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  • - So things already aren't going well.

  • Three to suck and then that's it.

  • - [Lea] You guys!

  • - [Asia] You would have died.

  • - And everybody kept making jokes what could happen to us.

  • And that was pissing me off.

  • (soft music)

  • (zipper)

  • (sighs loudly)

  • - The great outdoors!

  • A welcoming place for some

  • and a very scary place for other people.

  • Hi, I am Lea Zora and I grew up hiking, camping,

  • even being a Girl Scout.

  • But a lot of my black friends didn't.

  • But why?

  • Well, for starters, African Americans were actually legally

  • banned from being in National and State Parks

  • until the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

  • Rude!

  • So, even if we wanted to go camping,

  • we weren't even allowed to go.

  • So today I'm on a mission

  • to break down stereotypes of what black folks don't do

  • and take my friends camping for their very first time.

  • All right, so let's meet our campers!

  • - I've never really officially been camping before.

  • I've done a version of where we slept by the car at a lake.

  • - So, I've decided to go on this camping trip

  • because, you know, camping is actually on my bucket list

  • of things I wanna do.

  • - So, my role on this camping trip

  • was to be the sound and film guy.

  • I love being outside, I love camping.

  • - I have zero experience with camping

  • because I do not do the outdoors.

  • I was excited to bond with people.

  • I felt like if we sat around the campfire, you know.

  • But I was really afraid of everything else.

  • - I'm accustomed to a certain lifestyle.

  • Like a roof over my head and running hot water

  • and food that I can prepare at a stove.

  • I was being stripped of all of that, in the woods.

  • At night, like, I could die.

  • - My fears going into this trip

  • definitely were rattlesnakes.

  • But I think just the thought and the idea of just seeing

  • or potentially seeing a snake in the wilderness,

  • while sleeping will probably give me a heart attack.

  • (high pitched screaming)

  • - I signed up for this,

  • but now I'm like second guessing this decision.

  • - [Lea] Well, there're a couple rules.

  • Rule number 1, you must build your own shelter.

  • (Gasps)

  • - It's already a dumb idea.

  • (laughter)

  • - Like we have to build our own tent?

  • - I have AT&T so YouTube is available.

  • - [Lea] Rule number 2, you must forage for your own food.

  • That is either a plant or an animal.

  • - I can't kill an animal, I will poison myself.

  • - No, that's a damn lie.

  • I don't know if I can eat these vegetables

  • and I'm vegan.

  • - I have Google.

  • - [Lea] Rule number 3, you must build your own fire,

  • without the use of a match or flames.

  • - I'm gonna freeze to death.

  • - Yup.

  • - Wear layers, how about that?

  • - [Lea] Rule number 4, you cannot use your cell phone.

  • - Ah.

  • - [Lea] You'll be completely disconnected

  • from electronic devices.

  • - Are you serious right now?

  • (laughs)

  • - And what happens in a case of an emergency?

  • - Rule number 5, you will be provided with everything

  • that you guys need to survive in the forest

  • and you must use everything in the survival pack.

  • I know you're nervous and I don't want you to be nervous.

  • And you will be prepared for the woods.

  • In order to prepare my friends for the woods, guys,

  • I have brought in an expert to teach you.

  • - Yes. - Okay.

  • - Chris, come on out!

  • - [Crowd] Whoa!

  • (laughter)

  • - Good to see you, man!

  • - Hi.

  • - See, I was, I was ready.

  • - We got like a crash course in camping

  • from Chris, the survivalist.

  • - My name is Christopher Nyerges

  • I started the School of Self Reliance

  • about 40 years ago to teach people about all the skills

  • that you guys are gonna need on your very enjoyable trip

  • that's about to come.

  • - It was good, it was definitely helpful.

  • I think some of the stuff

  • the gentleman had told us about, I kind of reminded myself

  • or remembered it throughout the entire trip.

  • - It was a crash course 'cause I can't tell you

  • one thing I was supposed to do (laughs).

