➡ Jess, a new acquaintance, impressively filmed our challenging mountain trail adventure. Despite steep climbs and encounters with other vehicles, we navigated our trucks through rocky and narrow paths, even experiencing some drone crashes. The journey was adrenaline-filled but rewarded us with breathtaking views from the summit. The trip was a test of our vehicles’ capabilities and our own courage, but the stunning scenery made it all worthwhile.

➡ A drone controller unexpectedly died during a flight, causing the drone to crash on a steep mountain. Despite injuries and difficulties, the drone was recovered after a challenging search. However, other drones also experienced issues, behaving unusually and refusing to fly. Despite these challenges and worsening weather conditions, the group enjoyed their adventurous trip and safely returned to civilization.

So with the recent rash of mysterious drones flying all over the United States and all over the world, apparently over military bases etc, and the authorities claiming that it’s absolutely impossible to shoot these things down, I decided it was time to upload this video to show you exactly how quickly and efficiently they can take your drone out if they want to. So enjoy and make sure you hit that thumbs up and leave a comment below and I’ll return the favor. And it’s 9:00 in the morning. I gotta do a live show with a couple of other YouTubers on another channel.

But then after that, I’m meeting up with a subscriber from Jailbreak in his Land Cruiser and I’m taking him up there. You see that way up there where those antennas are? Well, there’s a shelf road up there that a lot of vehicles go over to their destruction. And I was up there two years ago with Justin from Redline Land Cruisers, the owner, and we’re going back up there. Last time we were up there, we ran into a snow slide and it was bad, almost didn’t make it. We’re in a bit of a bind here. You see what I mean? We ran into snow and we thought we could get by it.

We made a slight error in judgment. Fortunately, I brought two shovels. Unfortunately, we have two kids. Is that for you? No, I’m not doing that right now. Trying to straighten the truck out so it doesn’t go over the side. And I’m trying to keep the kids calm and myself. Calm down. Let him do this right. Go away to go. There it is. There it is. There it is. Oh, my goodness. Those Max tread pros work great. You’re better than you were. So with the sun getting higher in the sky, it was time to turn the wheels and start heading up to 11,500ft up into the mountains.

So you’re most definitely going to want to sit back, you’re going to want to relax, and you’re going to want to check this out. So here we are. Episode 8 Colorado Colorado Springs, to be exact. I’ve been here almost two weeks because I’ve been having issues with the vehicle. It hasn’t stopped her, but the truck’s not running correctly. So I’m waiting on parts, waiting on parts, waiting on parts. It happens. I literally tapped out twice and brought the truck into the Toyota dealership. And other than taking 800 out of my hand, they didn’t fix anything. So I’m gonna fix it.

Long story longer, I’m out here, I meet up with some subscribers on Sunday morning from my other channel, about 60 people glad hand talk, blah, blah, blah, for about four hours. And as I’m rolling out of there, another Land Cruiser, very similar to mine, rolls right up to me. Turns out he’s a subscriber on Jailbreak and had messaged me on Instagram wanting to meet up. I never saw the message, but this is his truck. And I took Zach, his wife Jess and their truck up to the mountain shelf road that goes over norad. And last time I was up there, it didn’t go all that well.

And this time it was really strange. I don’t want to be an alarmist, but I’ve been flying drones for five years and four of my drone devices got knocked down while we were up there. I got a funny feeling NORAD didn’t want us up there. So let’s get into this, shall we? There will be blood, there will be drones, and there will be a thunderstorm that we tried to race to get off the mountain. So check this out. It is 6am and the sun’s not even up yet. And my fingertips are free like winter freezing. I got my AC on, I mean my heat on trying to defrost the windshield.

And I’m going to meet subscribers at 9 in the morning. I have no idea why I’m doing this, but this is. I haven’t even finished my coffee yet. From where I am to where I’m going is a long way and there’s a lot of places to get myself in a lot of trouble. Driving while sleepy. Driving while sleepy. I cannot believe how cold my fingertips are. It’s freezing out. I think it might be. I don’t even know what the weather is. It might be freezing up here. I have no way of knowing. At any rate, heading down the mountain, 10,400, going down 4,000ft.

Oh, the heat’s finally working score at any rate. So this is where I woke up that morning before I met Zach and Jess. And I’m driving down and I’m wondering about the temperature like I said in the video. And yet I have an enormous digital thermometer on my dashboard right in front of me. But I’m not too good in the morning and I’m kind of a grumpy dude. If you’ve ever met me, you probably know that. And these are the people I met. And this is the girl I made my camera girl. You got to expect at least one selfie if you’re making me the camera girl.

