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Hello, hello! I hope this finds you all having a wonderful holiday season. As 2022 comes to a close, I am happy to say that I have finished creating a video series to document my border-to-border hike on the Continental Divide Trail this past summer. The series is 13 episodes, each approximately 5-6 minutes in length. You can watch it (and see my other video content) on the Unfettered Footsteps YouTube Channel. Episode 1 aired today, and I will be releasing a new episode every week on Thursdays until they are all available. If you’re interested, be sure to go to the channel, hit the “subscribe” button and click on the notification bell so you’ll know when those videos (and other content) are released. It’s easier than trying to remember to periodically check for content.
I filmed short snippets on most of the days that I hiked using a Sony RX100 VII, a tiny tripod, and an external microphone (you can see all of my camera gear on my CDT thru-hiking gear list HERE, if you’re curious). It was a lot of work carrying the extra gear and setting up shots to film, and while there were times when I wished I did not, I am very glad that I did. I got a lot of enjoyment from setting up many of the shots while on trail. Like anything, I got better at it as I went along. It was far from my first rodeo in terms of putting together a hiking film, but it was definitely my biggest endeavor yet. The nice thing about a thru-hike is it was long enough to when I really didn’t feel like filming, I didn’t have to. There was plenty of time to get good, quality footage when I was in the mood to do so.
Among the challenges I faced was just keeping my gear protected and clean. I can’t say enough good things about the Lens Pen that I used and continue to use. It was a lifesaver! I also brought a lens cloth, but the amount of dust out west really requires a whole different level of diligence and care, especially living outside. The Lens Pen brush was critical to first getting dust off the lens before cleaning smudges; otherwise, I am fairly certain I would have scratched my lens.
At one point in New Mexico, a gust of wind blew my camera off of a rock while I was filming a walk-by shot (where I set up the camera using the tripod and walk by it). This created a dent, and resulting lump, in the plastic on the side of the extended lens, which then prevented my lens from retracting. I thought the camera was done for, but I was able to use my knife to shave down the plastic lump and enable the lens to retract again. It was far from completely fixed, however. In fact, the camera hasn’t been the same since. Sometimes it would not retract and would take a few tries, or would get stuck in the retracted position. This made filming for the rest of the hike a little more time consuming when I had to fidget with the lens to get it to open or close, but I was still able to carry on and get all of the footage I needed. Somehow, with more frequent cleanings, I was also able to keep the lens clean, even if it stayed partially open at times due to my inability to get it to retract in the moment.
Dust and weather were the main challenges with the RX100. It is not a “weather-sealed” camera, nor is it waterproof like a Go-Pro. I wanted the RX100’s 200mm zoom lens and valued that higher than waterproofing. The zoom capability enabled me to get some wonderful close ups of both flora and fauna, while still providing a wide enough angle for landscape shots. The wildlife footage really made it all worthwhile, as you will see.
I did get some minor dust collection behind the lens over the course of the hike. It did not affect the picture quality, but I am unsure if a camera shop will be able to clean that for me as it will require taking the camera apart (it does not have a removable lens). Also, I was unable to effectively film in the rain. Therefore, one might watch my series and think that it seldom rained, when, in fact, afternoon storms and thundershowers were quite common from Colorado north (it never rained on me once in New Mexico!). I was too afraid I would ruin my camera if I shot in the rain, so I think I only have one or two shots of storms.
I definitely think that being able to capture more of the tough moments – the crazy lightning, snow and hail storms – would have added some nice balance and been more true to the overall story, which is that long hikes like this are incredibly taxing and difficult as much as they are fun. But, I wasn’t willing to carry (or invest in) more camera gear for this hike, so you’ll just have to read my journals or take my word for it on the weather. Carrying a camera through inclement weather was also a pain at times. I carried my camera on my shoulder strap, but when it rained I would pack it away in a dry bag inside my pack. Some days I spent a lot of time taking it out and putting it away due to fickle weather. Other days I would leave it in all day just because of a morning rain, mostly because I didn’t want to stop and take it out again in case the rain picked back up. This is just the reality of carrying a non-waterproof camera on a long hike.