  • - He scared the shit out of me and I did not feel prepared

  • and it's not that he did a bad job.

  • It's just that I was so scared that I'm like,

  • nope, not going on this trip.

  • - [Destinee] The car ride up there was cool.

  • It was fun 'cause I think we were all like really excited

  • that this thing was finally gonna happen.

  • - Wow! It was wildly cramped.

  • Not enough space for anyone to breathe and we immediately

  • started sharing each others carbon dioxide,

  • which is very poisonous.

  • - I had so much anxiety on the car ride over

  • because I just didn't know what to expect

  • and the unknown scares me a lot of the time.

  • - What about if it's not even a dog

  • and see you just something creeping up on you.

  • - Yeah, it could be a human being,

  • and I'm like absolutely not. - And your mind says,

  • "Don't be alarmed, just stay safe".

  • - And everyone kept making jokes

  • about what could happen to us.

  • And that was pissing me off.

  • - I just felt really bad for Asia.

  • 'Cause sis was not feeling it the whole ride up there.

  • The whole 3 hours.

  • And I was like, girl.

  • - [Tayo] Closer we started to get to the camping ground.

  • The more that reality starts to set in.

  • Like I'm really about to do this camping thing.

  • - And we were told once we get to like

  • a certain street corner, of the avenue place

  • that we were supposed to call this person

  • prior to getting past it because we would lose our service.

  • And he wasn't answering

  • and I was like, y'all we need to turn around now.

  • So things already aren't going well.

  • - [Lea] They're going fine!

  • Hi, Mehmet, this is Lea from Buzzfeed.

  • Our group is about 15 to 20 minutes away.

  • We haven't lost reception yet, I have 5 bars,

  • but I wanted to give you a call.

  • So, we'll see you soon, give us a call back.

  • Thanks, bye.

  • - [Automated Message] At the tone,

  • please record your message.

  • - What's his name, Mehmet?

  • - Mehmet.

  • - That's not stressful at all.

  • Oop!

  • Girl.

  • - Okay, so...

  • - Sir, answer your phone.

  • - Please call us back.

  • - Please.

  • - Call him a million times, I ain't playing no games.

  • I'm 'bout to hop out the car.

  • - And go where?

  • - You're in the middle of nowhere!

  • (laughter)

  • - I'm going to one of these (beep) gas stations.

  • - And go where?

  • So we're calling, no answer, calling, no answer.

  • And Lea goes, "Here Destinee, look, maybe you call."

  • And she was like, "Listen to this voicemail."

  • And I go to listen to the voicemail

  • and the guy goes, "Hello?"

  • - Hi!

  • (laughter)

  • - [Lea] Hi, how are you?

  • - Look at that, he answered.

  • - He answered.

  • We're safe.

  • - I was very relieved in the fact

  • that I was not literally being thrown

  • into the middle of the woods.

  • Like it was a very open place.

  • You could see the sky.

  • - It really reminds you of "The Hills Have Eyes".

  • (grunting)

  • - Gimme that baby (thud against face).

  • - To you guys that have ever watched that movie,

  • just imagine that scene of just like

  • in the middle of nowhere.

  • You're just expecting the worst like some bears,

  • some wild animal just to jump out of nowhere

  • and to just like attack you.

  • - We were greeted by the sweetest dogs.

  • One of them was Tuli.

  • - [Passengers] Oh!

  • - [Lea] As they roll up to the car!

  • Hello, hi, hello.

  • - [Tayo] What's up buddy?

  • - We were greeted by a guy named Mehmet.

  • He is the owner of this property.

  • - Come here girl.

  • - [Destinee] So the property owner

  • gave us a tour of the land.

  • And, again, everything was really spread out.

  • - I am scared to go anywhere.

  • There was so many flies.

  • So many flies, so many flies.

  • I wanted to stay in the car.

  • - There was the like rattlesnake zone.

  • I was totally down for it.

  • Tayo was definitely afraid to see a rattlesnake

  • and I was really hoping we would see one

  • just cause I wanted to know what his reaction would be like.

