Learn Real-Life English: Alone in the American Wilderness 🇺🇸 | Comprehensible Input

0:02 Can you guys hear that?

0:04 Guess we're not alone out here.

0:06 Hey guys, it is your English speaking friend, Kyle.

0:10 And guys, this might be one of the coolest videos I've ever made.

0:13 We are in the middle of nowhere.

0:16 We are in the middle of nowhere,

0:18 and I'm going to do something that I have wanted to do for years.

0:22 I'm going to camp in the middle of a forest all by myself.

0:29 Well, really not all by myself, cuz you guys are with me.

0:32 So anyway, guys, I've been driving for about 4 hours now to this place,

0:37 which is called the Huron-Manistee National Forest.

0:41 It's way up in the north of Michigan, and we're all alone out here, guys.

0:45 This is one of the few places where

0:48 you can come and camp without any other people.

0:51 You could just walk out here pretty much anywhere

0:54 you want and set your stuff up and camp.

0:57 So, I've been wanting to do this forever, guys.

1:01 My whole life I've wanted to just go out in the woods and be all alone.

1:06 So, we are going to spend 2 days out here all alone.

1:11 We're going to try and make a fire.

1:13 We're going to set up a campsite.

1:15 Going to try and survive out here all by ourselves.

1:19 So guys, this is going to be a super fun video.

1:22 I'm happy you guys are here with me.

1:24 Basically, we have a couple of challenges.

1:27 The first challenge, it's very wet out.

1:29 It's finally stopped raining.

1:31 That's why I'm filming right now.

1:33 Also, it's cold already, but at night time it's going to be freezing cold.

1:39 So, those are some challenges in themselves to be out

1:42 here for 2 days in the cold and wet forest.

1:45 Next, being by yourself.

1:48 Is it kind of scary?

1:51 I don't know.

1:52 We're going to find out.

1:53 Now guys, we have to keep on going to find the perfect spot to camp.

1:58 I just wanted to step out of my car for the first time here, get some fresh air,

2:03 stretch out a little bit because like I said, I've been driving for 4 hours.

2:07 Let's go find our campground where we will be

2:10 for this first night because for night two we have another mission.

2:15 We'll talk about that tomorrow.

2:17 Today we're going to focus on finding a good place to camp here.

2:20 All right, guys.

2:21 We're driving and I think I found a place that might be good.

2:25 I want to show you what these forest roads look like because man,

2:30 I'm just happy I drive a Jeep.

2:32 You can never get back here in a small little car.

2:35 Check this out, guys.

2:36 This is what we're driving into.

2:56 All right, guys.

2:56 That last road, I saw signs that said no uh

3:01 no motor vehicles over there so we couldn't drive in there.

3:04 So I turned around.

3:05 Now I see another little road.

3:06 Let's see if we can find a good spot on this one.

3:10 Driving into the forest.

3:22 I don't see any signs that say we can't camp here.

3:25 So let's get out and look around.

3:27 See what's over here.

3:29 I see some burnt wood over here, which is a good sign.

3:32 That means that somebody camped over here before.

3:35 So maybe I'll walk around a little bit.

3:39 Try and find a good spot and see what we can set up.

3:43 But right now, guys, I see these big hills.

3:48 Those big hills are just begging for me

3:50 to climb up there and see what we could see.

3:53 So, I'm going to climb up those hills and see if I could get a good view.

3:56 All right, guys.

3:57 This is actually a pretty tough climb.

3:59 It's very cold out here, so I'm happy I just bought this nice jacket.

4:03 Nice warm jacket.

4:04 But, check out this hill.

4:12 Goes way up there.

4:13 So, while I'm out here, I'll be looking for a good spot to try and camp.

4:17 Nothing is dry out here, guys.

4:19 You can see how wet these leaves are.

4:23 So, making a fire is not going to be easy.

4:27 If I can achieve that side quest,

4:30 I'll be very happy because I brought something awesome to cook out here.

4:33 But, to cook, you need what?

4:36 Fire.

4:36 All right, guys.