Oh, how. How do I turn it off back. Yeah, the happiest people in the world, legitimately, they really are. Now put them with me and it makes for interesting times, to say the least. Now, bear in mind, this trip almost didn’t happen because Zach found me by accident. And when I met him again, it was just in passing. Hey, here’s my number. Hit me up, I’ll take you on a trail tomorrow. I was under the impression he lived in Colorado Springs. He didn’t. I misheard him. He’s from Virginia. So Sunday morning comes around. I tell him where to meet me, and then as I’m driving up a mountain pass with my truck hesitating badly, pissing me off, he starts texting me and calling me, saying, hey, where exactly is that location you’re talking about? Blah, blah, blah.

And I’m thinking to myself, what is wrong with this dude? He’s from Colorado Springs and he doesn’t know the trail that I’m going to take him to that’s right above the house that he bought out here. So I just think this kid’s a complete dope. And I say, f this, I’m canceling. Sorry. And I continue on my way. While I’m getting gas before I head down this road you’re looking at right now, he rolls in and instantly instant activates because now what does this do to stalker? He rolls up, I’m a dick, and he’s such a nice guy that he talks me back down off the cliff.

Turns out he doesn’t live around here and he was just as unfamiliar with the area as I was. So fortunately, we got that all smoothed out. I hooked up Jess with the camera, we hooked up his truck with cameras and my truck with cameras, and we headed in. And I’m glad he found me because they’re two of the nicest people I’ve probably ever met. And it was real. I’m from the city, man. Anybody that’s happy, I suspect foul play. Must be on drugs. Must be a lunatic. Or they must be out to get me. One of the three.

And they were none of the three. So there’s that. Now onto the road. So myself and a fella named Zach and his wife are heading up to the trail, the shelf road above norad. So I don’t know exactly what the trail is called, but lots of people go over and we’re not going to do that today. Hopefully we get some epic footage. It’s a military compound. I did have problems with the no Fly Zone. My drone wouldn’t launch. We’ll see what Happens this time around. This is an awesome road, but it is desolate. There’s not many people up here at all or shouldn’t be.

See, now, the road to get to the trail is beautiful. There’s tons of valleys that you have to drive through like this. The only issue is the locals drive on this road like it’s a regular street. In many of these choke points, there’s no room for more than one vehicle. So you really have to pay attention, which I do. I’m very, very aware of my circumstances. Circumstances when I’m on these type of roads. But this road takes you a while. It’s about five, six miles, and then you go to a trail that goes straight up 3,000ft in about a half a mile.

So you’re going straight up for a while, and then you come to a stream and then a really awesome set of climbs that take you on the road to the shelf road. It’s awesome. Now, for the people that don’t understand what a shelf road is, this is a shelf road, and they’re all over the mountains, meaning there’s one one and a half lanes. You could pass somebody if you had to, but the other side always drops straight off. No guard rail, no nothing, just straight down. Now, when you get to the top of the mountains, these get a little more precarious, and there’s always other elements involved, like this, for instance.

So it really spices things up nicely. So I brought Zach and Jess in, and Jess broke out the camera right off the bat. This is the entrance to the trail, and not even four minutes on the trail. And poor Jess had her hiking shoes on and was running way up the trail ahead of us, just trying to get footage. Being the camera woman or the camera guy is not easy on a mountain, but with her in place, this is the footage she was able to capture. Nice. Now, bear in mind, I don’t know these people. I just met them a couple of hours prior to this video right here.

So I don’t know how Jess is going to respond on the trail whatsoever at all. So I handed her the camera. I wasn’t expecting very much, but I’ll tell you what, this girl was a trooper. Now, trails like this are exactly why my truck is built the way it is. That’s what all that suspension does. Look at that thing twisting up like a pretzel and still pushing forward. Beautiful. And then again, Jess is hiking up an incredibly steep trail. You can tell by the speed that she’s moving at, it’s steep. And earlier I mentioned hopefully There weren’t a lot of people on the trail.

That turned out to be inaccurate because here come the jeep people. Oh, yeah, Jeep. So even though we were coming up an incredibly steep climb and really had no place to get the trucks out of the way, the Jeeps just sat there and waited for us. Even though according to the rules in Colorado, the person coming up has the right of way, but it never happens. So we stuck our trucks in some pretty precarious locations in order to make way for these guys. And at least half of them waved as though we were there. Trails are just like life now.

Nobody has any respect or etiquette. It sucks. Sorry about that. It’s a parade. Meanwhile, I’m holding my brake in and four wheel low and she still wants to roll backwards. There’s nothing behind me I’m all out of. But finally we were able to head back up towards our goal, which was the shelf road above Norad. So we continued pushing forward. The trails are amazing. Anybody can do the trail, but the better equipped you are, the better equipped you are. It just makes it more fun. My truck’s a little tall and so isn’t his. And we scraped a few tree boughs here and there, but no damage.