  • Hey, I wanna see this man squeal.

  • I see a snake holes.

  • - [Tayo] Woah, timeout.

  • (laughs)

  • As soon as I saw that my guards, my eyes, my whole mindset

  • just literally shifted 'cause every step that I took

  • was more so like, is there a snake there?

  • Is there a snake there, is there a snake there?

  • Yeah so, that's the queue when I don't walk

  • past these lines here.

  • - I love how everyone keeps joking about rattlesnakes

  • I'm not...

  • It's literally not funny.

  • - Come on, Asia.

  • Snake skin just laying around somewhere.

  • I freaked the (beep) out.

  • No, that (beep) disgusting.

  • - [Destinee] It's just the skin.

  • - [Tayo] It doesn't matter.

  • (laughs)

  • - Took us down to the river

  • which was, you know, it's colder so it wasn't that high.

  • - We go towards the edge of like sort of a cliff

  • and it just like dives down.

  • - [Destinee] It's so pretty!

  • - That's the river we're gonna take a shower in.

  • Taking a shower in the river.

  • - It looked absolutely refreshing.

  • You wanted to dive in and drink it and you can drink it.

  • - I am not bathing in this river.

  • Yeah, I had to go away and have a moment to myself,

  • because I have high anxiety and like I'm doing it.

  • Honestly, just being here is brave of me.

  • I feel like everybody out there is gonna be like,

  • "Why is she even there if she's not gonna actually do it?"

  • This is hard for me.

  • It is, I feel like I'm afraid of everything and this.

  • - Asia, ah, bless her heart.

  • I was really worried about homegirl.

  • She didn't want to do this before we left

  • and I was really surprised that she followed through.

  • I think she was definitely gonna have

  • the biggest challenge on this trip.

  • But she was like very adamant about like,

  • "I want to do this, I want to conquer my fears."

  • - Unbeknownst to me, 'cause I'm just the film and sound guy,

  • everyone received a survivalist guide lesson

  • 'fore the trip, I did not.

  • So, I had to figure out everything on my own.

  • - Oh, are you doing audio?

  • - No, I am just holding this so I look cool in the videos.

  • - How to purify water.

  • Now I won't go to a place if there's

  • not a good source of water.

  • Because you cannot tell by looking at the water

  • if it's safe to drink.

  • If it looks pure and it's flowing and it's cold

  • that doesn't mean it's safe.

  • And if it's stagnant with a lot of bugs,

  • that doesn't mean it's bad.

  • So, you have to have some mechanism for purifying the water.

  • The commercial filter and all of the biological

  • and other contaminants are sucked up in here.

  • - We really only had a little bit of time

  • before we lost the sun so we had to like complete

  • a lot of tasks in a little bit of time.

  • - [Tayo] What are we about to go do?

  • - We have these here water pumps.

  • We're gonna filter some water for us to drink.

  • It says suck water directly or connect to the bottle.

  • - [Lea] Oh my god, no!

  • You're supposed to do it the other way!

  • - Ah!

  • (laughter)

  • - No, it doesn't say that.

  • It says, "Put the straw in the water".

  • - [Lea] Put the straw in the water?

  • - Yeah.

  • - [Asia] Put the straw in water.

  • - [Lea] How's it taste?

  • - It tastes refreshing.

  • - They're really troopers, I appreciate this.

  • - Tayo and Lea, I'm pretty sure we probably poisoned them.

  • Because they tried to drink through the filter.

  • - I sipped out of the straw

  • and I'm pretty sure I probably would've gotten chikunguy.

  • That's not a real thing.

  • (screaming)

  • - I would've died, yo.

  • (laughter)

  • - [Lea] Oh no.

  • - [Asia] I think it's just, you know...

  • These instructions are stupid.

  • The instructions say literally to suck and then that's it.

  • - [Destinee] You would have died.

  • - I was definitely jeopardizing my life drinking out of

  • the purifying straw.

  • - We also had water bottles.

  • Again, legal told me I had to give them water.

