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[Music]
00:39
[Applause]
00:51
all right what's up everybody this is
00:52
another episode of greetings from the
00:54
garden state this is the most rustic
00:56
we've been uh that i've been that i've
00:58
been maybe like ever my this is mike ham
01:00
host of greetings from the garden state
01:01
we are here at stoke state forest with
01:03
trevor patterson trevor welcome to the
01:05
show hey mike how are you great to be
01:06
here great to have you so you're just so
01:08
everyone knows right out of the gate
01:09
you're not like a park ranger you don't
01:11
work for the parks department so we're
01:12
buddies from the real estate world like
01:14
my real world that's correct we were
01:15
used to work every day exactly well
01:17
we're not wearing suits right now right
01:18
we are definitely not wearing suits we
01:19
were got some layers on for sure um so i
01:23
know you come out here every now and
01:24
then i mean you're a camper and all that
01:26
kind of stuff
01:27
this is great we got other other guys
01:29
here i'm sure we'll pop in on the show
01:30
as we kind of progress um but uh tell me
01:33
about this place like what what's the
01:34
allure of coming to a place like this
01:36
and trying to get away from some stuff
01:38
absolutely so this is it's part of the
01:40
new new jersey park system we're at
01:42
stokes state park
01:45
there are i think three campgrounds here
01:47
and each one has different levels of
01:49
being rustic we are in the least rustic
01:52
of the areas right now even though uh
01:55
we're
01:56
we got tents we've got lean twos we've
01:58
got a fire that we're
02:00
keeping by to get uh to stay warm
02:02
but you know 100 yards away there's
02:04
there's a bathroom with lights and a
02:06
water spigot and a quarter mile away
02:08
there's a fully furnished facility if we
02:11
if we needed it right yeah so the the
02:13
they make sure that you know we're able
02:15
to enjoy being rustic but at the same
02:17
time we're close enough to civilization
02:19
that if we were to go wrong yeah right
02:21
like if those two pounds of beans that
02:22
we have really kind of kick in you might
02:24
need one of those flushable ones but i
02:25
think that might be a good idea
02:27
that that might be a little tmi
02:30
it's my show i'll do whatever i want um
02:32
but uh all right so
02:34
this is really you know i told you
02:35
before this is my first time really
02:37
camping ever but i feel pretty good
02:40
going with you hearing from dan and
02:41
hearing from brent
02:43
hearing from dan hearing from brent i
02:45
went the opposite way there but um
02:46
hearing from those guys
02:48
like you you do this quite a bit
02:50
you got your you know your bearings out
02:53
here so tell me a little bit of like
02:55
this is we're recording this in november
02:57
so what's the
02:59
the elements that we're gonna have to
03:00
deal with as we kind of progress here oh
03:01
so this is your first night out um just
03:04
this weekend this is my second night um
03:06
last night for comparison
03:08
um the low was 24 25 degrees um there
03:12
was a chance of snow flurries
03:13
um it it was it was chilly yeah so when
03:17
uh when you're coming out to something
03:18
like this you definitely want to make
03:19
sure that you know like you said before
03:21
you're layered up
03:22
um
03:23
when you got here you know you said you
03:25
know if you felt comfortable coming out
03:26
here with me for your first trip yeah
03:28
you know the first thing we did was a
03:29
gear assessment right you want to make
03:31
sure that you know it's going to be in
03:32
the low 30s upper 20s tonight so i want
03:35
to make sure that the sleeping bag that
03:36
you have is going to be adequate this
03:38
the
03:39
the coverage that you have the shelter
03:41
whether it's a tent that you're using or
03:43
we've got two guys here they're doing
03:44
tarp shelters tonight to make sure that
03:46
also is going to be adequate protection
03:48
right for you to deal with whatever
03:50
weather we might have yeah um
03:52
this is my
03:53
first cold weather outing this year but
03:56
it's also my third outing in the last
03:58
three months yeah um since it is
04:00
november it's just been getting cooler
04:02
but uh this is my first time this season
04:04
um using my my hot tent
04:07
which i i showed you when we first got
04:09
here it was wild i saw the video
04:10
yesterday and i didn't really like fully
04:12
grasp the visual of it but then when i
04:15
walked in there it was it was wild so
04:16
explain that i'm sorry
04:18
sure so when you're out in the cold
04:20
weather like this obviously your goal
04:21
number one is to stay as warm as you
04:23
possibly can i've been cold weather
04:25
camping for about 20 years now
04:27
and
04:28
getting
04:29
older now i'm in my mid-40s i have back
04:32
issues i have neck issues and i also
04:33
have two young daughters that
04:35
love camping during the summer and fall
04:38
but you know daddy daddy daddy we want
04:40
to go out in the winter with you yeah
04:41
right so i started learning about these
04:42
hot tents which is basically a tent with
04:45
a silicone and fiberglass reinforced
04:48
stove jack built into it yeah and they
04:50
make miniature wood burning stoves yeah
04:52
it's awesome yeah last night it was 25
04:54
degrees outside and i was taking off
04:56
layers because it was about 75 80
04:58
degrees inside the tent that sounds
04:59
pretty good right now i'm not gonna lie
05:01
yeah but i think like maybe some people
05:02
that were listening to this and when you
05:05
first you brought this to our facebook
05:06
group so when we started the facebook
05:08
group even before we started the podcast
05:09
and we were laying out ideas of episodes
05:12
and you were you just posted in there
05:13
you're just like hey what about coming
05:14
out to do like a camping trip in
05:16
national parks and i was like
05:18
okay i was like kind of into it and then
05:20
they were like look we're gonna do it in
05:22
november i was like i thought you were
05:23
coming are you sure
05:26
at the beginning i was just like uh i
05:28
don't know if that's something that i
05:29
want to do and even leading up to this i
05:31
mentioned i picked up my tent and my
05:33
sleeping bag from my girlfriend's
05:34
parents house and the whole time they're
05:36
just like you know it's gonna be pretty
05:37
cold this weekend um but why like what's
05:40
the allure to something like this that
05:41
may maybe as opposed to camping in the
05:44
summer kind of in the spring or when
05:46
it's nicer out so cooler weather camping
05:49
in my opinion is the best number one
05:52