That after about 30 minutes of initial climbs where it’s washouts, lots of rocks, very steep and twisty, you find yourself on these sand roads with lots of whoopy dos and trees, pine trees lining either side for quite a while. And after you go down that scrape, a few solar panel wires, etc. You find yourself in large open fields which are just absolutely beautiful. We found bear track, elk track and mountain lion track, which was incredibly cool. And once we got out of the twisties inside all the pine trees, we came to the open field and once again ran into a convoy of jeeps that had just decided to park in the middle of the trail, causing us to have to go around.

I inquired if anyone was broken down or anything like that, and they said no, no, not at all. So they just sat there drinking beer, etc. And we drove around them and made a beeline for the shelf road because at least we knew they weren’t up there, because if they weren’t going to make way when we were on a regular climb, making way on the shelf road was a serious concern of mine because there’s no room for error. And very shortly you’ll see exactly what I mean. But at least I knew where they were. So I gave it the gas and the supercharger did its job and we Got, got some serious ground covered.

Let’s, let’s say that in a short period of time. But pay attention to the storm clouds gathering, as they often are the higher up we went. The sandy roads gave way to extremely rocky trails. And then the trail started getting rocky and very, very narrow. Only wide enough for one vehicle to pass at a time. This let me know that we were getting close to our goal, which was the top the shelf road. And here it came once again. Jess was Johnny on the spot with the camera. So now we are on the shelf road, heading straight up.

The road is only wide enough for one vehicle and the other side is a straight drop down. On this one piece of the trail at least you have trees to stop you if you were to go over. But that goes away it. Now if you’ve never been on a shelf road, or better yet, off road, it on a shelf road in a lifted vehicle that’s top heavy. Every single rock you go over exaggerates the angle inside the truck. It feels like you’re going over and you’re on the side of a mountain. Somebody cut this road in who knows how many years ago for gold, coal, silver, etc.

And the weather changes it all the time. And speaking of the weather, pay attention to the fact that that storm cloud has gathered and we’re not paying attention because we’re too busy trying not to soil our trousers. Every time we go over a large boulder that causes the vehicle to lean towards the many washouts available on that one side. It’s crazy. It’s definitely a trip. The adrenaline is running at all times. The drone footage is going to be light because we’ll get to that story in a minute. Once we were up here, he had nothing but problems with the drones crashing.

Several of them in one very comical recovery. And yes, the girl climbed the tree to recover the drones, not us. Shelf roads are amazing to run, but it is very, very cool. Critical that people that go up here understand that this isn’t a theme park. You’re on your own. Search and rescue is just gonna get you out of there if you survive the rollover. And as you can see, there’s no space to turn around, which is why I was concerned about other people already being up there, because you can’t back down. There’s too many washouts. I’m fairly certain you can see that from the footage, but it’s almost.

It’s next to impossible to show it with the cameras. Even standing outside your vehicle, if you slip backwards and fall, you’re in A heap of just. That’s all there is to it. So know that if you ever take this trail. The reason I say that is the people behind me went and did imaging pass after watching a video that I made about it. And according to them, it inspired them. That’s why I’m giving these caveats. Once we finally arrived at the summit, or as far as we could go, the view was exceptional, even though it was incredibly cloudy and actually raining in Colorado Springs already.

But it’s amazing being higher than the clouds that are dumping rain on the people that are just 5,000ft below. It’s an. It’s an epic, epic reward for all the adrenaline and nerves coming up. Driving the trail. I’ve done this trail maybe six times, and I’ll probably do it one more time because I’m just that stupid. But getting to see something like this. Most people do not see this in their lifetime, if at all. Do you know what I mean? So it was well worth it. And it was my pleasure bringing this young couple up here because they had never seen it before either.

And strangely, the. The random chance of meeting them. They’re actually friends with Matt and Peter Alestock. Alstock Automotive got his Land Cruiser ready for this trip. So we’re at 11, 200ft. I brought the drone down here and crashed it, and it stuck. And Jess is going right up there. If she had a poker, she could just push it out of the tree. The drone is right up there. Zach just found it. It’s still recording. It’s right up there. And this young lady’s climbing right up this tree like a fucking gangster. Oh, shit. Good for you. Good catch.

He’s coming. It’s coming right behind you. Got it. Give it a push, a good one outward so it’ll clear the boughs. Hold it. Hold on. Maybe I can catch it. Here, Zach, get the rest. Hold on. Get the rest of her coming down. Hold on. Hold on. Jess. Let me get over there so I can catch it. I’ll edit it afterwards because that’s bad. Now watch me fall down the mountain trying to get you. Drone. Hold up. Yep. You’re gonna try to kick it right to me or a reasonable faction right here. You tell me when I’m right here.

Hold on. Give it a good shove. They’re pretty tough. Be careful. I just. I don’t want you getting hurt. It ain’t worth it. Dang. It is stuck. Stuck. I’m sure. Really. Here comes the time. Oh, it got down. Fell some more. Oh, we don’t want it going that way. There it is. You’re filming, brother. Blinking dots. You really don’t care about Jess. Give it a good outward push if you can. I don’t have good footing, so. I can. Okay, then don’t. You know what? No, no, I will. I can. I just need a second. Nice right on it.