Every shot was either locked down via my tripod or stabilized after the fact in post production editing. Therefore, with the exception of a few scenes where I am pointing out something, such as walking through a cave dwelling or approaching an old mine shaft, you should find the videos fairly stable. There is a small amount of talking and voice-over narration to explain scenes, open up about how I am feeling, talk a bit about the reality of a long hike, or just carry the story forward. Most of the time it is just hiking, natural sounds (what I was actually hearing), and relaxed background music. I did, however, have to cut down the sound of wind quite often. Hiking on exposed ridges and peaks out west is seldom without the sound of wind. While that is a part of the hike, the sound of wind into a microphone isn’t fun to hear, so I dialed that back where possible.
Finding and pairing music to the videos is probably the most satisfying step of the editing process for me. I choose tracks based on the feeling I get when the music is first laid out against the video, before I even edit the timings. It’s hard to explain, but if the music catapults me back into the hike and evokes emotions that ring true to my experience, it’s a fit. If not, I move on until I find something that is. I almost exclusively use some type of relaxed or classical piano music, though there are a couple of exceptions in this series. I find it to be the best fit to make the videos relaxing and also to hopefully allow the viewer to imagine what emotions the journey might bring. Whether I actually achieve that effect for others, I don’t know, but it works for me!
I did not do a lot of filming in towns along the way. It was a conscious decision early on. I realize that means I left out certain aspects of the trip. Town stops are very much a part of long-distance hiking, but I don’t really like filming in towns. I feel awkward and less like I’m in the moment when I am filming in front of other hikers and townspeople, and I just didn’t want to the experience to be like that. There’s a fine line between documenting a memory and ruining a moment. My guiding principle was to only film when I wanted to and when it didn’t detract from my experience (or others’).
Time in towns also went by very fast. I was always busy just trying to get the same chores done – resupply, clean myself, do laundry, eat as much as possible, rest, write, talk with hikers, and check in back home. That doesn’t leave time for anything else. Nevertheless, I did manage get some town footage along the way, which you will see.
Overall I am really happy with the series I created. I honestly had no idea how I was going to structure the final product while I was filming. Originally, I had thought I might boil it all down to a 20-30 minute documentary-style short film. In the end, I just didn’t see that working. For one thing, very few people want to sit down and spend that amount of time looking at a hiking video. Breaking it up is more conducive to how people consume content these days. A thru-hike is also an experience that, in my opinion, is best conveyed in highlights rather than in full regalia. A thru-hike is a complete overload of freedom, fresh experiences, and beauty. Everything feels interesting and stimulating when I’m experiencing it, but that would not translate to a viewer if I just showed all of the details of each day. I wanted to show enough to tell the story, highlight the trail, and excite people about the adventure, but not make it boring. So, I settled on something more basic – short episodes that had just enough interaction to carry the story along, but are largely designed for the viewer to sit back, relax, and ideally get pulled into the magic of the simple freedom of the hike and the beauty along the way.
I do hope you will watch the series. If you followed my journals, it will add some depth and life to the scenes and stories I wrote about. You can see the mountain goats in Colorado, the crazy dangerous down-climb I had to do prior to reaching Gray’s Peak, the majesty of the Wind River Range, and the geysers of Yellowstone. I am so glad that I preserved those memories for myself. I’m probably much more likely to watch those from time to time than I am to go back and comb through my journals. I do hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed making them.
I recently published another video, which was a post-hike gear retrospective. I talk about twelve changes I made to my gear throughout the hike, many of which you may remember if you read my journals. That’s too much to go into for this post, but you can check out the video if you are interested in gear content. I guess I’ll have to hike the PCT at some point so that I can take all that I learned and improve on my gear kit!
I’m currently tallying and categorizing my hike expenses. I am thinking about writing a post with a detailed cost breakdown. If you’re interested in that, let me know. I think it is often hard for people who are budgeting for a hike like this to grasp how much they should expect to spend. There are rules of thumb, of course, but nothing beats actual data. In the same post, I am toying with including some ideas for how to fund a thru-hike, but still debating with myself whether I could make that content valuable enough for most people, or whether I would it would just turn into ping pong balls bouncing out of my head.
Thanks as always for being a part of Unfettered Footsteps. I hope that you enjoy the rest of 2022, and I wish you all the best for a healthy, wonderful 2023! May the new year find you planning adventures of your own, and open to those unexpected opportunities that may come your way.
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