THEY MADE IT IMPOSSIBLE, SO WE LEFT (Van Life California)

#vanlife #overlanding #offgridliving #californiavanlife

For the past couple of weeks we’ve been trying to explore the Californian coast by van, but they don’t make it easy. After literally driving around in circles last week and spending the GDP of a small nation on crab sandwiches, we took matters into our own hands and turned inland, in a big way. Abandoning the coast might have been one of the best decisions we made… except for a string of unfortunate incidents that followed us up and over the Sonora mountain pass.

↡ SAVE FOR YOUR OWN TRAVELS! ↡
📍 Bodie Ghost Town (https://maps.app.goo.gl/ckfp4pgpzj5EuHgk9)
📍 Mono Lake South Tufa (https://maps.app.goo.gl/tFaN9vACcuBudBnF6)
📍 Hilltop Hot Springs (https://maps.app.goo.gl/MUD51STcQtHNcZC19)
📍 Mt Whitney Portal Road (https://maps.app.goo.gl/K5PzJSYpojiihNBe7)

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↠ A BIT ABOUT US
We’re Chesca and Ben, and with our two pups River & Scout (🐶 🐶 ) we live and travel full-time in our self converted sprinter van, Sophia. We spent the past 2 years road tripping as much of Europe as we could, from the wild coasts of Portugal to the Syrian border in Turkey, tackling lockdowns and a van re-build along the way. But now, we’re feeling like a new challenge. In the summer of 2022, we’ll be shipping our van from the UK to Canada, on a mission to drive her all the way to Argentina!

CHESCA: So, tensions are running a little bit high. We stopped and the brakes were just billowing out black smoke. What I realized, that we haven’t talked about yet, That this is… We left Alaska in May of 2023 to begin the biggest adventure of our lives.

Driving the Pan-American Highway to the bottom of Argentina. We are currently in California. One of the USA’s bucket list states but van life isn’t exacly easy out here. We’re going to forget what everyone has told us we should do. And we’re leaving the busy coast behind us

For one of our final USA road trips before hitting Central America. Hopefully, we go out on a high and not with a bang. BEN: It was actually really scary with them being so spongy. CHESCA: Subscribe and join us for the ride with new videos every sunday. Good morning guys and welcome back.

If you’re new here, you probably don’t know that we are driving our camper van down the Panamerican highway. from Alaska, all the way to Argentina. For the past two months, we’ve been on the West Coast of the USA heading south, down towards Mexico. But you might be thinking,

Guys this does not look like the West Coast of the USA anymore. BEN: That’s because guys, it’s not the West Coast anymore. We’ve moved inland to the deserts and the mountains of Sierra Nevada. for very good reason. CHESCA: What have you got this for?

BEN: Because the wasps are coming around and they keep attacking me. So I’m using our means to crush them all. CHESCA: Okay, grab the camera, it’s windy. As you know, if you watched last week’s video, van life on the California coast is kind of impossible.

It gets more and more populated the further south you get. Dogs aren’t allowed on pretty much any of the beaches, and very very very few of the trails around there. Campsites are ridiculously expensive if they’re not full.

So it has been a bit of a challenge to try and do van life on the California Coast. This is why we have decided to abandon that plan and head inland over to the Sierra Nevadas. We might get a little bit of hate for this

Because we’ve abandoned the California coast just before we hit Big Sur. Which is a very famous stretch of Coastline between LA and San Francisco. It’s one of the highlights of California and one of the most famous roads in the entire world. But all the problems that we’ve had with the dogs,

With wild campaigns, with expensive campsites. They’re only going to get 10 times worse because Big Sur is incredibly popular. For good reason, I drove it about 9 years ago and it was phenomenal. But if I was to do it again, I’d probably do it in a little car,

Stay at little Airbnb and motels along the way. Because campsites here are busy and you’re going to be crammed in like sardines. We’ve just spent the past two months, all the way down the coast from Washington. We’ve seen some incredible sites, some incredible coastline.

Some of which I do think are Rivals parts of Big Sur. So, we’ve made the decision to cross inland over to the Sierra Nevada. Day one, we got about here and ran out of LPG. Day two, we reached Sonora Pass. It’s the high-altitude pass

That takes you over to the Sierra Nevadas. And our brakes were not very happy. In fact to say our brakes weren’t happy is an understatement. 25% gradient, high altitude. They were just not holding to the point where they were just like sponges.