there's less people out yeah so you're
05:54
in general you're going to expect to
05:56
have a quieter experience a more
05:58
reclusive experience which i appreciate
05:59
when i'm out here you i don't know if
06:01
it's coming through but we can hear the
06:02
water battling in the background right
06:04
here and that all night yeah um
06:06
and then
06:07
aside from the human side of it
06:09
there's no bugs that's not worrying
06:11
about mosquitoes yeah we're not worrying
06:12
about ticks
06:13
we don't have to worry about poison ivy
06:15
right so those are three big elements
06:17
about summer camping that we're not
06:18
dealing with here now conversely and
06:21
this is this might be a little bit of a
06:24
more serious or even even morbid side of
06:26
looking at it but when temperatures drop
06:28
into the 20s and 30s
06:30
you can die yeah and there's so the goal
06:33
is number one don't die
06:35
yeah that was my number one i think the
06:37
first text was i that i sent to you when
06:38
we decided that i was gonna do it i was
06:40
just like you just gotta make get me to
06:41
the morning don't die you know that's
06:43
that's number one rule for everyone
06:44
listening at home for your next camping
06:46
trip don't die
06:48
and as we're talking here now i can see
06:49
the breath coming out of your mouth yeah
06:50
right the sun's starting to go down a
06:52
little yeah exactly exactly but
06:54
in in all seriousness no it's you know
06:56
be be safe right and then after being
06:59
safe now it becomes how comfortable can
07:02
i make myself yeah and as we're sitting
07:03
here talking there's a fire behind me i
07:05
can feel the heat from the fire on my
07:07
back right i'm outside that bubble we
07:09
were talking about yeah so yeah if i
07:10
move maybe a little bit yeah a little
07:12
bit i got a little bit yeah thank you
07:13
[Laughter]
07:15
i set the mics up so it's my my fault
07:17
that's like a rookie move i would guess
07:19
yeah just set us up so we were both
07:21
having a side to the exactly
07:22
but then like my left shoulder and your
07:24
right shoulder would be warm right and
07:26
then the other side would be ice cold
07:27
it's wild
07:28
yeah
07:29
science man it's absolutely crazy
07:31
but we like we had one experience with
07:34
uh two people that aren't here right now
07:36
where we were we were camping it was
07:37
november december temperatures were in
07:39
the 20s
07:40
and after dark one of the people that
07:42
was with us decided to go for a hike
07:44
oh and he's like i'm bringing my
07:45
flashlight i'll bring my phone
07:47
everything's good
07:48
like an hour went by
07:50
and you know it it's dark the temp it
07:53
was probably 25 30 degrees yeah um we
07:56
were gonna be going to bed in you know a
07:58
couple hours right and we started asking
08:01
you know where where such and such where
08:03
such and such and it got to the point
08:05
where we were getting ready to call the
08:06
park rangers yeah right is if if you're
08:08
going to spend the night out here in
08:10
these temperatures if you don't have the
08:12
appropriate gear
08:14
it's going to be hard yeah and you might
08:16
not wake up right yeah so what are some
08:19
things that you know because we said
08:21
before like i'm an attend uh joe's in a
08:23
tent you're in like a super tent uh but
08:25
brent and dan got these like lean two
08:27
tarps which are just like freaking me
08:29
out like i was like they're gonna sleep
08:30
outside like they're literally exposed
08:32
not exposed but just like outdoors but
08:34
with a uh a tarp just kind of leaned
08:36
over top of you yeah so the first time
08:38
that they came out with me was about two
08:40
years ago and like you and kudos the the
08:43
hardest step is the first step of
08:45
actually showing up sure right yeah yeah
08:46
anything man yeah you know just gotta
08:48
show up you never know what's gonna
08:49
happen when you show up you might like
08:50
it yeah
08:51
and uh the first time they came out
08:53
we're like you know we're gonna go tarp
08:55
camping in november yeah and
08:57
both of them were without without
08:59
hesitation okay yeah i'm there right and
09:03
it was go buy
09:04
a tarp
09:06
make sure you have a sleeping bag make
09:07
sure you have something to keep you up
09:08
off the ground yeah and bring in a
09:10
firewood to have a fire all night
09:12
now when you think about
09:15
camping and you tell and you say to
09:16
somebody i'm gonna go tarp camping in
09:18
the middle of the winter yeah and they
09:20
look at you like you have two heads sure
09:23
there's a different way of looking at it
09:26
now when you have that talk when you
09:28
have the tent you're fully encapsulated
09:30
right
09:30
when it's cold out you're fully
09:32
encapsulated in your own little icebox
09:34
yeah and you are fully dependent on your
09:37
sleeping bag your uh your sleeping pad
09:40
that's elevating you yeah
09:42
and that's your only source of
09:43
protection from the cold
09:45
when you are when you do what brent and
09:47
dan are doing right now with these tarps
09:49
you can do something with the tarp
09:50
shelter that you can't do with a tent
09:52
right and that's have a fire right in
09:53
front of you okay
09:54
so they're both gonna have fires in
09:55
front of them all night
09:57
and
09:58
you usually
09:59
you basically end up using your face as
10:02
the judge of when it's time to wake up
10:04
right you know we we eat a lot tonight
10:06
yep um we're gonna be drinking
10:09
a lot of water a lot of juice a lot of a
10:11
lot of um seltzer
10:14
and that keeps your metabolism going
10:16
yeah but the metabolism going keeps you
10:19
warm but also because of the amount of
10:21
fluid that we're going to be drinking
10:22
you get up frequently to pee yeah yeah
10:25
exactly when if you get up to pee well
10:27
you you get up you take a couple steps
10:29
you pee you come back you throw a couple
10:30
more logs on the fire and you're good
10:32
for the next two hours or so right the
10:34
fire is also within arm's length yeah
10:36
you can wake up roll over throw a log or
10:38
two on the fire roll back over again and
10:40
you're back in your little heat bubble
10:42
yeah with the fire in front yeah very
10:43
cool very cool and so what's been like
10:46
the
10:47
we'll talk we'll say extreme like what's
10:48
been the most extreme temperatures that
10:50
you've camped in in your experiences
10:52
that would be
10:54
last
10:56
january
10:58
and it wasn't just the cold it was the
10:59
wind okay
11:01
compounded with the cold yeah um it was
11:03
three degrees
11:05
according to the news according to the
11:06
weather channel website yeah um with a
11:09
windchill of negative 10.