4:37 I climbed up this big hill.

4:39 I would love to camp right up here.

4:42 But, the problem with that is if I do

4:44 that, I have to carry all my stuff up here.

4:47 And I brought a lot of gear.

4:48 So, I don't know.

4:49 I'll think about that for a minute.

4:51 But, let's see if we could even see my car from up here how high I climbed.

4:54 There's so many trees out here, it's hard to get a good view.

4:58 My car is way down there.

5:00 That tiny little black dot, that's my car.

5:03 So, I climbed all the way up that.

5:05 All right, guys.

5:06 Time to find a good camping spot.

5:07 All right.

5:08 I think this spot will do.

5:10 It's kind of in the middle of these hills.

5:12 So, what that will do is keep the wind

5:14 off of me and hopefully stay a little bit warmer.

5:17 This jacket is awesome.

5:18 I'm nice and warm.

5:20 I'm going to make it in this little opening here.

5:22 Let me go get all my stuff, bring it over here, and we will set up camp.

5:28 All right, guys.

5:29 Got all my stuff over here.

5:31 This is going to be my campsite.

5:33 This is what it looks like before I set all of this up.

5:36 If it looks anything like it does in my imagination,

5:39 this is going to be a great campsite in about 35-40 minutes.

5:44 So, let's do a little work,

5:46 and then I will show you around our home for the night.

5:54 Hey guys, I hope that you are enjoying

5:56 this video as much as I enjoyed making it.

6:00 Real quick, I want to tell you guys about a super

6:02 cool way that you can practice your speaking in English.

6:07 So, the English learning platform Sprout has a really cool new feature, Kyle AI.

6:14 So, on Sprout you can watch videos

6:16 that are made specifically at your level of English,

6:20 and afterwards, you can discuss that video with Kyle AI.

6:24 So, let's see how it works.

6:25 Let's say for example, you just watched the collaboration that Jay and I

6:29 made where we talked about very deep topics, okay?

6:34 Let's see what it's like to talk with Kyle AI about that.

6:38 Hello Kyle, it's nice to chat with you.

6:40 In the video, Jay and I talked about what makes life meaningful.

6:44 What do you think gives life meaning?

6:46 I think that finding your purpose,

6:49 finding the thing that truly makes you feel alive,

6:53 and then dedicating yourself to be the best that you

6:56 can possibly be at it is what gives life meaning.

7:00 What do you think about that?

7:01 That's a really interesting thought.

7:03 It sounds like you're saying that having

7:05 a purpose and striving for self-improvement are key.

7:08 I agree that working towards something you're

7:10 passionate about can make life feel very meaningful.

7:14 Wow guys, not only does that sound like my voice,

7:18 that sounds like something that I would say.

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7:45 All right, let's get back to the video.

8:12 All right, guys.

8:13 Here we have home for the night.

8:16 Got our tent right here set up.

8:18 I'm going to close it for right now.

8:21 Going to zip it up.

8:22 We say zipping up when you close something that has a zipper.

8:27 So, I'm going to zip it up for right

8:28 now because I don't want any bugs getting in.

8:33 Now, it is pretty cold and I do

8:35 not think there will there will be mosquitoes tonight.

8:38 I really hope there will not be mosquitoes tonight,

8:41 but I'm going to keep it closed anyway.

8:43 So, this is our tent.

8:44 This is where we'll be sleeping.

8:46 I'll show you my stuff in there, my supplies in just a minute.

8:50 Let me show you the rest of the campground.

8:51 Over here, this is to protect me if it starts raining again.

8:57 And this is where I will cook later.

8:58 I'm going to clear this out well, where I will cook if I'm lucky enough

9:03 to start a fire in this very wet environment.

9:07 But, this will keep wind off of me.

9:08 The heat from the fire will come in here,

9:11 keep me a little bit warmer, and I'll be able to cook without being wet.

9:17 So, this is my little tarp shelter, which is where, if we're lucky,

9:23 guys, if we're lucky, I might cook the best dinner ever cooked outside.