And we were thinking, what side of the road are we going run off into? That’s going to be the safest if the brakes just fail. We did manage to pull into a layby. Ben managed to get the Van holding, I jammed the wheels with rocks.

We stopped and the brakes were just billowing out black smoke. We’ve never seen them that bad before, have we? BEN: No, we haven’t. No. So, she’s booked in for a checkup, isn’t she? Just in case any… issues after that. CHESCA: In case anything happened from them getting overheated.

We’ve booked her into the garage in San Diego for them to have a look over the brakes. BEN: But since we’ve left and they cooled down, they’ve been perfectly fine, haven’t they? CHESCA: Yeah. They were fine, once we did their cool down we carried on driving and everything seemed fine.

But honestly, it was so smoky I went to go and get the fire extinguisher. I was that worried they were going to catch fire. But anyway. Managed to get back on the road, the brake seems to cool down, and all seem good. We made it over the pass in one piece.

A three made it here and I spilled coffee on my laptop and it died. Which meant, I couldn’t do any work or anything and we needed a laptop. So, we had to detour north to Carson City, got myself a second-hand laptop.

And now we’re back here again, kind of picking up where we left off. No more disasters, please. I think that’s our little run of bad luck. BEN: Three is plenty. CHESCA: Yeah and also the fan of our compass broke. That’s four.

Yeah, and he charged double by mistake for the laptop. So, technically five. BEN: We got a refund for that as well. CHESCA: We did get a refund, but yeah, it has been a crazy couple of days. But I came to Sierra Nevades about nine years ago. And I absolutely love it here.

It’s a landscape that’s…oh! there was a wasp. BEN: Wow, a wasp just landed on my hand. There’s ghost towns, alien landscapes, hot springs. It’s also a lot more free and a lot more wild and remote than the coast. So, it’s kind of back to the van life that we love.

Can’t wait to show you guys and to show you it here, it’s going to be epic. It feels so good to be back out in the mountains and the desert again. You can just breathe out here, can’t you? The roads have just opened up and it’s so quiet.

The most incredible majestic landscapes and huge mountain plateaus. We’re already starting to see snow coming onto the mountain tops. Winter is on its way. But we’re heading to this little spot in the California desert. I’ve been wanting to bring Ben here ever since we realized we were coming back to California.

We were not sure if we were going to make it because it is quite far from the coast, which was our original route. But yeah, it’s a little piece of American history on the Nevada border. I was here 9 years ago and I just hope it’s as good as I remember.

BEN: And now we’re off-road. You said you remembered unpaved roads. CHESCA: I do but I don’t remember it looking like this. I don’t remember the scenery. This is all new to me. BEN: This is amazing. CHESCA: A bit of a bone rattler, this road. BEN: It’s a bit of what? Bone Rattler?

CHESCA: Ben is asking me the whole drive if I remember this bit, and I’m like no. And he’s like how about this bit? I’m like, no, not yet. And now we’re what? Five minutes away. And he’s saying, do you remember this bit? And I’m still like, no, I don’t.

You know what? Must’ve been driving down here with my eyes closed. I don’t really remember this at all. Oh, there it is. Yeah? Is that it? Yeah, just nestled into the hills. We have made it to the Bodie ghost town. This is an abandoned ghost town completely frozen in time.

Completely untouched by the modern world. You saw the road to get here is mostly the dirt road through the desert. You can still see, how people lived here. In the school, I think you can still see the kids drawings and work.

You can see bottles and people’s belongings in the houses when they’ve left in a hurry. Honestly, it’s probably one of the coolest ghost towns that you’ll see. Isolated from the modern world, Bodie ghost town is the heart and soul of what was once the Wild West.

These dusty streets have some serious stories to tell. Once home to one of the most prolific gold mines in California, the town was a chaotic mess of saloons, brothels, opium dens and gambling halls. With more brothels than hotels and at least one murderous shootout every day.

Multiple fires rampaged through the town and residents fled in a hurry. Leaving behind their possessions to slowly decay in the desert. Nothing here has been restored. Giving you a rare intimate glimpse into the real lives of those who sought their fortunes in the harsh landscapes of the American frontier. How eerie is this?

