—and that’s just how it goes out here.