11:11
um i didn't look at my thermometer so
11:13
i'm just going to take that for granted
11:14
sure yeah um but the
11:16
the killer part of it was there were 25
11:18
mile an hour winds blowing right
11:20
and my my i did a lean-to shelter that
11:23
night my shelter got ripped apart by the
11:25
wind
11:26
um it was the single harshest night i've
11:29
ever had i'll show you i'll show you one
11:32
of the videos of it later okay i've got
11:34
the one of i'm waking up at midnight one
11:36
o'clock in the morning while the wind is
11:38
blowing you can hear it in the
11:39
microphone on my on my camera phone yeah
11:41
and i'm like it's midnight it's freezing
11:45
the wind is blowing i'm right next to
11:47
the water yeah this is horrible right
11:49
and the next the next night i'm talking
11:52
about the previous night and i'm like
11:53
yeah this is night number two it's not
11:54
as bad last night was
11:56
horrible i froze
11:59
yeah but it's all a challenge exactly
12:01
right yeah the more things suck yeah the
12:04
more you learn about yourself right now
12:06
how am i gonna get up and overcome this
12:08
am i gonna fix the damage that's done to
12:10
my shelter am i going to give up yeah
12:12
and just try to make it through and you
12:14
know zero degree temperatures with a 20
12:16
degree bag right um or am i going to
12:19
figure out a way to
12:20
reinforce my fire to get more heat yes
12:24
around me yeah so it again it's it's
12:26
serious right
12:28
but
12:29
you're getting that that level of of
12:31
challenge and ultimately pleasure from a
12:33
success yeah yeah
12:35
now speaking of of the risk and and the
12:38
dangers that that can be involved one
12:40
thing that
12:41
i consider to be
12:42
paramount rules of winter camping
12:45
is
12:46
if you're going to go by yourself
12:48
make sure you're experienced kind of
12:49
common sense right but also tell one or
12:51
two people where you are yeah and when
12:53
you expect to be home right and if you
12:56
have four six eight hours go by and
12:59
you're not home yet
13:01
they should be checking in on you yeah
13:03
and
13:03
like what we're doing right now we've
13:05
got five guys out here right you know
13:07
should something happen you know where
13:08
somebody ends up having a rough
13:10
situation
13:13
exactly yeah exactly
13:14
i've got a i've got a wood stove in my
13:16
tent right yeah worst case scenario
13:18
somebody comes in
13:20
and
13:21
within 15 to 20 minutes i'll be able to
13:23
have the inside of that tent between 70
13:24
and 90 degrees that's crazy
13:29
that thing's wild yeah i want to put
13:30
like a picture up of it so that people
13:32
can actually see like what it is that
13:33
we're talking about um but uh so tell me
13:36
like
13:37
uh where else in new jersey you've been
13:40
camping maybe not even cold weather
13:41
camping just some maybe some of your
13:42
favorite spots that people can go to
13:45
themselves well i i
13:46
year round uh with the exception of
13:49
winter because there's only a handful of
13:51
parks that do offer camping in the
13:53
winter yeah but from because that's
13:55
pretty extreme yes yeah that sounds yeah
13:57
but from april-ish to october early
14:01
november most of the state parks are
14:03
open okay and a lot of them do have
14:05
campgrounds
14:06
so i i've i've been through most
14:09
of the state parks yep um i'm not a big
14:11
fan of the family campgrounds right just
14:14
it's
14:15
someone has swimming pools yeah yeah
14:17
yeah i mean it takes away from the this
14:18
is what we're doing right now exactly
14:20
yeah exactly yeah it could be 10 o'clock
14:22
at night and there's people still out
14:23
running around and playing and screaming
14:24
and yeah they allow alcohol there yeah
14:27
people could be drinking and being
14:28
obnoxious
14:29
right yeah they they try to have rules
14:32
but they don't really enforce them yeah
14:33
exactly but i've i've done three states
14:36
on the appalachian trail okay um
14:38
the stokes is part of the appalachian
14:40
trail too right yes there's um actually
14:43
about a half a mile from us if not less
14:46
it's like a 73 mile stretch right or
14:48
something yeah there's actually two
14:49
campsites that the trail goes like right
14:51
next to okay
14:53
and it's not uncommon like where we've
14:55
got this uh the the water fountain the
14:57
water spring right here
14:59
um
15:00
it's not uncommon to have campers
15:02
stroll through here fill up water
15:04
bottles and switch and then continue on
15:06
their way exactly
15:07
and
15:08
if three weeks ago i was at the campsite
15:11
100 yards away yeah and a month before
15:13
that i was 100 yards from that one right
15:17
so it's in the
15:19
this
15:20
section of the park is my favorite
15:22
because mainly of the flowing river yeah
15:24
yeah it's awesome yeah it's very cool
15:26
picturesque i would say yes um all right
15:28
so why don't so we take breaks on this
15:30
show so what let's take our first break
15:32
okay uh we'll we'll reset we'll do our
15:34
today new jersey history in that segment
15:36
we'll bring in a couple more guests and
15:37
we'll kind of go through their
15:39
experiences as well sounds let's put on
15:40
a couple layers too starting yeah i know
15:42
like that wind right there that's like
15:43
got me but everybody listening greetings
15:45
from the garden state podcast i'm mike
15:47
hamm we'll be right back
15:50
it is time for today in new jersey
15:51
history on december 27 1889 madison new
15:55
jersey was incorporated it was
15:57
originally settled in 1710 and was
15:59
originally called bottle hill and that
16:02
is today in new jersey history
16:07
all right we're back i'm mike ham this
16:08
is the greetings from the garden state
16:09
podcast we are here in the middle of
16:11
nowhere uh stoke state park stokes