Wow, there’s still clothes hung up here. and then Crockery and Cutlery out on the table still. And look, there’s even a saucepan that’s been drying on the side after being washed. It’s like people have just left. Tell me, what can you see? BEN: Looks like coffee. It’s like a grocery store.

I think this is the funeral home, there’s cofins in here. CHESCA: Oh God! Yeah. BEN: See if anyone’s left a nugget of gold hidden for good luck. CHESCA: Hidden in the window? BEN: Yeah. CHESCA: No. Nothing in there. BEN: What’s amazing is not recreation. This is the actual town

And you can see exactly how people lived and what they lived in. It’s literally time has frozen still here, isn’t it? CHESCA: Like the drink glasses that you see and the forks you see are what people have eaten off and drunk from. BEN: The skirt and boards, the wallpaper that’s there still,

And the table that’s buckled in that’s been there for 100 years. CHESCA: You can only go in there on guided tours but this is the gold mine that put Bodie on the map. I think it produced the equivalent of $130 million worth of gold in this single mine.

BEN: I thought that might have been the outhouse, you know the toilet. The restroom, the toilet. CHESCA: WC. BEN: WC. Imagine the stories these streets and walls can tell. CHESCA: Oh my God, just go back in time and just see what was like. BEN: I know. It would be amazing, wouldn’t it?

We’re really high altitude here. It’s like 7000 ft. In the winter, this is just all snow. This road is closed. They don’t plough it or anything. So, you can only get here in the summer months. That is where we’re heading. Mono lake. How cool does that look? Thank you, baby.

CHESCA: What time is it? BEN: It is late in the afternoon. It is half four. CHESCA: Half four? No wonder, I need a coffee. BEN: I know. CHESCA: Having a very healthy late lunch cereal. And I bought you some crackers and cheese. BEN: Oh no. I don’t like the crackers. They’re horrible.

CHESCA: Well, just have the cheese then. Mhmm. Want some cheese? BEN: Really shouldn’t do that with such bad teachings. But he’s outside, he’s having a little bit of fun. CHESCA: This might look like a reservoir but it’s not. It’s a natural lake and it’s called Mono Lake.

It’s at six and a half thousand ft above sea level. It is fed entirely by runoff from the surrounding mountains. And it has no outlets. so, it only empties via evaporation and it makes it three times saltier than the ocean. There’s no fish in there. Just some Alkali flies and Brine shrimp.

The high salt levels help create these really unusual rock formations called Taufa. And you can find them all around the lake and in fact they’re all in the rock bed here as well. And all these are like little alien, twisted, unusual, surreal little rock formations all the way around the lake.

You know what it reminds me of? It reminds me of coral. It looks like giant coral like we’re walking on a giant Coral bed. The water is so clear, it looks so inviting, just to dip in. And I thought I’m going to try a bit and see how salty it tastes.

But honestly, as soon as you get anywhere near the water’s edge, it’s like the ground starts moving with flies. I wonder if that’s that Alkali fly thing I was reading about. As soon as you go any..like, oh, this is nice and inviting. It’s like, oh no. The ground is moving.

BEN: I’m not going to try then. CHESCA: They’re all here. There are black patches that I thought were mud and it’s not. It’s just flies. Definitely starting to notice the sun is setting earlier and earlier. So, I think it’s time we head back to the van.

Find somewhere to park up for the night. Time for some real talk. We’ve driven a lot today, we have covered a lot of miles. We haven’t eaten very much. We have a lot of work to do this evening. And it’s dinner time. So tensions are running a little bit high.

But when this happens which it does, we are just human. Ben’s paking down the van and I’m just taking the dogs out for a little walk. And that’s normally enough to smooth things over. We are parked up at the foothills of these incredible mountains right next to a hot spring.

Literally within a stone’s throw away of a hot spring. And the sunset has just turned the sky pink. It is absolutely beautiful out here. Probably won’t have time to go in the hot springs this evening, but we are hoping to go in first thing in the morning.

And yeah. I am so glad to be back in the desert, back in the mountains. It’s magic out here honestly. So, this is where we’re parked and this is the hot spring. So, I’m going to go and check it out. It might not be very hot. It’s very pretty though.