9:29 Hopefully.

9:30 Then, over here, guys, I have my hammock.

9:33 Not bad.

9:34 So, I don't want to start a fire too early because it's

9:39 going to be hard to even find enough wood to keep it going.

9:42 So I'm not going to start the fire until I'm ready to eat.

9:46 So I think what I'll do right now, take a little break.

9:49 I've been driving and working all day.

9:52 I think I deserve to chill out on my hammock

9:54 for a few minutes and just enjoy the silence.

10:00 Can't hear anything out here, guys.

10:07 All right, guys.

10:07 Let's check out my tent.

10:09 First rule of the tent, no dirty boots.

10:11 No dirty boots in the tent.

10:13 Let me show you what I have out here.

10:15 What I'll be sleeping on is my sleeping bag.

10:18 Underneath the sleeping bag I have a yoga mat,

10:22 my wife's yoga mat where she does yoga and stretching because when you lay down,

10:27 that yoga mat will help keep you off of the ground because the ground is cold.

10:33 So this is where I'll sleep tonight.

10:35 Now, what kind of supplies do I have out here?

10:38 Let's see.

10:39 Got a little lantern.

10:40 It's not very bright, but I guess at night time it'll help.

10:43 I have two cameras out here.

10:46 This one that I'm filming with is my old camera, my Sony ZV1.

10:50 Then I've got my better one here, my Sony ZVE1 and I waterproofed it so that if

10:57 I have to get some shots in the rain, my nice camera won't get messed up.

11:01 I have some cool stuff out here, guys, some cool supplies.

11:04 These are baby wipes so I can keep myself clean.

11:07 I have this little survival kit, guys.

11:09 This my brother bought me a long time ago for Christmas and I'm

11:14 finally using it and hopefully today this is how I will start my fire.

11:18 I have cooking supplies which I'll show you in a little bit.

11:22 Let's take a look at what's in this little kit.

11:24 So I have this big knife and this is what I'll be using to cut things,

11:29 to do a a bit of my cooking

11:31 preparation and there's bears out here in these woods,

11:35 so I'm naming this knife mata oso.

11:39 Mata oso.

11:41 My Spanish speakers will know what that means,

11:43 but this knife's name is mata oso.

11:46 So, my survival kit is full of useful things, guys.

11:51 Let's learn a little bit of vocabulary.

11:53 This is a compass and a compass tells you if you're going north,

11:58 south, east, or west.

12:00 This is super important if you're out here,

12:02 especially if your phone dies or you do not have signal.

12:06 If you know which direction you came from, a compass can get you home.

12:10 This here, guys, is a flint and the flint

12:13 is how I'm going to start this fire, I hope.

12:16 I have another little knife here, guys.

12:18 What a flint does is you take your knife and you scrape it.

12:21 I don't know if you guys could see those sparks, but it makes sparks and you try

12:26 and catch things on fire with those little sparks.

12:29 That's how you slowly start to build your fire.

12:31 Here, I have some little pieces of cotton.

12:34 These girls use them for makeup and stuff.

12:38 Uh doctors use them, too.

12:40 But this is what I'm going to use to start the fire, okay?

12:44 This dry little piece of cotton is going to help me so much.

12:47 In this bag, I also have fishing line and fishing hooks.

12:53 I don't know if I'll be able to catch any fish out here, but who knows?

12:57 Got a little spoon here.

13:00 Oh, I guess this is a whistle.

13:01 I guess if you're lost Oh, I didn't even know this has a little knife, too.

13:05 This is a nice little kit, guys.

13:06 Got a bunch of other little things in here I won't be using.

13:09 This is pretty cool, this little tool.

13:11 It's a little multi-tool,

13:14 which means it has a bunch of different useful things on there.

13:17 We won't really be using that.

13:19 Really, all I think I'll need out of this is the flint

13:22 and the cotton and that'll get us going for tonight, anyway.

13:26 All right, guys, I have clothes out here.

13:28 I have some coffee.

13:30 In the morning, we'll make some delicious coffee,

13:32 I hope, if we get a fire going.