  • We only had a couple of hours

  • to actually complete the tasks.

  • We had to build a shelter, we had to start a fire,

  • we had to forage for food

  • and hopefully never get attacked by an animal.

  • - So, we about to build a tent like right there.

  • Who's y'all?

  • You building a tent with us.

  • - I will supervise.

  • You put the tarp down already?

  • Look at you, you're on it (laughs).

  • - You're going to help, Destinee.

  • (laughter)

  • - You don't get a tent without instructions.

  • Follow those instructions.

  • - Okay.

  • - It's pretty self-explanatory.

  • What I tell people when you buy a tent and you're at home,

  • take it apart, put it together.

  • So, you're not in the dark in a funny place.

  • - [Asia] There's a ton of pieces,

  • that I have no idea what to do with.

  • - Ask this one, he said there's instructions.

  • This is me supervising.

  • - [Asia] I'm trying to read it too.

  • - Because I really don't know how to build

  • or want to build a tent.

  • (upbeat music)

  • - Why are we children?

  • All right now stop.

  • So, we put together these lovely tents.

  • - That was a lot.

  • - It was a lot and it's hot out here.

  • - You know what we about to do right now.

  • - We're about to forage for some food.

  • - There's two sources of food.

  • One big source is plants.

  • The other big source is animals.

  • Native people all ate the acorns.

  • That was a good source of protein and carbohydrates.

  • You can survive on acorns alone

  • if you don't want to eat snakes

  • and fish and things like that.

  • - I ain't fighting no squirrel.

  • - In a survival situation, anything that

  • flies, crawls, swims, whatever, you can eat.

  • The rattlesnake have a big triangular head

  • so you can avoid that one.

  • - I'll pass on that one.

  • - Did you say rattlesnake?

  • - Snakes are edible, you just chop off the head,

  • you pull the skin off. - They are not.

  • When you're gonna kill an animal, you don't do it for fun.

  • If you kill it, you're gonna eat it.

  • - We saw some cactus, so.

  • - [Tayo] Raccoon, we're gonna get some raccoon,

  • some squirrels.

  • - I'm gonna do down by the stream and find some fish.

  • - No, I'm not eating any fish, no raccoon meat.

  • - So this is a young cactus pad.

  • This particular paddle-shaped one,

  • they're all edible if you get them young.

  • Even if it's old and stiff, you can still peel it,

  • and pull the fiber out and eat it.

  • I want you to tell me what it tastes like.

  • If you find this, you can eat it raw.

  • I'll try some too so you don't think

  • I'm trying to poison you.

  • This is really a super food with all of the amino acids

  • and everything it has.

  • You might be lucky enough to find this when you go up there.

  • So, no, there are no poisonous cacti.

  • - Oh, Lord, it looks like Tayo's found something.

  • What do you have?

  • - [Tayo] Some acorn.

  • - [Asia] We come up on some cactus.

  • The littler ones, the more recent ones

  • are the ones that we can use.

  • I'm scared.

  • Oh, you just slice through like butter (laughs).

  • Yes.

  • We're gonna put these cacti over the fire tonight.

  • - Tayo and Asia were fine though,

  • 'cause there were plenty of cactus to pull from.

  • I said, great, y'all pull from that, I'll just starve.

  • - Our guide said that there's a bunch of gopher here.

  • There's really not a lot and Asia is freaking out.

  • And I do not want to her

  • to have to help catch an animal of any sort.

  • I was secretly going to get them food

  • because I really didn't want them to starve.

  • And I had no idea how hard it would be to find vegan food.

  • The last part of the day was to actually build this fire.

  • - [Tayo] Woods, to light up and stay warm tonight

  • 'cause the temperature is going to drop to 31 degrees.

  • So we gotta stay warm.

  • - [Lea] Aw, Asia, I'm so proud.

  • - It's really important to be able to make a fire.

  • You're not going to have matches.

  • They're not going to let you have a Bic.

  • This is a magnesium fire starting tool.