Oh, it’s actually tiny. It’s just like a little bathtub. Oh, that’s nice! Oh, it’s like a bath! This is going to be so nice. There you go. Mister grumpy face. Big day? BEN: It’s a big day. It’s not just a filming day but it’s like a run-up to Christmas.

Work is really really busy as well. And Filming, working and driving. Things didn’t go to plan as much, we set off late, it all just accumulated in me not having much to eat today, and I felt a little bit grumpy. I’m sorry.

It’s just a very very busy time, isn’t it for the moment? But this is perfect. Thank you sweet pea. I really appreciate it, thank you. Guys, there’s a moth in the van, so it’s action time for Chesca. Get away, get away, get away from me.

CHESCA: If no one knows, Ben is absolutely terrified of moth. This is a tiny moth. Oh look, it’s on me. Oh, it’s on me. BEN: Get away from me, please. Thank you. You’re suffocating it in your hand, quickly. CHESCA: I’m not. I can’t. I need your help.

Catch him, Derry. Catch him, catch him. BEN: Don’t be, okay, Please? CHESCA: I’ve got a feeling it’s still in here. BEN: It’s still in here. I just saw it. CHESCA: Do not kill it, please. The moth is still in here. There’s a fly up here. Nope. Who’s there?

BEN: See? Take it outside. Go outside of it. CHESCA: How am I supposed to open it with my knuckles? BEN: Just push it. Well done baby. CHESCA: I think he definitely went outside. BEN: The moth slayer. BEN: Well, the moth’s saviour. CHESCA: The moth’s saviour. BEN: that would’ve been the moth slayer.

CHESCA: No. Don’t kill the moths. BEN: Thank you. About finishing off the day. CHESCA: Send you into a nervous breakdown. BEN: Yes. Thank you. CHESCA: Are you actually kidding me? This is the sixth thing now. My coffee cup just broke. The handle just came off so gently. It just went…pop.

BEN: That’s a good job, it didn’t completely go off everywhere. CHESCA: I know. The bottom one came off and then it all came off. But thankfully I was holding it. If I was just holding it like that, it would have gone everywhere. Oh well, I can still use it.

It’s almost like a little moustache. This is a nice change in my run of bad luck. As far as park ups go, I would say this is not just gold, this is diamond. Probably one of the most amazing Park ups. It comes with its own free natural bathtub.

BEN: Yeah. You have to time it right though. Because it does get busy. CHESCA: It’s moments like this when the brake is smoking, the laptop breaking. all that bad luck, none of it matters any more. You know, my shoulders have been so sore. You know, I’ve been stretching them last night.

And then, to sit here… They’re getting soothed. You can see why hot springs are known to have healing properties. Honestly, my shoulder pain has completely gone. But most of all, I feel like the stress of the past couple of weeks… I haven’t been feeling super stressed but been feeling like that inside.

And it feels so like jelly now. Imagine having a property with a hot spring on it. Oh, that’s like the ultimate dream. So, time for these guys to take a treatment. We have them on ‘BRAVECTO’. They’ve been on that ever since they were puppies.

So, keep on top of that now River is good as gold. Just put some in hand and she’ll eat it. But Scout is a little suspicious. and will not eat it if he thinks there’s something in there. So, I have to quarter scale. Now, I do have some smelly blue cheese.

I am hoping, I’m going to create a little ball and put it in there. And I don’t think he’ll be able to set. I’m not going to do that first actually. Last bit. Good. Now, it’s Scout. What should we try first? Let’s try the blue cheese.

BEN: I don’t think he’s going to suspect that. Oh my God! Look. The block got his ass out. I won’t film it but in the hot springs, he’s got it waring. CHESCA: Full moon over there. BEN: Bloody hell. Oh, good boy, good boy, buddy. CHESCA: Oh! He did it! BEN: Yeah, good boy.

CHESCA: The blue cheese bomb worked. Yes, good boy! CHESCA: They are protected. BEN: Well done. CHESCA: Well, that was good Scout. Good boy. I think sometimes I also should get a sausage and then cut a little gap in it and put it in there. The quarter of it.

Anything where it’s wedged in and he can’t feel the different textures. That would be good. Rivers fine. BEN: River deserves a little bit of cheese, doesn’t she? CHESCA: Want some cheese? BEN: Well done guys, well done. Guys, this is brilliant.