16:13
states forest uh so we got trevor uh
16:15
patterson back here with us and we also
16:17
have a new friend that's out here part
16:20
of our group uh dan grant dan welcome
16:22
thanks for having me yeah you can speak
16:24
into the mic it's okay yeah oh i guess i
16:26
can speak
16:29
but uh but yeah so dan you've come on
16:33
maybe
16:34
half a dozen i would say camping uh
16:36
camping trips with trevor right yeah
16:38
yeah and so like the first time let's go
16:40
through your first time since this is my
16:42
first time um so was it a interesting
16:45
experience for you
16:47
uh it was definitely interesting
16:49
i mean i think
16:51
when i was at home i'm like starting to
16:53
lie lie down all these different
16:56
materials and i'm like do i really want
16:58
to do this there none of these include a
17:00
tent
17:02
and uh
17:03
well i came anyway yes right yeah and so
17:06
i got there and and uh we
17:09
set up and
17:10
i of course i'm just told a list of
17:12
materials to bring right no again none
17:14
of these resemble a shelter right yeah a
17:17
tarp you're told you're sent a list from
17:19
trevor here
17:20
tarp
17:21
rope
17:24
sleeping bag
17:25
cushion you have to look back at your
17:27
thing to make sure you get all this
17:28
stuff
17:32
i think i've brought it all this time
17:33
yeah well it's hopefully
17:34
this time in addition to a rope you
17:36
brought a ratchet strap
17:38
i think i brought the ratchet strap
17:39
before too maybe you might have you
17:41
might have no yeah you got a solid
17:42
looking shelter there it's impressive
17:44
so now uh
17:47
we set up and and of course again the
17:48
whole time you're sitting there and uh
17:51
it was actually one of the first times
17:52
like outside of our professional life
17:54
that
17:55
we sort of hung out and so uh you're
17:58
sitting there and you're like damn
18:00
i just met this guy i really hope i
18:02
don't die
18:03
yeah you have no idea really you don't
18:05
know what we're like beyond our
18:06
professional lives and dan's also in our
18:08
professional lives uh just in case
18:09
anybody missed that so keep going
18:12
and so uh
18:14
end up having a great time and uh we sat
18:17
by the fire i'll tell you it's it's an
18:19
amazing experience when you can come out
18:21
and and just
18:23
be in nature and escape and
18:26
so then we we go to bed and wake up and
18:28
and i will tell you every single time i
18:30
now go normal camping i go
18:33
i wish i was winter camping really okay
18:35
and i mean between there not being bugs
18:38
between the ability that when you come
18:41
out here
18:42
it's you know you're actually being
18:44
sustainably kept warm by the fire it's
18:47
not just like oh there's a fire oh we'll
18:49
cook on that right it's like the actual
18:51
source of heat that's keeping you alive
18:53
and then you
18:55
take the fire later at night and you
18:58
pick it up pick up some of the fire and
18:59
you bring it over to your own shelter
19:01
fire so
19:02
basically i'm the first time i went
19:05
i took an eight by ten
19:07
tarp actually was two because one to
19:09
block the wind and you
19:12
create a shelter
19:13
and uh
19:15
you
19:16
put a little fire next to it and it sort
19:18
of looks like a lean too yeah and uh i
19:20
have to say the the first night it was
19:22
like
19:23
you stare up you're looking at the stars
19:25
perfect as day
19:27
and uh
19:28
you have a beautiful fire keeping you at
19:31
probably an ambient like 68 degrees
19:33
between that
19:34
in the sleeping bag right and uh
19:38
it was it's awesome yeah you wake up the
19:39
way you wake up the next morning you
19:41
just take a deep breath and you're like
19:43
wow this is this is what life is about
19:46
yeah no it's very cool so how was dan on
19:48
his first go-around were you as like
19:51
when you first asked him just like when
19:53
you first asked me you thought i was
19:54
going to say no did you think dan was
19:55
going to say no yes yeah and then i said
19:57
an immediate yes
20:01
we did we had just met through through
20:03
business
20:05
and the the enthusiasm of his acceptance
20:09
was was almost f almost seemed fake yeah
20:13
and i'm like you know tomorrow the day
20:15
after i'm gonna get the yo hey i can't
20:17
do this hey i can't do that i got a
20:19
meeting i just i've got a meeting coming
20:21
up yeah any excuse to not show up i have
20:23
to wash my hair i have to shave two
20:25
things too much
20:27
it's okay
20:28
all right
20:29
but um
20:31
no he he came um he was
20:35
very enthusiastic about the entire
20:37
experience
20:38
and
20:39
through the first night you know i
20:41
through
20:42
dan and brent also
20:45
one
20:46
precaution that i took again i feel like
20:48
i've got them under my wing for the
20:50
first few trips
20:51
i put firewood in between them and the
20:54
fire pit yeah so that just in case you
20:57
roll over at night i'm an active sleeper
20:59
i don't know who else is right very
21:00
excited you don't roll over in the
21:01
middle of the night and roll into a fire
21:03
yeah right when you talk about the
21:05
dangers that would definitely be one of
21:06
the dangers i i still do that right and
21:08
that would definitely break
21:09
could break rule number one that we just
21:11
laid out don't die so that's yeah that's
21:14
cool i think it was also when when we
21:16
were sitting by the fire that night
21:18
and the words he utters is i almost lit
21:20
myself on fire
21:22
and you're like huh yeah
21:24
maybe i should build a wall right yeah
21:26
but that's good i mean learn from it's
21:28
like the 10 000 hours malcolm gladwell
21:30
thing like to be an expert you got to
21:32
put in 10 000 hours so then you just
21:34
leverage other people's experiences and
21:36
it keeps you safe you know so 100 100