13:34 Uh if I can't get a fire going, guys,

13:37 that's going to be awful because I am addicted to caffeine.

13:41 So, if I can't get a fire going,

13:42 I'm going to have a bad bad headache in the morning.

13:45 Let's hope we get the fire going.

13:47 Speaking of that, I think it's about time to get going on the fire.

13:51 Let's do it.

13:51 All right, guys.

13:52 Let's get this fire going.

13:54 Hopefully.

13:55 Now, once I get the fire going, we should be good.

13:58 The hard part is going to be getting it going in this wet environment.

14:05 So, I found a couple sticks that look a little bit dry.

14:08 What I'm going to do is try and cut

14:10 into them because the inside should be even drier,

14:13 and we're going to try and make something called kindling,

14:17 which is little pieces of wood that you can use to get the fire going.

14:21 Hopefully, we could do that.

14:22 And we want like long skinny strips of dry wood,

14:28 and that would be the best thing we could

14:29 do to give this fire a chance to get going.

14:32 Once we get the fire going,

14:34 we'll be good because it dries off the rest of the wood as we go.

14:40 But, getting enough little dry pieces to get it started, that's the hard part.

14:44 And that is the most critical or important thing right now.

14:48 So, let me try and make some kindling.

14:50 I'll show you what I come up with.

14:52 It is the moment of truth.

14:54 Let's see if we're going to eat a hot meal tonight or not.

14:57 Got my cotton here.

14:59 Try and catch a spark in that.

15:01 And if I could get this on fire, then I've got some tiny little pieces of wood

15:05 right here that will hopefully catch fire, too.

15:18 Come on.

15:19 We might be in business, guys.

15:27 Okay, first try was unsuccessful.

15:29 I think I need more cotton and need to let it breathe a little bit more.

15:33 Come on, baby.

15:34 I want to eat a warm dinner tonight.

15:36 Maybe might be going, guys.

15:38 Now you slowly keep adding bigger pieces.

16:31 All right, guys.

16:34 Sad to say, no fire tonight.

16:40 Couldn't get going.

16:41 I even found some paper from my car, but it's just too wet.

16:46 Too wet.

16:46 The fire's not catching.

16:48 None of this stuff is burning.

16:50 And I think for today, I have failed my first side mission.

16:54 And that means it's going to be a cold night,

16:57 and we're not getting a hot meal tonight.

16:59 Luckily, I have my cooler with ice in it.

17:02 So, the food that I brought will still be good tomorrow.

17:07 Maybe we'll be lucky, and tomorrow will be nice and dry,

17:12 and we could have an awesome breakfast and lunch.

17:15 But, for now, guess we're out of luck.

17:18 Luckily, I did bring some things that don't require cooking,

17:21 but it's not going to be a delicious dinner like I wanted.

17:24 Oh, well.

17:25 Think I'll walk around and explore for a little bit before it gets too dark.

17:28 See you guys in a bit.

17:30 Oh, all right, guys.

17:32 Well, since my incredible dinner plans didn't work

17:35 out and I failed at making a fire, I guess I'll eat my backup food which, hey,

17:44 at least I planned ahead and brought some backup food.

17:48 But, I want to tell you guys an expression that we

17:49 say in English that I was thinking about just now,

17:54 and it's don't count your chickens until they hatch.

17:58 And this means don't assume that something's going to happen until it happens.

18:04 And hatching means that a bird comes out of its egg.

18:08 It's hatching.

18:09 So, don't count the eggs and say I have five eggs, so I'll have five chickens.

18:14 No, no, no.

18:15 That is counting your chickens before they hatch.

18:17 Don't do that because maybe two of them will get smashed.

18:21 Maybe two of them won't hatch.

18:24 And then you thought you would have five chickens,

18:26 but you only have three, two, one, or none.

18:29 So, I counted my chickens before they hatched.

18:32 I thought I would be able to get that fire going for sure.

18:36 But, I didn't.

18:37 So, now I get to eat a cold dinner.

18:38 Well.