So, the two people that are in the hot spring completely stark bullock naked. And a group of four or five tour students maybe, Have just rocked up with their swimsuits on and climbed in with them. It is a small thing anyway. So, it’s very intimate and yeah, two of them are completely naked

And the rest are in their swimsuits. They didn’t look fazed. They’re all chatting in there. Oh, it’s just hilarious. CHESCA: Both man and woman are completely… BEN: Yeah, both man and woman were completely naked. Everything was swinging around a minute ago. CHESCA: How are you feeling now? BEN: Yeah, much better,

Refreshed, rejuvenated, ready to carry on with the day. CHESCA: You just needed some food and a bath. BEN: Yes, I very much did. BEN: You can’t film that. CHESCA: I’m not filming it. BEN: Now, one of the other people just got completely naked. Just swinging herself around.

Maybe we should stay a bit longer. CHESCA: I think she’s drying herself off. BEN: That’s one way to dry yourself off. CHESCA: You know what I realized that we haven’t talked about yet? That this is our last week of exploring in the US, before we leave it permanently. BEN: Yeah, isn’t it?

CHESCA: Yeah, because we’re driving South now, along the east side of California. We’ve got this wall of mountains to our right in Sierra Nevadas. And after this week, we’re going to be heading down to San Diego. We’ve got the van booked in to have the brakes checked over,

We’re going to see your brother and then we’re heading south. Oh my God, it’s so far we are out on a high, I mean the hot springs, the Bodie and the desert. All have been amazing but yeah this is… BEN: …the last week.

I didn’t realize it was the last week actually until you said that. CHESCA: So, we have stopped heading south for a little bit and we have turned into the mountains. The Sierra Nevada is I think the tallest mountain range in America outside of Alaska.

And somewhere in front of us now is Mount Whitney. Which is the tallest peak in the continental United States. You can actually drive partway up it and it is meant to be a phenomenal road. So before we leave the States, that is what we’re going to do.

This whole area is meant to be stunning. It’s called the Alabama Hills and it’s actually where loads of Western have been filmed. We’ve just driven through the main town here called Lone Pine. And there’s a film festival that goes on. There’s a Wild West museum. A western film museum.

After Bodie, haven’t had a bit of a Wild West kind of week, have we? BEN: I know we had a problem with our brakes before with the steepness thing, so we’re going to go up. Just sort of sus out what the gradient is,

How far it is and then if I think it’s too much, we’re just going to come back down and not go all the way up. Don’t want to risk it. CHESCA: So, what is the DDI? BEN: I think we’re going to go with a no. I don’t really want to risk it.

So, when we’re going for about 30 mph we’ve got a squeak coming on the driver’s side. And that happened ever since we overheated the brakes, going down that really steep hill last week. So, until we get the brakes properly checked when we’re in San Diego in a few days,

I’m not confident and don’t want to risk anything happening. So, it’s not just that but as we’ve just come up, it’s quite steep, it’s not horrendous but there is just quite an incline coming up here to this point. Cause right now, we’re parked in this area

And it’s just before the Steep switchbacks start. As we came up there we just started to hear a squeak from my side wheel, which we haven’t heard yet. So, now we have new squeaks. BEN: A very faint squeak, I don’t think it’s the bearing, because it doesn’t sound like a bearing.

So, I think it might be the pads of probably warped from where they got so hot and overheated. I’m hoping. But yeah, there’s no point risking is there? It’s a beautiful view from here, we’re going to get them checked, everything’s getting checked in San Diego anyway in a few days.

Better be safe than sorry, isn’t it? CHESCA: Yeah, I mean when you look through the valley up there it looks absolutely breathtaking. BEN: Really. Do you want to risk it? No, we shouldn’t. CHESCA: Yes, I do want to risk it, But I don’t think we should risk it.

BEN: After what happened last time, it’s not worth it. It is actually really scary with them being so spongy. CHESCA: Yeah and also on that other road, we had somewhere that we needed to drive it off into a gully. BEN: Yeah, exactly. Here we end off down on the cliff.

CHESCA: There are no gullies off here, it’s a rock wall and then the edge. So, if something did happen, there isn’t anywhere to fall off into. BEN: Anyway, this is still beautiful. Yeah, we didn’t go up there but hey, never mind. CHESCA: I wonder if you wanted to see

If there was somewhere cool to grab a bite to eat in Lone Pine. BRAN: Yeah, we’re going to try and find some food. Yeah. Chesca has found somewhere for us to have some food. We’re in this massive open-space car park thing.

