Luke here with the outdoor Boys YouTube channel I'm up in the mountains of Alaska and the weather is trying to kill me I got hit with a serious winter snowstorm in the middle of September and I'm happy to seek shelter in a survival cabin to stay warm I'm cold and I'm wet but I'm having quite the adventure.

Well I've got good news and I've got bad news the bad news is that it's cold and wet and it's probably going to dump snow on me tonight the good news is I've got the trail all to myself so since I'm all by my lonesome I'm going to turn on my tracking on my Garmin inreach mini so my wife knows where I am all right first mile.

Now I've got a really good chance of seeing some tarmigan or Grouse on the road I love to hunt and eat those but I ended up not bringing my gun just because it was a lot of extra weight you know the Surefire way to see birds is to not bring your gun uh Trail is starting to get narrow and Mucky.

Check these out this is mountain ash so this is mountain ash or Rhone never eaten these before some people say that they're good some people say they're poisonous best information I can find that the flesh is edible but the seeds will give you some discomfort mountain ash is really common in this part of Alaska and it's a berry.

You can find pretty late in the season this right here is a willow in the wintertime Willow is the primary food source for moose tarmigan and hairs it also has some medicinal properties the greenish yellow inner bark of a willow has aspirin in it it tastes just like biting into an aspirin pill.

But it's obviously not as potent as an aspirin pill so you'd have to chew a lot of it to get the same dose but it's a pretty wretched way to get pain relief oh look at this that my friends is snow oh boy winter is coming all right two miles down I'm just barely starting to get that aspirin taste out.

Of my mouth mile number three my pants are getting wet I can start to feel it soak through right there I'm breaking the main rule of Big Boy survival don't wet your pants look at that water that is so clear gorgeous there's mile number four.

Check out this Beaver Pond this is the beaver Den it's hollow inside and there's usually like a little hole down in there where the beaver comes up under water and then he can hang out inside this right here is the Beavers food pile these are all Willows that he's not often stored in front of his house for winter time when ice covers.

The pond he'll go down underneath the ice and grab food from underneath the ice and bring it into his den see this little slide right here all right he scoots back and forth so you can see this entire wall of mud that was all made by a beaver that's the beaver sorry about that gotta watch my language I want to keep this family.

Friendly seeing more and more snow slowly getting an elevation mile number five it is so a watermelon Berry it's rare to find watermelon berries in the fall they're usually gone by the end of the summer man it's 33 degrees and raining out here.

I don't understand why I'm not seeing anybody else on this Trail oh geez just hit the Six Mile mark got some blueberries there's a bunch of curl berries some of them are kind of red it's been such a cold wet year the berries aren't ripening properly they're not ripe yet it's too bad.

Because there's a ton of them oh my fingers are getting numb I brought a pair of gloves with me but I don't want them getting soaked on my first day I just did seven miles now for the hard part we gotta climb that thing whoo well it's starting to properly snow on me my hands are so cold right now.

I need a little snack break all right we just completed eight miles this is where I got to be really careful my muscles are tired I'm fatigued and everything is slippery just gotta take it nice and slow unfortunately the path is getting covered up with snowing that's not making my life easier the snow is completely covered up The.

Path but that's okay I know where I'm going just need to follow this little stream the headwaters of the stream are in a saddle that'll get me over this mountain oh my battery just died my hands are so cold I had to use my teeth to get it out it is getting a bit much I need to find.

Some shelter my hands get too cold I can't light my stove or set up my tent I'm gonna do all those real important things oh there's a tarm again right there that's a rock Ptarmigan as opposed to a willow Target The Rock Target can live up here in the Rocky parts of the mountains they're a little smaller and.

They make a different sound like there's a Target right there I knew I should have brought the 22. having to pick my way through these Boulders has taken so much time I gotta be careful I don't fall down oh I am exhausted my limbs are numb it's slick it's getting dark it's really easy for me to take a bad fall here I've got.

