MMO: 30 Days Camping Series Kickoff: Days 1-4, Bandits Roost near Wilkesboro, NC
Jun 08, 2024
Matt Mittan / Michele Scheve
What's it like to be stranded in the wilderness? Join us as we kick off our "30 Days Camping" series. As we reminisce under our pop tent, while being marooned by a serene lake in a National Forest, we share stories from our first adventure in the seroes at Bandits Roost on Kerr Scott Resevoir — Michelle's cherished childhood camping trips and Matt's off-grid canoeing excursions of yesteryears. Each episode in this new series will bring you along for three to four days of our journey, filled with recaps, heartwarming moments, mis-adventures and advice on destinations.
But that’s not all—get ready for some exciting updates on our 30-day camping challenge! From the thrill of nearly getting caught up in a rare mountain tornado to our transition from canoeing to kayaking, we've had our share of ups and downs. Between navigating mishaps at our campsite and discovering wonderful surprises, we learn valuable lessons like packing light and embracing spontaneity along the way. And of course, no adventure is complete without a competitive game of UNO, which serves as a backdrop to the series. Tune in to relive these intentionally unintentional escapades with us!
What's it like to be stranded in the wilderness? Join us as we kick off our "30 Days Camping" series. As we reminisce under our pop tent, while being marooned by a serene lake in a National Forest, we share stories from our first adventure in the seroes at Bandits Roost on Kerr Scott Resevoir — Michelle's cherished childhood camping trips and Matt's off-grid canoeing excursions of yesteryears. Each episode in this new series will bring you along for three to four days of our journey, filled with recaps, heartwarming moments, mis-adventures and advice on destinations.
But that’s not all—get ready for some exciting updates on our 30-day camping challenge! From the thrill of nearly getting caught up in a rare mountain tornado to our transition from canoeing to kayaking, we've had our share of ups and downs. Between navigating mishaps at our campsite and discovering wonderful surprises, we learn valuable lessons like packing light and embracing spontaneity along the way. And of course, no adventure is complete without a competitive game of UNO, which serves as a backdrop to the series. Tune in to relive these intentionally unintentional escapades with us!
Hey everybody, welcome to another edition of Matt and Michelle Odyssey. I'm Matt Mattan, I'm Michelle Sheep and we have a very special series that we're starting right now yeah, we're kicking it off.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, 30 days camping 30 days, 30 days camping, 30 days, yeah, and in full disclosure.
Speaker 1:
we are doing this episode. I guess we can give a little foreshadowing. We have been stranded remotely without anything other than our solar power and other things for let's see how many days.
Speaker 2:
I guess the stranded part would have been since since saturday, four days ago, three days ago yeah three, four days ago four days ago yeah.
Speaker 1:
So um the series, the 30 days camping, um, we've already got. We're on our third stretch of that yes well, I guess you could say fourth, because we're beyond what we thought was going to be the third, and we've actually just been evolving so quickly with our camping adventures that we hadn't done real-time episodes.
Speaker 2:
We had actually forgot that part.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, yeah, you know, the whole point of us doing this is to share our adventures with y'all. Our intentionally unintentional travel is taking a little side jaunt where we tried being very intentional.
Speaker 2:
Yes.
Speaker 1:
But, as you'll hear as we go through and recap, as we sit next to a lake, we're in a Chattaloochee National Forest.
Speaker 2:
Is that the national forest I? Think that's the one that we're camping at Well but we can see the Blue Ridge Mountains, which are our own mountains.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, so we are tucked on a National Forest campground that is at Lake Chattoog, Georgia and North Carolina. Absolutely beautiful, but we have some catching up to do.
Speaker 2:
Yes, we've got to go back.
Speaker 1:
If you hear yeah but.
Speaker 1:
If you hear weird sounds, it's because we're literally sitting remotely at our campsite right now. We're playing Uno under our pop tent and we've got our string lights running off of our solar power stuff that charged up today, and so, while we play Uno, we're going to get you caught up on our last few trips, including the one we're on, which is going to be a lot. It's not all going to be in one episode. We're going to split these up and the series will go in like three or four day stretches, and I mean that sounds good. Do we already agree on this?