21:39
that's like real deep right there we
21:40
just went deep so um all right so have
21:43
you done other trips beyond your trips
21:45
with trevor have you
21:47
yeah actually so it's it's kind of cool
21:49
actually when
21:51
trevor and i first met i i had always
21:53
been looking for people to go camping
21:54
with or an excuse to go camping in i
21:57
honestly had only been once prior to
22:00
ever even going winter camping
22:02
and so
22:03
and that one time i literally packed my
22:05
car and i had a car at the time now i
22:07
drive an suv thankfully but
22:10
i'm pretty sure i filled the entire car
22:13
to the brim because i didn't know how to
22:15
pack in one contained bag
22:19
so i came with like a lot of materials
22:21
25 bags yeah right yeah i now come with
22:24
one pack and
22:25
have everything yeah in it it just seems
22:27
more efficient yeah you learn as you go
22:29
you learn as you go my car was pretty
22:30
filled up with just like random stuff i
22:32
was like i'll bring that i'll bring that
22:34
yeah and now and now probably like 10 or
22:36
15 times in at this point now i have an
22:38
suv and it's like i have everything laid
22:40
out and perfectly ready for like
22:42
the experience yes well i think the one
22:45
thing and
22:46
mike if
22:47
this does end up you know impacting
22:49
impacting you enough to the point where
22:51
you want to do this more yeah no
22:54
when uh
22:56
dan for his first number of trips just
22:58
came out with myself and some other
23:00
people who are relatively experienced
23:03
yeah people would say i'm a complete
23:04
rookie right you know it's all relative
23:06
yeah but um dan then decided to take his
23:09
wife out camping
23:10
for the first time just the two of them
23:12
yeah and that was the first time i think
23:14
he would go on camping yeah without the
23:16
group yeah yeah so so what i
23:18
what i did was it was cool because i was
23:20
finally well the first thing is like two
23:22
days later i give a phone call to trevor
23:24
and i go
23:25
damn you guys bring a lot of stuff
23:30
i then proceeded to buy a new car yeah
23:33
because you know for camp i realized
23:34
yeah i realized that
23:36
i needed so much more stuff to go on my
23:38
own mind you whenever we traveled
23:41
you have somebody showing up with a
23:42
pickup truck right and you're like nah
23:44
there you don't need too much to camp
23:47
yeah it's all relative yeah yeah so we
23:49
brought i brought my wife for the first
23:51
time and then i just started making it a
23:53
uh a usual thing i mean i think a lot of
23:55
what was the catalyst that really
23:57
brought
23:58
camping to be such a great experience
24:00
was actually coveted too i mean i think
24:03
when we were the only place you had to
24:05
escape to was out into the woods right
24:07
exactly right trapped in your house yeah
24:09
and walking like a circle around my
24:10
block and just make myself insane yeah
24:12
so we made we made an executive decision
24:13
we had been seeing each other early on
24:15
in during covid and uh like
24:18
we decided you know what let's go out
24:21
camping and so we you started doing that
24:23
like every other month yeah and uh
24:26
in the beginning of covid though with
24:28
new jersey the state parks were closed
24:30
right
24:30
luckily we uh we were not able to come
24:34
here to stokes or any of the other state
24:36
parks right we ended up utilizing
24:38
private land yeah you call a friend
24:39
that's got a few acres that backs up to
24:41
to some state land or some other private
24:43
land yeah just to get the ability to get
24:46
a change of scenery get out into the
24:47
woods right and you know whether you're
24:50
five miles away or 50 miles away yeah
24:53
that we call campfire therapy for a
24:55
reason right exactly it really it's an
24:58
opportunity to clear your head focus on
24:59
other stuff yeah and just enjoy it
25:02
awesome love it it's gonna be quiet
25:04
tonight we're not gonna hear crickets
25:05
chirping and cicadas yeah yeah i think
25:07
we're gonna have some stars because yeah
25:09
that'd be cool take my sunglasses off at
25:11
some point um but uh awesome all right
25:13
so we're gonna end this segment uh so
25:15
dan thank you for jumping on with us
25:16
today happy to be out here with you
25:18
because i haven't seen you in a while
25:19
either yeah i see like randomly in
25:20
morristown one time and then great way
25:22
to get reconnected exactly right
25:24
campfire therapy um all right so we're
25:26
gonna take a quick break uh second break
25:27
of the show this is the greetings from
25:29
the garden state podcast i'm mike ham
25:30
we'll be right back
25:34
it is time for your new jersey fun fact
25:36
of the day did you know that saltwater
25:38
taffy's origins can be traced back to
25:40
atlantic city in 1883
25:42
and that here's your new jersey fun fact
25:44
of the day
25:47
all right we're back this is the
25:48
greetings from the garden state podcast
25:50
i'm mike hammer here in stoke state park
25:52
uh so you know the drill so far so we
25:54
had trevor on the beginning he's still
25:55
here with us uh making sure keeping us
25:57
safe checking out the fire
25:59
eating doing all his drinking the juice
26:01
and whatever um and uh joey bae rudy is
26:04
also joining us so you were me
26:06
last night so that last night was your
26:08
first time tonight's my first time uh so
26:10
like and you came with did you know
26:12
trevor beforehand i did know trevor
26:14
cook for me many times before all right
26:16
awesome all right so it wasn't like just
26:17
walking into the woods with a stranger
26:18
and be like yeah yeah you know stoke
26:20
state park see you out there yeah he
26:22
dropped the pin i knew exactly where to
26:23
find him yeah that's like the perfect
26:25
crime