18:40 So, guys, the the strangest thing so far about being out here is how quiet it

18:44 is and how different it is to not

18:47 be around electronics in a house with lights TVs,

18:52 radios not be around that, not be looking at your phone.

18:57 Strange.

18:58 And because we're so used to all these stimulations

19:02 in our brain going on, it feels pretty boring out here, honestly.

19:06 I feel bored.

19:07 I feel like I should be doing something.

19:09 But, I I this is good for me.

19:11 It's what's called a dopamine detox.

19:14 And dopamine is the chemical that our brain

19:17 makes when we do something that gives us pleasure.

19:20 Right now, I'm not doing any of these things.

19:23 I'm not stimulating my brain.

19:25 So, I'm detoxing detoxification,

19:29 which means you're getting something out of your system.

19:33 So, I'm uh of the human brain, I guess.

19:37 So, anyway, let's eat our delicious cold dinner.

19:41 What I have is some eggs, cold plain eggs.

19:50 Better than being hungry, I guess.

19:52 Now, this, guys, I was super excited about

19:54 this because I was going to heat this up

19:56 by the fire and then get an awesome shot where I open it up and steam comes out.

20:01 I made some bread yesterday at home.

20:03 And man, when this is warm, this bread is so good.

20:07 But right now, it's ice cold.

20:10 Cold eggs, cold bread, cold water, cold weather, no fire.

20:17 Going to be a cold night.

20:19 Man, I just hope that I can make some coffee in the morning.

20:22 All right, guys, I'm going to uh eat my cold bread and eggs

20:25 and maybe I'll show you guys what it looks like at night.

20:28 See you in a little bit.

20:29 Well, guys, I'm relaxing a little bit before

20:31 it's time to try and get some sleep.

20:34 I thought that I would be able to take off my jacket

20:39 and my pants and just wear my the clothes I'm wearing underneath to sleep in.

20:45 But even with my sleeping bag, guys,

20:46 it is so cold that I have to I'm going to have to sleep in my jacket.

20:51 Guys, there was this show I always used to watch called The Lone,

20:55 and it was where people go out in huge forests like this, and it's a contest,

21:03 like think like 15 people or something.

21:06 And they all stay out there for as long as they can,

21:08 and the last one to quit wins.

21:12 So, sometimes they're out there for like some people leave after 2 days,

21:17 some leave after 2 weeks,

21:19 and the winners usually last a few months out there all by themselves.

21:23 And whenever I watch this show, I would always think, "Wow, I could do that.

21:26 That's so easy.

21:28 I I love being outside.

21:29 I could I could just be out there and win some money and, you know,

21:34 stay out there for months." Guys, I've only been out here a few hours,

21:38 you know, several hours now, but it's like,

21:41 what do you do in the world we live in where it's move,

21:44 move, move, work, work, work?

21:47 When you get out here and there's nothing to do but survive, it's strange.

21:52 I couldn't even cook my dinner.

21:54 So, it's like, "What do I do now?" And I'm fine, guys, you know,

21:59 I know I'm going to be all right and make it through the night,

22:02 but it's got me thinking,

22:04 imagine doing this for months with nobody out here, nobody with you.

22:10 Now, I have a family, of course,

22:12 so I would miss them like crazy, but just the boredom,

22:16 the being out here, sitting, trying to survive,

22:19 trying to stay warm, it's pretty tough.

22:22 Anyway, I'm listening to an audio book right now,

22:25 so that'll help me pass the time a little bit, I guess.

22:29 All right, I'll talk to you guys before I go to sleep.

22:35 Did you guys hear that?

22:39 I think that's coyotes.

22:40 I hope you guys can hear that on this microphone.

22:53 That's a little scary.

22:54 I think that's a coyote.

22:55 I don't know.

22:56 Guess we're not alone out here.

22:58 All right, guys, it is dark.

23:02 Dark, dark, dark out here.

23:05 Let me just show you guys a little bit how scary it looks out here.