Speaker 2:
I don't know if that's how we do it, yeah, I mean. So this episode is going to be and I'm asking you this, matt just the recap. Yeah, we're going to recap the first trip.
Speaker 1:
And then we'll do another episode still sitting here. We're going to catch everything up, but we'll split the episodes into the trips. Oh, okay, because I think if we try to do it all in one. I was looking at my cards and not listening closely enough. Well, I'm looking at my cards and not listening closely enough. Well, I'm looking at my cards and I'm glad we both shuffled this deck of Uno cards, because you're going to think I stacked them in my hand.
Speaker 2:
I'm going to be in pain, okay.
Speaker 1:
Yeah. So anyway, we'll do these episodes in three or four day stretches and after what our last week has been like, we're thinking we might just actually do daily recaps and then just edit them together when we get back to civilization and put them out that way, because every day in the last week for us has been an adventure. But we have like the, we have the catch up things.
Speaker 2:
Let's start with the catch up.
Speaker 1:
So let's set the stage a little bit, in that you used to camp a lot when you were young, yeah, and used to do hike-in camping.
Speaker 2:
you and your brother talk about that a little bit well um, family trips with my mother and my stepfather and my brother, who is one year and change older than me, and um, and they were wonderful and we also went to summer summer camps that were kind of rustic as well. So we had a lot of experience with sleeping bags and hiking in the woods and looking for ticks and avoiding poison ivy, poison oak and all the kind of the early education you get on camping as a child and it was very good. Fond memories, probably one of the strongest ones of my childhood. My childhood were those camping trips and like, as far as by remote you know, we would, yeah, we would, hike in maybe an hour, a couple hours.
Speaker 1:
Well, you and your brother were telling me you used to do sections of the Appalachian Trail with your parents.
Speaker 2:
Right Hike in a little bit in camp yes, so well they later on did, did horseback riding trails by themselves. But when we were younger, yes, we would. We would take areas and um, yeah, go and um, maybe do like a two-hour hike in, um, put the back. Then you had the little tablets for drink for the you put in the water.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, to iodine things or something.
Speaker 2:
Iodine, I think, I don't know.
Speaker 1:
I don't think it was iodine.
Speaker 2:
They were red. They were those red tablets. People out there will know, and Maybe they were iodine, I don't know. And you know, know, set up, set up your tents, the, the old pole style tents um the the triangle tents that that we had and and uh, uh, yeah, I don't know what else to say. You know you, you take a toilet paper, you find a place in the woods.
Speaker 1:
That's hardcore man, yeah um, yeah, and for me we've talked about this before I used to do, you know, me and my friends would do extended, like off-grid kind of trips yeah, you know where we'd paddle in by canoe yeah and even when my oldest son oh, I should start the Uno game here Draw two that's a good way to start the game, Jerk and so it's something that continued when my oldest son was born and he's 30 now and up until he was about 12 years old when he started going off on his own with his friends. That whole time he and I would also do a lot of camping trips yeah even like winter hardcore, like cold mountain in january no, y'all did by the way draw two again oh my god and you had a question well, y'all y'all did like some like boy Scout type stuff when he was younger we did for a while.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, he tapped out of it, same reason I did.
Speaker 2:
It wasn't the wasn't rustic enough misconduct of the Boy Scouts all right and reverse, reverse, wild green you have two cards left and I hand I have two cards left and I have 20.
Speaker 1:
And that was my first turn of this hand. Yeah, so you know. He went all the way through Weeblos and got his Arrow of Light, which is the highest thing you can get at that level of scouting, and he decided not to continue on because, like his dad, he wanted to do more rugged things.
Speaker 2:
Right, right, but I think it gives you a great base Uno, by the way. Oh, my God okay.
Speaker 1:
So you're saying it gives a great base.
Speaker 2:
You were saying it gives a great base for the. For the. Uno draw two for the basics of, of learning a lot of skills, fundamental skills still my turn.