26:27
he set me up i swear it wasn't me yeah
26:30
but um all right so so how was that
26:32
experience um you ever heard uh left out
26:35
in the cold yeah yeah let me tell you i
26:38
uh i did not understand what 24 degrees
26:41
meant yeah yeah it was like
26:43
it might rain and i was like
26:45
interesting let me just erect the tent
26:47
in the wrong way and uh
26:49
you know i'm thinking i'm thinking
27:05
opened it up so um so but then you guys
27:08
basically set it up for me so that was
27:09
like one less thing that i have to do so
27:10
camping's great like you don't have to
27:11
do any any hard work yeah we were
27:14
actually waiting to pull that switch
27:15
valet thing where uh you're so
27:17
preoccupied with people putting together
27:19
someone else jumps out of the woods
27:20
right and just drives away in your car
27:22
and you're over there like wow i have a
27:23
new tent it's
27:24
like my keys were in there yeah right
27:26
right yeah i love it so uh so what was
27:28
like did it take much convincing for you
27:30
to come out with us no no not even close
27:33
uh you know i've i know brent
27:35
aggressively um
27:37
from work and then uh trevor i've i've
27:40
heard many of his stories uh from any
27:42
cookouts that he had thrown and any kind
27:43
of you know networking events i'd seen
27:45
him at yeah so it was almost like yeah
27:47
these guys seemed safe right yeah yeah
27:50
if he could raise two daughters you know
27:51
he could he could get me through two
27:52
nights in the woods yeah so i figured
27:54
let me go out there i'll have a what i
27:56
called it um a
27:58
perspective enhancing trip yeah no i
28:00
love that yeah and it seems to be kind
28:01
of like a running theme through some of
28:03
this is just like like this is the
28:05
experience the experience of just kind
28:07
of like shutting things off even though
28:09
i have mics on and we're probably like
28:10
bugging the hell out of everybody else
28:12
and just for the experience and the
28:14
perspective mike as i'm looking at you i
28:16
see
28:16
a butt a snap up layer on the outside
28:20
a hoodie underneath that a flannel
28:22
underneath that another hoodie
28:24
underneath that and a long sleeve shirt
28:26
underneath that
28:27
joe's here with a hood up
28:30
a winter hat underneath it a gigantic
28:33
scarf
28:34
is that an infinity scarf
28:36
it is not but i wish it was
28:38
and a full body monkey carhartt suit
28:42
i'm also here for the oil changes uh
28:44
you're up car number's three euro car
28:47
three bait two
28:48
[Laughter]
28:50
so we're not are is that the experience
28:53
thing
28:54
like oh you're talking about like me
28:56
experiencing the cold yeah not like it's
28:58
being experienced because i have a snap
29:00
up jacket on which i would imagine it's
29:02
not going to understand like what joe
29:03
said what does 24 degrees feel like yeah
29:04
exactly well right this is yeah what 24
29:07
degrees ends up being like yeah how many
29:09
possible layers can you make yourself
29:11
look like the michelin man i got a
29:12
couple more
29:13
a lot more than a couple more it was
29:14
just like i'm just gonna take as many
29:15
warm clothes as i have i don't know how
29:17
cold i'm gonna be oh you're lucky i uh i
29:19
thought i was uh prepping for this my
29:21
furnace blew out a couple weeks back and
29:23
uh i was like well i'm going into the
29:26
woods 55 degrees inside doesn't sound so
29:28
bad right so you kind of just like toned
29:30
it down over time yeah at the core
29:32
temperature down oh yeah you know i mean
29:33
um
29:35
you know i used my refrigerator as like
29:38
a heat source pretty much right you know
29:40
and that's how cold it got inside we had
29:42
a cold spell a couple weeks back it was
29:43
it was a killer yeah so um if you could
29:46
pick maybe like
29:47
you know you had you get here you're
29:49
doing your thing and you're kind of
29:50
getting that experience so what was
29:52
maybe the the best experience that you
29:54
had from your first night just because
29:56
then maybe i can try to have like a
29:57
really good experience yeah uh we love
30:00
the moon yeah you know this is uh this
30:02
is the first real full harvest moon that
30:03
we're gonna get this year and uh it's
30:05
going for the next four nights enjoy it
30:07
yeah and uh reflecting off the water was
30:09
really epic we're right by this you know
30:11
beautiful scenic river if you will and
30:13
uh
30:14
you know we had to take turns uh you
30:16
know fangirling the moon with our phones
30:18
yeah right who could get a better
30:20
picture yeah yeah that was great yeah
30:22
that's awesome yeah you were sending the
30:24
pictures and i was i was jealous i was
30:25
like that seems like it would be
30:27
something that would have been cool to
30:29
to see for sure absolutely so
30:31
um you just finished one night you got
30:33
second night coming up do you see this
30:34
being a thing that you try to do
30:36
more of moving forward
30:38
definitely more camping uh i am a
30:41
outdoors enthusiast but i don't get out
30:42
enough
30:43
um like the idea of the outdoors exactly
30:46
i love the idea of the outdoors i see
30:47
conservationists i'm like yeah i love
30:49
that fair weather fan
30:52
you know i'll put a dollar in that can
30:54
um
30:55
definitely uh not in the cold you know
30:57
i'm typically like i love 90 degree
30:59
weather that's that's me
31:01
i have another layer to put on
31:03
underneath this carhartt for when i go
31:04
to bed tonight because i've learned from
31:06
last night
31:07
and i got the rainfly worked out so
31:09
there you go yeah no breeze going
31:11
through your tent tonight correct yeah
31:13
yeah that was good because you said fly
31:15
i was like i don't even know what that
31:16
is but you put that on mine the fly is