To be careful oh I finally get to go downhill a little bit oh look at that there's a cabin oh how do I get down there I've never been so glad to see a shelter it's just in the nick of time sun is gonna set here in less than an.

Hour slow it's fast fast and slow ah that one hurt a little bit oh he's got an outhouse oh my goodness how do you get inside oh I'm so cold oh I am so cold so cold I had to use my teeth to undo the buckle for my backpack.

I need to get dry immediately this is a mountaineering cabin it's a shelter from the storms for people exploring the mountains here in Alaska it was built by volunteers from the mountaineering Club of Alaska there's a whole bunches of odds and ends equipment whole bunches of tools in there in here.

Got a little table and chairs mountaineering books an amount poker chips and decks of cards trivia Pursuit little kitchen area some pots and pans oh there's just a little bit of fuel in there oh that's a full can don't pee in the outhouse got it there's a little ladder here in.

The loft oh look at their little Library there a little Loft to sleep in nice got some old mats and stuff I am so cold I think I'm gonna bust out my sleeping bag and get it set up in the Loft hop inside for a little bit well I'm glad I kept my gloves dry but I.

Think it's time to use them I can't even get my fingers enough oh  oh I've got these adhesive body warmers gonna use these ah well man I didn't think I was that cold.

But I want to get in here I'm just freezing  when I was packing for this trip I had a nice little bag of hot chocolate and herbal teas is going to bring that along and uh I think I forgot it because it's not in my bag so I just got a little hot.

Water and honey in a cup and I'm gonna drink that because I'm so cold yep that's good enough I found my bag of hot chocolate yay hello oh my bag is soaked see how bad it is oh geez oh yeah my bag is pretty wet I hate the rain.

Hot water bottles in here okay thank you foreign got some stretchy pants on got these down booties they're wonderful I feel like I'm starting to not die I'm wearing every bit of dry clothing.

That I have and I've got two water bottles in here and I'm snuggled up in my sleeping bag I'm super hungry and I want to cook some dinner but I'm just going to sit in this bag until I feel warm once my body feels nice and warm then I'll go make dinner gonna eat a little snack while I sit.

Here and warm up I got some smoked alligator gar from our trip to Louisiana oh you got some dates well it took a while but I'm feeling warm again my base layers and underwear are still pretty wet but it's warm that's a lot better but I think I need to make some dinner.

It is getting really late oh it is cold in here foreign we're going to make some quesadillas oh it feels so much better with your fingers work pork chili verde we're gonna stuff inside okay.

Smell you I forgot to bring a plate but I found this one ah dang it just drop my knife and busted the tip off it wow I really like this knife this is stuck together oh that's good.

Got a little can of salsa here oh come on that's good roast a little marshmallow here got a little chocolate sauce  oh oh that hits the spot it's gonna get well below freezing tonight.

I ate about nine and a half miles today and climbed 3 600 feet in elevation so we are we are way up in the mountains whoa my pole prop in the door closed so the wind doesn't open it but look at that there is a proper pile of snow out there we got close to a foot on the ground and we could get a lot more snow tonight.

 we're gonna reheat this bottle too I'm going to bed with pipe and hot bottles I'll tell you what I wouldn't mind a little bit of hot chocolate too with marshmallow actually seems to be drying me out pretty good I feel a low drier just.

Since I put this hot water bottle under my clothes mint hot chocolate that is good stuff oh that was good I got my clothes hung up and I'm hoping they'll dry a little bit before tomorrow morning now I'm not holding out a lot of hope I think I'm gonna go hop into bed no sense and run around here my stretchy pants.

Oh I can't tell you how much I've warmed up just by being dryer oh and having a little food in me doesn't hurt either all right it's late and I'm exhausted I'm gonna see you guys in the morning oh good morning I didn't sleep particularly well last night but I was.