Speaker 1:
Oh okay, can we say that on the radio?
Speaker 2:
I don't think we can. Well, you can beep it I won't remember where it's at we're out in the wilderness.
Speaker 1:
All right, it was said and um yeah, and it may be hard for us to play a game while we're also having a conversation.
Speaker 2:
We should keep at it.
Speaker 1:
Keep at it, this is fun just keep it, uh, wild, red, um, but anyway. So I had gotten away from camping for a lot of years. You know, and as we've been doing mmo and as it's evolved over the last, however many years we've been doing this travel show, you know, it started off as Matt and Michelle Outdoors and we did all outdoor adventures and highlighted outdoor places, but we usually stayed at different places, you know, and not camped.
Speaker 1:
And the more we've been in these natural settings and these different wild areas, the more it's been appealing for me personally to get back to that camping route you know to, to get back to my roots in camping. And so for the last year um you know, we talked about this in previous episodes been really upping the gear game, you know, been really expanding and reinforcing.
Speaker 2:
Yellow.
Speaker 1:
I played a wild and you say yellow.
Speaker 2:
Yellow.
Speaker 1:
You know I've been really preparing to do the things that we're doing now. So now we're on this 30-day stretch of 30 days camping in six months. Yeah, and it's a big commitment, you know. It's a financial commitment but also it's a draw two, um it's. It's a scheduling commitment because you know we both have things outside of mmo that take up our time with. You know your comedy shows and me working at the va again and everything. So the commitment, you know, the reason for me anyway is because I've I don't mind sharing. You know we've talked about stuff before but there's been a lot of loss, you know, in my life lately. You know my biological father, my mom, you know close friends that I grew up with, a couple of friends have passed from my old neighborhood and all that stuff and it just kind of it really drove home for me that that's a way to kill a moment. It's. It's motivated me in that thing of where it's like you know, I don't have a whole lot of time to waste on stuff.
Speaker 1:
Um, there you go, and so this was the direction we decided to prepare for, and now we're doing it. So, um, the only other update to give before we tell you about our first stretch, our first three days of the 30, is that we got another kayak. You have a kayak.
Speaker 2:
I have a kayak and I love my kayak so. Yeah, so you had been when we had gotten back from our Florida trip and you were really getting into kayaking videos and just trying to like kind of gear yourself up for kind of this new.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I've been a canoeist my whole life. Yeah, and you know so making that transition, but we enjoy paddling together so much. Obviously couldn't just get out there on a lake and you'd be on the shore watching, you know, or something. And carrying a kayak and a canoe on the car is not an option right you can't do both on the car we have.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so you've been you. Yeah, you started, uh, I'm drawing y'all.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, she hit me with a draw two. Now karma came right back at her.
Speaker 2:
She's having to draw, bad karma it is. We play where you have to draw until you can play.
Speaker 1:
Oh, you got another, draw two Okay.
Speaker 2:
And then this so reverse.
Speaker 1:
And then this you know, I was thinking this episode's got to be really good for people with ADD yeah trying to track a new no game that's going while we're actually lying chief, I can keep our topics.
Speaker 2:
So you, you came back and with the kayaks and started watching these videos. And then I started watching the videos with you and I got very excited about your journey. I wasn't thinking about a journey for me, but I was excited about being there for your journey. So I started watching them with you and, um, and the next thing, I know you you from work you called me from work. It was like I'm going to pick up the kayak for you after work and I sent you the picture of it and everything.
Speaker 1:
And it's an old town. It's an old town.
Speaker 2:
Loon, yeah, 11 foot kayak beautiful yeah, it's gorgeous and it's a dream, it's really, um, you know, it's you know and there could be more on that when we catch back up with kind of what we're doing but we, um, I didn't get a chance.
Speaker 1:
Call back to the florida coast um trip is that I never got a chance to use the kayak after I got it. Because weather conditions got so bad I never got to use it on that trip.