  • And it has a little insert artificial flint,

  • called ferrocerium.

  • You guys are going to have one.

  • When you spark it like that.

  • And then when you direct that into some fine fluff,

  • you get a fire.

  • - Starting the fire was the most fun challenge.

  • Because we were all so competitive and determined

  • to be the one that light the fire.

  • - [Tayo] Imma get this light going.

  • - [Destinee] You must make fire.

  • - [Tayo] Trying to get some fire

  • so we could make our s'mores

  • - [Destinee] Oh, we got something.

  • We've got something.

  • - [Tayo] Hopefully, I don't catch fire.

  • (suspenseful music)

  • - Ah, I'm gonna break a nail.

  • Nevermind, I don't wanna do this!

  • - [Tayo] Trying to figure out this.

  • - [Destinee] Nope, I'm gonna to break a nail.

  • - [Tayo] I feel like there's something we should--

  • - [Lea] Yeah, like we need paper or something.

  • - [Tayo] Yeah or something.

  • (suspenseful music)

  • - We don't know how to light a fire with a stick.

  • - We tried it multiple times.

  • - We really did.

  • So, I brought this as a backup.

  • I know it's breaking the rules, but we're hungry.

  • The bonfire was the best part of this trip.

  • (rhythemic singing)

  • - I see Lea with three hotdogs.

  • I watch her stick all three hotdogs

  • directly into this flaming fire and then leave.

  • And I said, those are gonna be burnt.

  • "No, no, look they're fine!"

  • And they are crisp.

  • Not even crisp, they are ashed.

  • 'Cause she wanted us to eat those hotdogs

  • and I said, I'm not eating that hotdog, I'm not doing it.

  • I think she tried it and she said it tasted like ash.

  • Like literally crumbled in her mouth.

  • - [Tayo] Let's see what those dogs look like.

  • - [Lea] Look at it, they're good.

  • - [Tayo] You can't even see that.

  • - [Lea] Just a little burnt, okay.

  • - Extra crispy.

  • Let's pipe down.

  • - Hey, I'm enjoying this fire and the heat.

  • - [Tayo] That's good.

  • - Thank God Lea brought food so we had sandwiches (laughs)

  • and not cactus.

  • - [Tayo] Asia, how are you doing over there?

  • - I'm chilling.

  • - [Lea] Get it Asia.

  • (calm rhythmic music)

  • (calm flute music)

  • - The whole night, I was like, I'm never doing this again,

  • never doing this again, never doing this again.

  • - [Lea] I know, I had those thoughts too, I'm so sorry!

  • - Your boy is freezing!

  • You awake, bro?

  • - Help me.

  • (laughs)

  • Someone help.

  • - Sleeping on the floor is one of the worst things ever.

  • Not even like a nice pavement.

  • It was like, you have like,

  • a piece of rock sticking in your neck.

  • You had another piece of rock here

  • in the back of your lower back.

  • - [Lea] Good morning, y'all.

  • - [Destinee] Good morning.

  • You knew we were gonna freeze to death.

  • - [Lea] I knew it, I knew.

  • - You said (beep) your health.

  • - (beep) I already bought everything.

  • - You said I don't care.

  • We gonna make sure everybody freezes to death.

  • - Listen, I bought you guys thermals and sleeping bags.

  • I really tried.

  • - This thermal ain't do (beep).

  • - She wanted us to freeze like popsicles.

  • - I'm so sorry, this was a terrible idea.

  • It's so (beep) cold.

  • (laughs)

  • - [Destinee] This whole thing is just hilarious.

  • - All right.

  • - [Destinee] Oh, you sound sick.

  • - [Lea] Oh no.

  • - I feel sick.

  • - Some people might complain.

  • I am a cuddler.

  • I was so cold at one point in the night.

  • - Her body was all the way over here

  • and I was forced to be like this.

  • - I literally wrapped my legs over Asia's body to get warm.

  • I was trying to spoon!

  • - You kept hitting into my booty.

  • - I'm so sorry.