There’s a food truck right in front of me. Chesca is at ordering. And continuing, we are going to Mexico for a few weeks, that’s what we’re having. We’re getting into the spirit. Tacos for launch. Food in hand and two drinks as well. Yes. CHESCA: Take the drinks, take the drinks.

There are weird Hornets everywhere. BEN: This looks amazing baby. CHESCA: Good? BEN: Oh my god, yeah. CHESCA: It was a proper little food truck. No major signage outside. It was just like handwritten boards and all written in Spanish as well. I went for shrimp tacos. This looks incredible.

Got like five big shrimp per taco. There’s no polite way of eating this. BEN: The best part of being out of this… The best of being out this side of California, is that you can just find a dirt road pull off and just stay there. It is amazing.

Much less hassle than being on the coast. The freedom is real guys. CHESCA: The freedom is real. Right, where did I find… BEN: It’s such a shame there’s nowhere to get campfirewood or anything. I did have a bit of a look when… CHESCA: We’ve been in a fire bans for so long,

That we just don’t even think about campfires anymore. In fact there’s been fire bans in place since we left a dead horse. We have been here for an entire year. We’ve been reminiscing today on this past year which in itself has been the adventure of a lifetime. Hasn’t it?

BEN: It has been amazing. We’ve had some absolutely fantastic times. CHESCA: Yeah, let us know in the comments if you’ve watched our North American Adventure. What the Highlights for you have been. Or what your favourite part of our trip has been? We would love to know.

What’s been your highlight? You have to pick one thing. BEN: I think mine has to be the Dalton Highway. It was nice, it was snowy, the wild animals right there and everything. I really really enjoyed that. Dead Horse was a surprise,

Because it was just a mining industrial oil town. There is nothing there. but no, I think driving to Dalton. CHESCA: Same. Do you know we haven’t even made it into Maxico yet, But I would wager that it is probably better to do the Panamericana from Argentina to Alaska.

So that you end on the Dalton Highway. Because that drive is just out of this world. I don’t think anything’s really going to ever compare to that. Dalton Highway has been the highlight of our trip so far. This has been the last week of exploring the US.

We’re just sorting some mechanic bits out, we’ve got so many parcels at your brother’s. BEN: My brother, Matt, thank you so much and Kristan, thank you. They turned into the Amazon warehouse for us. CHESCA: If we get any more Parcels delivered to them, we’re going to have to start paying rent.

BEN: They’ve had a lot. I was only expecting to send four or five and there are easily ten. There are a couple more on the way. Some exciting ones on the way. CHESCA: It’s actually a bit dark to do this. I can’t see. BEN: Here, here and down to here.

CHESCA: We almost just had a domestic. Because… Ben did some lines on the map wrong. I have done this map so perfectly ever since San Diego. BEN: Two little lines. That was it. CHESCA: Yeah, but he was like um, ah. It’s okay though, it’s not too bad. This is okay.

BEN: I’ve come all the way out from San Francisco. This is where we picked up this week, this is where we had the brake issue. This is where we popped up to Carson City to get Chesca a new laptop after the coffee instance, and we’ve come all the way down here.

And we’re currently camped out in this dirt track area here BEN: And it is phenomenal. CHESCA: That’s pretty cool, isn’t it? Now this is, we didn’t take three different routes off here, just one of them to Bodie State Park but Ben thought we did three different routes.

BEN: This bit here is Chesca’s navigational skills. CHESCA: This is Ben’s masterpiece. BEN: Yeah, so this is Bodie, this was the hot spring. This was the mountain that we couldn’t climb, unfortunately. And this is where we sleep now. San Diego next week. CHESCA: And then we’re going to be closing the loop.

Look at that. Are we freinds? BEN: Yes, we’re friends. Well, as long as you… Freinds. Yeah, okay. CHESCA: Are we going to cross the Mexico border next week? Hopefully, it all depends on how long Sofia going to stay in the garage. BEN: Yeah, we don’t know yet. We’ll find that out next week.

Fingers crossed guys. Keep your fingers crossed for us, please. CHESCA: See you then. Bye.