Warm ended up having to take my jacket off it got too hot something I didn't think it was possible when I went to bed ah all right you know I wouldn't call that dry but that's not dripping wet oh they're so cold oh I'm terrified about putting those back on I think there's a shutter.

On that window if I go outside I can open it up look at this Valley oh that's where we came down last night we've got this board all covered in Nails that's to keep Bears out Bears get real curious man I I really need to use the bathroom.

I think I better go check out the outhouse many of these cabins are maintained by the mountaineering Club of Alaska they don't require any reservations or fees they just ask that you'd be a news-paying member or if you get stuck in the weather and it's an emergency you're more than welcome to use them too.

But the first come first serve and they can be quite popular in the summertime when the weather's good if you guys want to learn more about these cabins or donate to the mountaineering Club of Alaska I'll put a link in the video description below let's see if we got a little more sunlight in here.

That's a little nicer we can admire that view a little bit now  all right I got some steel cut oats here I'm gonna make some good oatmeal oh alrighty good hearty oatmeal with butter and brown sugar it's hard to beat.

Oh it feels good to have hot food to me build up another hot water bottle this one is going to go to try to dry out my pants well darn it I think that's actually working oh you know it's nice to just sit here and not be wet and cold.

Oh I'm really trying to think hard about what to do next originally I was planning on spending three days hiking through these mountains and I was gonna go to the crash site of a B-29 bomber last summer I did a two-day hike to that crash site and it was really cool and I've wanted to go back ever since but to get there you've got to go over two.

Glaciers and around this mountain and there's a big problem let me show you if I want to go to the bomber crash site I've got to climb two and a half thousand vertical feet up over that saddle and there's a foot of ice and snow on those rocks and it's been snowing on and off all morning so there's a really good chance I could get.

Caught in another snowstorm the weather's definitely been a lot worse than I anticipated on this trip man I was so cold yesterday I really feel like I pressed my luck a little bit more than I like to do and I'm thinking I just need to head back home and I'm about 80 the way through my fuel I have just barely.

Enough fuel to cook dinner tonight that means no hot water bottles no hot drinks you know and that's going to be really rough if I'm wet again so I'm thinking the smart move is to hike the nine and a half miles back through the snow and if you guys want to see the crash site and those other survival Huts I'll put a link to my video from last summer in the.

Video description below but I think I need to start packing up and getting my gear ready thank you you know hot sports drink ain't bad pants are soaking wet pretty much everywhere except for where the bottles were.

It's been a fun but challenging trip so far but I think it's time to call it let's you gotta lock this place up uh make sure we put my snow Gators on these Burton snow pants have built-in snow Gators I'd have two pounds of snow in each shoe if it wasn't for those snow Gators you know this place is beautiful when.

It's not trying to kill you there's some Ptarmigan tracks right there must be pretty fresh because it was snowing this morning look at this it's a snow spider now I know spiders can crawl into my mouth while I'm sleeping in a snow cave there's something to be afraid of in the.

Wintertime I found my trail this is the stream I was following yesterday oh but look at that the sun's come out and it is gorgeous look at this just makes you feel tiny doesn't it that sun coming off the snow is Bright Now that I pulled my sunglasses out I've.

Jinxed it it's gonna snow on me any minute now foreign it's starting to rain properly I'm glad I got off that mountain I bet it's snowing like the devil up there three miles to go there you go one mile if I hurry up I might make it to my car before my.

Underwear gets wet yay well keeping with the pattern of this trip I am soaking wet and freezing cold but I made it back to the car and I have feel pretty good about my decision to call in early but hopefully you guys enjoyed this video if you want to see more videos from the outdoor Boys YouTube channel make sure to click.

Subscribe I'll see you guys next video If you like this video don't forget to check out the outdoor Boys YouTube channel where we have hundreds of videos just like this and don't forget to click subscribe so you can see other great videos every Saturday morning hit that Bell button and you'll get notifications thanks for watching.