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 1:
And so came back home and one thing after another kept happening. I couldn't use the kayak and everything. And then we ended up um taking the last trip that we did the two lakes in two days. The last episode we did it on canoe. That we did the two lakes in two days, the last episode we did it on canoe. You know, we didn't do it on kayaks, and so I'm pouring myself a drinky yeah I can't wait to get to this trip.
Speaker 1:
I'm telling y'all the episode that covers the last four or five days of this trip. There's no way for you to guess what our last? Well, unless you follow us on social media, then you have some idea yeah, okay because we do when we get signal, which is really hard to get, yeah, but when we do get signals, sometimes we do post out some stuff, so if you're following us on social media, then yeah maybe you've had a little preview of a few things along the way.
Speaker 2:
All right, but back. But back to what you were saying.
Speaker 1:
So back to what I was saying, we didn't get a chance to use it and everything, so we planned a very specific trip to begin our 30-day camping challenge. Yes, you know, specifically because it was the perfect place for have our maiden voyages, both of us for our new kayaks and mine's an old town, heron angler edition. And so our first camping trip? Oh, whoa, no.
Speaker 2:
That was the second one.
Speaker 1:
I'm so wrong. No, I got distracted because there's a boat going by the shore behind us cranking a radio Talk about disturbing the peace in the National Forest. Wait See if people can hear it, I'm going to hold on. I'm going gonna hold the mics over there. Yeah, that's a good old party going.
Speaker 2:
I don't know if they could hear it or not yeah, they're out here partying yeah, it's uh they're just cruising on by anyway, um no, but it is it's wrong.
Speaker 1:
It was not our first trip, but we did plan it yeah because I went ahead and I started laying out the whole rest of the year's trips okay, so let's with that.
Speaker 2:
Let's start with the first trip.
Speaker 1:
Yes.
Speaker 2:
And then we can fill people in on the way.
Speaker 1:
So the first trip was not for the kayaks. The second trip was for the kayaks.
Speaker 2:
So the first trip was three days. We were in our home stomping ground ground our home, away from home, away from home. Yeah, um stomping ground wilkesboro and love wilkesboro love wilkesboro and um uh kerr scott lake yeah, reservoir reservoir at which we had been on before. Um, and you could find a past episode on that.
Speaker 1:
And we were at. You know our campground was. I was going to say there's actually three different US Army Corps of Engineers campgrounds on Kurska.
Speaker 2:
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:
There's three different ones. There's Bandit's Roost, which is the one we stayed at.
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 1:
There's, I can't remember the name of it.
Speaker 2:
I don't know, smuggler's Cove or stayed at.
Speaker 1:
yeah, there's um, I can't remember the name of it, smugglers cove or something, and then don't know, and another one on the other side anyway, we stayed at bandits roost, which is like a little peninsula right going out into kirk scott reservoir and lovely, lovely sight yeah, I had a, had a walk down that was a little bit further than I think I had realized, and and, and I think the big thing to say about our first trip is we've spent so much time, or I've spent so much time, accumulating gear yeah, for trips. Our SUV was jam-packed with gear.
Speaker 2:
We couldn't see on any side.
Speaker 1:
We couldn't see out the back or the side windows.
Speaker 2:
It was like when they squished down the recycling and put it and make it into a box.
Speaker 1:
That is exactly what it was like oh my God, when I opened the back hatch of the SUV, it's like the car threw up Bass Pro Shops. Right, stuff just fell out, yeah you know, because it was so packed, we brought so much gear for a three-day trip, yeah, and so I mean we had the double dome tent with the hallway in between, which is I've had those tents forever right.
Speaker 2:
We had a two, two room shower tent.
Speaker 1:
Yes, you know, with the solar bag right we had the pop-up 10 by 10 for the picnic table yeah, we're under with the beautiful track lights and we had um stove cooking gear all the cooking stuff and everything.
Speaker 2:
Eventually we did have all that and um we have we shall we mention our bedding, oh?
Speaker 1:
yeah, and then the air mattress folks. We are not claiming to be doing the rugged adventure stuff no. We are.