23:10 Honestly, guys, and those noises I was hearing,

23:13 that's probably the hard part when you're out

23:15 here by yourself at night is Yeah, it's scary.

23:20 Let me show you what it looks like out here right now.

23:22 And by the way, guys, it's snowing a little bit.

23:25 Yep, can't even see it's so dark.

23:28 There's the tent.

23:29 You can see that.

23:30 All right, guys, let's go in the tent and go to bed.

23:32 All right, guys, that was a horrible night.

23:37 I did not sleep at all for even 1 minute.

23:41 Freezing cold, my back hurts from laying on the ground,

23:45 and the day was so quiet, the night was so loud.

23:50 Super loud, guys.

23:52 Ah, animals, wind, branches shaking.

23:56 I just could not sleep.

23:58 Tried my best, could not.

24:00 So, guys, we're going to try one more time to get a fire going,

24:03 and if I can't get a fire going, we're going to move from here and go check

24:09 out the other place I wanted to show you guys.

24:11 So, I could really use some coffee right now, guys.

24:15 And uh if I could get this fire going,

24:18 I will make what I was going to make for dinner last night for breakfast,

24:22 and it will be the best breakfast ever made in the woods.

24:25 So, I'm going to try and use a bunch of paper this time.

24:29 Hopefully, that will get it going.

24:31 Let's see what we can do.

24:32 Feels like my wood is a little bit drier now.

24:35 Maybe it'll work.

24:36 Wish me luck, guys.

25:28 All right, guys.

25:29 I have one more piece of cotton, one last shot.

25:32 All right, guys.

25:32 I have failed.

25:34 Tried my best.

25:36 Came up short.

25:37 It's like this this ground is so wet,

25:40 it just pulls the fire out of everything that even

25:43 the paper isn't staying wet or isn't staying lit.

25:47 So, I don't know, guys.

25:49 I've never not been able to start a fire.

25:51 This forest has defeated me.

25:53 All right, I guess we'll have to go to our next spot.

25:55 All right, guys.

25:56 I packed up our camp and we are leaving this cold place.

26:02 Can't feel my feet.

26:03 So, guys, while this was a failure, it was an experience.

26:08 You guys got to come with me.

26:10 I'm not giving up on our side quest yet, just because I failed on the fire.

26:16 We are going to go see something beautiful.

26:19 And if I see a good tree, I'm going to climb that.

26:22 But right now, I'm going to warm up in the car,

26:24 eat some more cold eggs, and a piece of cold bread.

26:28 But you know what?

26:29 There's a lot of people in the world

26:30 who would be grateful for some eggs and bread.

26:33 So, I will be grateful for this meal.

26:34 All right.

26:35 I have to drive about an hour,

26:37 so I will show you guys when we get to the beautiful place.

26:40 All right, guys.

26:41 I told you I'd show you something beautiful.

26:44 Here we are.

26:47 Now, guys, I know this looks like an ocean,

26:50 but this is actually the same lake that you

26:53 saw in my last video if you watched it.

26:56 This is Lake Michigan, guys.

26:58 And I came here because I wanted to show you guys just how big this lake is.

27:06 Guys, I am 3 and 1/2 hours away from my home in a different state.

27:11 I'm in Michigan right now.

27:12 I live in Indiana, and the lake touches all the way over here.

27:17 So, guys, Indiana is that way.

27:21 When I was in Indiana, I pointed far off and said,

27:25 "That's Michigan over there." Now, guys, Indiana is over there.

27:30 There's one more little trail I want to check out.

27:32 I'll show you guys if I could see something cool.

27:34 All right, guys, I climbed up these stairs here.

27:38 It's a big trail to get up top on a sand dune.

27:42 Over here, you could see the miles and miles

27:46 of Michigan wilderness where I just spent last night.

27:50 And over here, you have a nice view of Lake Michigan.

27:54 All right, guys, I'm going to end the video here.

27:57 Hope you guys enjoyed it with me.

27:59 I didn't achieve everything I tried to achieve, but I tried my best.

28:03 Uh and it was an experience.

28:06 I'll see you guys in the next video.