There it is. Oh, no. Hold on. But I can reach that. That I cannot reach. Jack, look at this. I see, man. Right here. Oh, look at this, man. It’s terrible. Right? All birds. Wrong. Mike’s in a tree. I’m bleeding out. There’s a mountain lying close by. Oh, and I’m bleeding. You can grab that. I don’t know. It’s like the sharks of the mountains. Let’s do this. Oh, there we go. I got footing now. That’s one way to do it. Am I helping? Oh, I got it. Babe, do you have this on camera? Look at my leg.

Oh, I see you. Get him. Oh, you’re like three inches away. I know. I’m. You saw what I was doing up here right now. Oh. Oh, hold on. Oh, I’m getting killed down here. I got it, Jess. Yes. I got it. So after launching the drone, like I’ve done hundreds of times before, the controller completely died in my hand, even though it was completely charged, causing the drone to crash. But we were able to find it, and it took us five minutes of this young lady doing gymnastics in a tree and me getting ripped to shreds by thorns below, almost twisting my ankle and almost falling down the mountain backwards because it’s that steep.

We recovered the drone, but we had nothing but drone issues with the other drones. After none of them would fly, it was as though they were getting knocked out of the sky. They were doing things I have never seen them done before, and I’ve flown drones for five years. No exaggeration. Was it norad? I couldn’t tell you, but boom, baby, boom. And it’s still. DJI makes a phenomenal drone. Yes, they do. The least. I am. Well, you have to come back now and see what I’ve been doing. Well, yeah, but you don’t you see where I am? Do you see me? This ain’t good.

Stuck. And I’m bleeding a lot now. Oh, man. Yeah, I got first aid. We’re good. I got first aid. But you’ll be all right. Yeah, you mean the one that is. Oh, I’ve got that on video. I’m coming, dude. Yeah. This is not as funny as it was a minute ago. Oh, at least there’s A tree in front of you. Okay, babe, still filming. Oh, dude. All right, my leg is asleep, and I need you to take this. All right, hold on. Give me the camera. Jess, stay still. Go. All right, switching off now. We got to rescue the girl.

Are you me? But the funny thing is, is the girl didn’t need rescuing. She was fine. This girl was a trooper, and these were the genuinely nice people. And like I said, I was more than happy to show them this trail and spend the day with them. I even got him dinner for that night. I didn’t go to dinner because I didn’t have that much nice guy in me, but I covered the bill. This is a third drone I have up right now, and the battery died in. Well, the amount of time you’re seeing this video, the battery was 100 charged when I put it in.

And then both the remote controls told me they need to be calibrated, and they were useless. This morning at the hotel room, I tried to calibrate them, and they didn’t need it. So that’s four. Two drones and two smart controllers that both went out on the mountain. And last time I was up here, I couldn’t record with the drone, and I couldn’t record with a camera. Is it norad? Of course it is. Of course it is. Your tax dollars at work keeping you from looking at things that you shouldn’t be looking at or whatever. But this perspective at least shows you that there is no forgiveness on this trail.

This is the wide part of the trail. The narrow part is down the other end. But sadly, I didn’t have a drone. So there, as they say, is that. That little tip right there felt exactly like I was going over the side, because I’m looking out the driver’s window straight down the side of the cliff. Almost soiled myself. So even though thunder and lightning had already started, the sky is completely overcast and it’s raining down below us. We still took the time to enjoy the fruit of our labors. These guys had never been up there. They took selfies, they took pictures.

They enjoyed it. And I waited, no problem. But eventually, the rain made its way up to where we were, and it started coming down. So it was time to get off the mountain because I had no idea how bad those climbs that we came up on were going to be once water was added to them. Wyoming, Moab, Arizona, Colorado are notorious for really good trails, turning into nightmares once it rains. And we had two hours of driving to get back down, and it was getting close to dark. Now we’ve got lights so that’s not a big deal but it’s just not a great idea.

The thing is is we still took it easy. We did not. We relied on the vehicles. We trusted the vehicles and rolled down because even after we were off the trail we still have nine miles of forest road which ain’t all that great to deal with just to get back to civilization. So off we went. It sa so after what seemed like an endless ride we made our way back down to the bottom of the shelf road. We went through the stream to clean off the suspensions and then we headed back down another 2,000ft to the forest road and then finally back to civilization.

These guys had a trip of a lifetime and I’m glad I could play a part. If you enjoyed this video make sure you hit that like share and subscribe. Leave a comment below and I will try to return the favor. I am out.
[tr:tra].

See more of JailBreak Overlander on their Public Channel and the MPN JailBreak Overlander channel.