Speaker 2:
We are shamefully, shamefully.
Speaker 1:
Depending on what people are used to.
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 1:
They may consider what we're doing glamping but if they're RV camping they would not consider what we're doing glamping Right. We're roughing it. We're actually using tents. Right, we're out in the open air without air conditioning or yeah, or heat, other than the fire and everything else you want to and we're staying.
Speaker 2:
Oh yeah, I should play again.
Speaker 1:
No, I'm going to go ahead and change it to green. Oh, that's right, we are playing an uno game. Um, we're still on our first hand no sick no, we are still we are on our first hand.
Speaker 2:
Oh my, my god, it seems like an hour ago.
Speaker 1:
It's the longest hand of Uno ever. We've both been down to Uno. I've got so many cards You're going to need another hand here pretty soon. You've got probably 12 cards. I can't do this.
Speaker 2:
I'm double decked with this.
Speaker 1:
Oh my god, I wish I could go out right now, you'd have 100 points.
Speaker 2:
Oh my god.
Speaker 1:
Well, well, anyway. So we packed so much for that trip it was ridiculous. We brought every possible thing. Now, part of it was we wanted to test out a lot of the new gear that had been accumulated over the last year, prepping for our little adventures, you know, and we get to the campsite, beautiful, right by the water, and everything else. We couldn't launch from our site, you know, but or could we no?
Speaker 2:
no, we couldn't launch from our site, but we were by the water, we could see it, but but there were so many different sites we went around and looked at for getting on and we had and this was now, yeah, canoe camping. We were you know we had the canoe and um and so we went and got off on a you know, on a different site, like in town. All right, yeah, is it my turn?
Speaker 1:
yeah, cheers and change it to yellow. Um, but anyway, with all the packing we had, there was a reason for it. We didn't necessarily think we'd need all that stuff, but we wanted to try out a lot of things that have been accumulated and despite oh, that was a skip.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, that was a skip. Do I need to say them out loud?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, that'll help me. Okay skip and then skip.
Speaker 2:
And then plus two m o oh draw two, that's all right. Karma's gonna come back around on you I know because you just probably drew a draw 20 billion and um anyway.
Speaker 1:
So we get up there, we're unpacking all this stuff, which took a lot, and we had stayed at a campsite that was down a series of stairs that we didn't totally realize how many stairs very steep stairs very steep stairs and a lot more of them than we thought. So it was a lot of gear to bring down, but it was also a lot of gear that we were gonna have to bring back up. But we get everything set up and then we realize we both forgot very important things for our trip.
Speaker 2:
Was that trip no? Wasn that trip no?
Speaker 1:
Wasn't it.
Speaker 2:
No, oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:
This is why we have to do them in real time. Okay, forget. I just said that, that is you're right. That's the next trip.
Speaker 2:
Okay, that's the next trip. Oh my gosh, the next trip is going to be epic too, okay.
Speaker 1:
All right, well, let's round it out. We had a great time we had a great time.
Speaker 2:
The equipment was great. We realized we should pack a lot less.
Speaker 1:
Let's see, yeah, there's something that stands out in my mind about that trip.
Speaker 2:
What.
Speaker 1:
When we went exploring and looking, we actually started looking at different land and different things like that. You know we were shopping around. We've been open about that?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, yeah, yeah about that.
Speaker 1:
You know, wilkesboro is a second home for us, and so we were looking at land while we're up there doing some fishing and things like that, and and we came across this little independent farm stand, like a family farm stand. That was the right trip. Right was it? It was, are you sure I'm? I'm. I'm not sure about anything anymore because we've been doing a lot of stuff. I think you're right. It was in Wilkesboro, it absolutely was in Wilkesboro.
Speaker 2:
Well, that was a lovely farm stand.
Speaker 1:
Do you have in your notes at all what it was? You know what? I can't find any notes. You can't find any notes.
Speaker 2:
I had notes maybe. Anyway, we'll look it up. When we get back to civilization we'll look it up when we get back to civilization.