31:18
the extra cover that's the red cover on
31:19
your tent over there yeah that should
31:21
there be frost or rain right it doesn't
31:24
get on you love that yeah it's slightly
31:26
it's clutch yeah i don't want to get wet
31:28
yeah all right um okay so we're gonna
31:29
take our last break of this episode so
31:31
this is the greetings from the garden
31:32
state podcast i'm mike kim joey thank
31:34
you for jumping on with us thanks and i
31:36
hope you enjoy your second night and i
31:37
hope i enjoyed my first one as much as
31:38
you joined your first one so thank you
31:40
thank you and we'll be right back
31:47
[Music]
31:56
okay we're back for our last segment
31:57
here in stoke state forest i'm mike hamm
31:59
this is the greetings from the garden
32:00
state podcast now we're joined by our
32:02
last fellow camper of this group uh but
32:05
not least for sure brent koslowski so
32:06
brent you're obviously another guy that
32:08
we know through our professional lives
32:10
um so
32:11
what's up man how you doing i'm doing
32:13
great mike
32:14
so
32:15
right now we're hitting about probably
32:17
35 40 degrees
32:19
a little chilly we got the fire going
32:21
just hanging out and chilling yeah no i
32:23
love it yeah so when you um
32:26
first came was trevor like camping with
32:28
trevor was that your first camping
32:30
experience or no
32:31
not my first no i grew up camping i grew
32:33
up in pittsburgh actually so growing up
32:35
camping time to time with family but not
32:38
at the level level that i've done it
32:39
with trevor at this point yeah yeah you
32:41
know so i bought four or five years ago
32:45
had met trevor and
32:47
unique character through and through
32:49
he's got so many different
32:50
just things that he does it's so
32:52
fascinating and then he's talking about
32:53
survival camp and he's like you should
32:54
come sometime took him two years
32:57
actually took dan getting involved and
32:59
just like dan's just very proactive like
33:01
come on man we should go out with him
33:02
yeah i go out for the first time two
33:03
years ago
33:04
and i was like why don't i do this more
33:06
often yeah like what am i doing like you
33:09
literally come out here have a few
33:10
drinks with friends talking nothing
33:13
serious no stress what's that of juice
33:16
of juice yeah not
33:18
you said have a couple drinks with your
33:19
friends oh yeah yeah yeah
33:21
of course yeah a few drinks of juice
33:23
and then uh you know you just hang out
33:26
and you're just worried about getting
33:27
through the night getting in the morning
33:28
you clear your mind no anxieties yeah
33:31
nothing yeah it just it centers you and
33:33
just pushes you forward for you know
33:34
next month or two until you want to go
33:36
back out right so you live in west
33:38
milford right yes sir yeah so you
33:41
basically live in the woods and then
33:42
come
33:43
back further out into the woods to get
33:45
the escape right well that was a part of
33:46
my initial argument with doing i was
33:48
like i pretty much lived there already
33:49
yeah right but once you go out here and
33:51
you're like okay i don't have a house
33:52
around me there's no working bathroom i
33:55
need my food my fridge everything else
33:56
going on right and i just you know
33:58
easily walk through the house and i'm
33:59
like i have a lean-to tent that is a
34:02
tarp over a tarp
34:04
a few layers of padding yeah we've done
34:07
the description of the lean too okay
34:09
yeah okay i didn't know that we got
34:10
there no it's okay i don't mean to cut
34:11
you off but we we've got the description
34:12
of the tarp clean too pretty much i
34:14
didn't really know where to go from
34:16
there to be honest with you we lost them
34:17
halfway through that answer so so
34:19
basically you're out here and you have a
34:21
bare minimum and and it is something you
34:23
fall in love with yeah so so time time
34:25
again was your first uh um outing with
34:28
trevor with this lean to
34:30
was that that was your first time out
34:31
was in the lean to or did you do me with
34:33
the tent no i did the first time out
34:35
with the lean too okay you know they
34:37
actually pretty much put it up for me i
34:38
stood there and went okay right like i
34:40
watched them put my tent up yeah exactly
34:42
like clamping and they're they take care
34:44
i mean the food that they make here i
34:46
mean trevor my god
34:49
the chili oh my god the chili
34:52
epic story epic stories that we can't
34:55
talk about right yeah we'll save that
34:56
one
34:57
but uh so
34:59
so then you doing this and doing this
35:01
more um and we talked about like work
35:03
and all that kind of stuff so like
35:05
um maybe if you could pick like an
35:07
experience that just kind of stood out
35:09
for you because that's what we kind of
35:10
can became the theme of this episode
35:12
over the course of this episode like a
35:14
good like one of your best experiences
35:16
and why you keep coming back you know
35:18
because that's ultimately the goal right
35:19
not just come once you want to come more
35:21
than once great question um
35:24
the first time i came out actually it
35:26
was the
35:27
during a stressful time in my life i
35:29
won't go into detail about it but like i
35:30
was just in a world that
35:32
i trevor knew about dan knew about a few
35:34
other people knew about so the first
35:36
time out where we all just hung out
35:38
and the fact they just came and they
35:40
helped me get like everything together
35:42
it really helped solidify my friendship
35:43
with these guys like it's a brotherhood
35:44
at this point right you know they were
35:46
taking care of me and i was like oh my
35:47
god these guys are setting up a home for
35:48
me tonight like food and everything else
35:50