  • - I was like, I'm just gonna lay here.

  • - And then my knees were digging into Destinee's back.

  • No, it was not fun.

  • It was not a great experience.

  • - Then we still like a bunch of things to do like

  • pack our lives up and make sure

  • we cleaned up the campgrounds, and shower.

  • - Outdoor shower in the wilderness.

  • I thought that was dope.

  • And you're just hearing like the birds chirping.

  • - Tayo showered first, he told us there was hot water

  • and I was like, yes!

  • - I was told beforehand by the women

  • that the shower was warm enough.

  • I was in the shower, honestly if I had to say it like

  • 30 minutes maybe 40 minutes.

  • It was just good, it felt good.

  • - [Destinee] I turned everything on, turned the hot water on

  • let the water run for a little bit.

  • - I think I used up all the hot water

  • and maybe that's the reason why everybody

  • else ain't have hot water.

  • - [Destinee] It never got hot.

  • - Honestly, one of the most relaxing moments

  • that I could potentially think of during this camping trip.

  • - I took a cold ass shower.

  • Not a cold, I took a freezing shower 'cause mind you,

  • it was like thirty-something degrees earlier that day

  • and my body had never warmed up.

  • - It was freezing, it was frigid.

  • It felt like spikes on my skin.

  • The soap smelt good which helped me feel warm.

  • - [Tayo] People did not know how to run the hot water,

  • I figured it out, and I told them,

  • but nobody wanted to listen.

  • Everybody was like, oh no you used, no, no, nope.

  • - [Lea] Overall, the best part of this camping trip

  • was bonding with my coworkers.

  • I honestly didn't really know everyone

  • on this trip very well

  • because like I'm pretty new to Buzzfeed.

  • But it was so nice to like get to know everybody.

  • - I think what I really overcame

  • was like my idea that camping is just terrible

  • and nobody should ever do it.

  • - Asia was definitely the character

  • that I was most intrigued by,

  • simply because she shuddered at the mere word of outside.

  • - And the whole time we were there, she was miserable.

  • I felt so bad and I didn't know what to do.

  • And I was like, girl, help me help you.

  • - I surprised myself that I just like did it (laughs).

  • - I mean I was pretty confident in that I would be able

  • to like survive going through this.

  • - Well, Tayo is afraid of snakes, so am I.

  • So I didn't think he would handle it that well.

  • - [Dumisa] I thought I would do the best because I'm dope.

  • You know what I mean?

  • I just know what to do.

  • I watched a lot of Captain Planet growing up.

  • - Actually putting it into play and seeing how miserable

  • people were at certain parts, I felt awful.

  • Parts where we did have fun,

  • it made the whole trip like worth it.

  • - [Destinee] I really did enjoy the fact that like

  • I got to just be free and be me and not worry about

  • oh my hair need to be done a certain kind of way

  • or I need to look like this.

  • Like I could just be like, y'all we've been camping

  • you know what this look like.

  • - So really being in I'm gonna live this moment

  • and enjoy this moment was the best part of being

  • around the bonfire.

  • And also seeing the stars.

  • - We saw all the stars and it was beautiful.

  • Like it lit up the sky and it was amazing.

  • - I think the biggest challenge for me was being able

  • to coordinate all of these different moving parts

  • and keep people fed and alive.

  • Like that was a lot,

  • I was literally responsible for like 5 human lives.

  • But we had a good time.

  • - [Destinee] Would I do it again?

  • Probably not, but I think I would take my children camping,

  • so they can experience and decide for themselves.

  • - [Asia] Could I go camping again?

  • Yeah, but I have no desire to.

  • - Hell yeah! Let's go, let's do it.

  • Today, tomorrow, I'm down next week.

  • - I would be the first person to quit, just so y'all know.

  • I also quit before we even started.

  • But I made a promise to Lea.

  • - [Destinee] I didn't know she was gonna freeze us

  • to death, though.

  • And also cuddle, she cuddled everybody (laughs).

  • (upbeat music)

- So things already aren't going well.

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