Speaker 1:
we'll put information down in the description of this episode. So if you're listening on the radio, click through to our website and pull up the podcast of this episode. If you're listening on podcast, whatever platform you're listening to us on. First of all, thank you. We appreciate that A lot of you are listening.
Speaker 2:
Oh, I don't have my glasses.
Speaker 1:
Do you have your notes, though? Have you found them? No, I glasses oh do you have your notes though? Oh, you found them. No, I don't think I have any notes in here.
Speaker 1:
Okay, anyway, we'll, we'll put the information there, because it was all local sourced stuff and and handmade things yeah, from independent family farms and it was a real joy and it was a nice little gem of a discovery that we had that we didn't anticipate, and so the big thing to come from that trip is we had a great time. It was a little bit too luxurious and we realized we had packed way, way, way more not only just testing out gear but like our clothes and food and everything else and so we were like we need to pack less for the next trip yeah.
Speaker 2:
Just be very conscious about it Like we need to pack less for the next trip. Yeah, just be very conscious about it. And since our next trip was only a two-night trip, a three-day, two-night trip.
Speaker 1:
Well, that's right, the first one was four days. It was three nights, four days.
Speaker 2:
And so you know that's what we kept in mind.
Speaker 1:
All right, so trip number one of the 30-day challenge was four days to Kerscott Reservoir in Wilkesboro.
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 1:
We stayed at Bandit's Roost Campground Absolutely lovely. Yeah, we had a great time. Kerscott is one of our favorite places, yes, and we've done a number of episodes over the years up and around the Wilkes County area, so scroll back through. Love that part of the country. Yeah, it's a beautiful place and we overpacked so we intentionally went forward into our next trip, which was our maiden kayaks voyage trip. So four days under the first one. Next one is three days. The destination was Julian Price Park.
Speaker 2:
Julian Price Park, julian Price Park, and we will cover that in the next episode. Okay.
Speaker 1:
All right, so should we go ahead and just finish out this game?
Speaker 2:
It's my turn right yeah.
Speaker 1:
Draw four. Save it for the end and I'll call green uno. Go ahead, your turn. Oh, oh, I do have a turn. Yeah, I'm on uno. Yep, you have to shuffle through all your cards. She's she's sorting all of her cards through two hands and I'm at. Oh my god oh, you changed the color, oh you little. Oh my goodness, I thought the oh, I just keep drawing. All right, change it to blue here. We thought I was going to end it like that, but no, michelle is a fighter as many of you already know and um yellow.
Speaker 1:
All right, all right. The drama now. If only you could see the tension hanging in the humid air of our trip to Chattoau lake chateau. Is it chateau or chateau? You should probably know before I keep saying it, I think all right, uno, is this gonna be it? Are we gonna close it with a win, a rare win of a hand for me? I never win games against michelle. Oh, she changed the color again. Dang it. It Draw four. Can you say that on?
Speaker 2:
the radio? I don't know. Yes, because I did this is the new unfiltered MMR.
Speaker 1:
I'll call blue Uno your turn.
Speaker 2:
Okay, so that and that.
Speaker 1:
Skip Getting rid of some points. She's laying cards on the table as she sorts through them so she can see the other cards in her hand. All right, and let's see Uno, and she's going back through the shuffle again. I'm going to give the play-by-play.
Speaker 2:
She's reorganizing her cards.
Speaker 1:
She is not breaking eye contact with her cards. She's looking at them, hoping that they're gonna change. She's looking for y'all.
Speaker 2:
There's so many, there's just so many.
Speaker 1:
It's horrible and let's see uno again. I'm having to draw, but I keep getting the right cards to keep at uno and she's playing. Oh, just play the same card I didn't have before.
Speaker 2:
Oh, and we have to reshuffle the deck we have completed, so now you're gonna have to wait, so now you're gonna have to wait for the next episode because we've got to reshuffle the entire day.
Speaker 1:
All right, where the next episode comes out, you can see how the game ends all right, trip number two in our 30-day challenge and that one julian price park near boone, north carolina, in the next episode. All right, see you soon.