it's amazing i want to contribute to
35:52
this i want to be a part of this yeah
35:53
and then it just spurred off from there
35:55
so that initial moment would be
35:57
recognized you have not just friends
35:59
brothers that was amazing right so
36:02
i'm gonna give you like another good
36:03
question because i just thought of it
36:04
and dan you're standing back there so if
36:06
you want to jump in on this one i'm in
36:08
any point you can you could sit next to
36:09
me um but um
36:11
so as we're kind of we're doing this and
36:14
you know you guys i have this
36:15
professional relationship and
36:18
a now regular relationship so talk to me
36:20
about the importance of that you know
36:23
affecting both you know because it's not
36:24
just like hey we see each other a
36:26
networking event and then we leave well
36:28
i mean i guess i do with you guys but
36:29
now this is different but you guys have
36:31
been doing this for a couple years now
36:32
so describe like that relationship and
36:34
what that's kind of meant over the last
36:36
couple years if trevor you want to take
36:37
that or if you guys want to take that
36:39
trevor if everybody wants to jump in
36:43
that's uh
36:46
there's a
36:47
special type of person that it takes to
36:49
to kind of take a leap of faith and go
36:52
on to the middle of nowhere with people
36:53
that you've just met
36:56
going from a business relationship to a
36:58
personal relationship is
37:02
a step that you have to
37:03
you have to take carefully
37:05
you know
37:06
we all
37:07
we're in business to make money we have
37:09
whether it's ourselves a family
37:11
um or other people in our lives that
37:13
we're taking care of
37:15
but outside of the monetary aspect of it
37:17
are the personal relationships we're you
37:19
know mike dan brent
37:21
we're all in sales and we we met through
37:23
networking from a business aspect and to
37:26
have the com the the comfort and
37:28
confidence in somebody be able to take
37:30
that relationship from professional
37:32
into personal
37:33
and you learn about people's vices and
37:35
demons and you know we call this
37:37
campfire therapy for a reason i mean i i
37:40
remember very vividly
37:42
the the first time that we were out
37:44
and we were sitting we were here at
37:46
stokes sitting around a fire and
37:49
i think
37:50
dan was
37:52
recently engaged
37:54
and i told a very emotional story about
37:57
how my wife has the wedding ring that my
38:00
great grandmother bought for my
38:02
grandfather while he was in the south
38:03
pacific in world war ii wow because he
38:05
didn't think he was going to make it
38:06
home yeah
38:07
and we're out on our on our first
38:10
personal basis and i'm sobbing telling
38:12
this emotional story
38:13
and it just yeah we call campfire
38:15
therapy for a reason it brings certain
38:18
emotions out there's certain
38:20
safeties and comforts that you feel when
38:22
you're in a compromised situation
38:24
weather-wise
38:26
and you're putting this trust into
38:27
people that are around you it's it's a
38:29
very very tight bond
38:31
that then
38:32
goes throughout business into personal
38:35
and
38:36
you know hopefully it's a it's a
38:38
positive relationship that can spend the
38:40
rest of your life
38:41
yeah exactly uh brent you want to take
38:44
it next or dan what he said that was
38:46
awesome yeah that was a great answer i
38:47
was just gonna i was just gonna i mean
38:50
to sum it up it was it's brotherhood i
38:52
mean it's like you know i guess you can
38:55
most closely assimilate it to like dogs
38:57
right where
38:58
you're gonna have to explain that yeah
39:00
it's good yeah let's unpack that a
39:01
little bit you gotta go a little further
39:02
there buddy here now we're putting you
39:04
on the spot it's time
39:06
no i mean so you have like you know dogs
39:09
have always evolved to like a pack
39:10
mentality right where it's like
39:13
the
39:14
the packs travel together and it's like
39:16
you become this band of not just
39:19
you surviving in the world but you and a
39:22
team surviving in the world performing
39:24
our own pack yeah and just like dogs
39:26
they travel and lay and
39:28
are better in packs
39:30
the wolf pack
39:32
yeah that was a good way you put a bow
39:33
on that nice i was
39:35
we were going off the rails a little bit
39:37
but yeah i was i was happy you got it
39:39
back on track tied that one clean tied
39:41
it clean all right so yeah so this has
39:43
been i so i was interested to kind of
39:45
see because like i said trevor put this
39:47
idea in our facebook group so if you
39:48
don't already are a part of our facebook
39:50
group you probably should be greetings
39:51
from the garden state facebook group and
39:53
he was like hey let's do a uh interview
39:55
in the woods and i was like okay didn't
39:57
really know what that meant and then i
39:58
said earlier uh it was you guys said
40:01
november i was like guys no it's cold in
40:03
november
40:05
but we made it so we got it all set up
40:07
we're here camping take it thank you for
40:09
having faith oh yeah you got to have the
40:11
faith my hands are cold hold me
40:15
we'll see if he's still alive tomorrow
40:18
that's the number one rule dan that's
40:19
the number one rule this could be like a
40:21
really a really bad cold take like right
40:23
after this one but uh all right so this
40:25
has been the green state greetings from
40:27
the garden state podcast i'm mike hamm
40:28
we are here at stokes state forest with
40:31
trevor patterson brent kozlowski dan
40:33
grant and joey babe rudy
40:35
you almost you almost got me you almost
40:36
got me but i'm a pro so
40:38
this has been us in stoke state forest
40:40
thank you for listening and we will
40:41
catch you next week
40:50
[Applause]
40:50
[Music]
41:02
[Music]
41:14
you
