Ihaven’t been blogging much of late and I haven’t been sleeping much either… But that’s all going to change because this is an amazing post and after I finish writing it I’m going to bed! I’ve been editing my video documentary of our successful completion of the CDT. So clear a couple of hours and check out my site – Cookie & Paul do America, use the links on the bottom to navigate between sections. If you haven’t been keeping up – The Continental Divide Trail is a 3000 mile walk from Mexico to Canada along the Rockie Mountains, we did it this year in five and a half mouths from May to October, it was epic.
It’s mostly set to music that I feel fits the mood of the section, with a little bit of chat in between. Nicky noted that most of the songs come from the 1970’s which seems quite fitting because as we make our way across America out beards get longer and longer (it’s a tradition or an old charter or something), eventually we look like we are in the 1970’s! The last finishing touch was to add in the Indiana Jones style map sequences the give each section a bit of context. Thanks to Google maps new terrian view for providing an excellent map source for me the screen grab and five million steps for plotting the route on to it :)
When I get back and finish up a few outstanding bits and pieces, I’m planning to hire a cinema/pub with a projector and have a big screening (and piss up). I’ll let you know details when I sort them out.
Well Merry Christmas internet folk, I’m off, I’ll be back in London and bloggin’ in the new year, have a good one.
I am on my second time of watching the 2 hr version You two did an outstanding job filming it along hiking it. Thank you so very much for taking the time to put such a wonderful documentary together for us to enjoy.
Cheers Tim, I’m not sure it’s quite up to BBC standard but i might give it a go!
In the words of Luke Skywalker’s Dad … Impressive. Most Impressive. I spent a couple of hours watching the full version this weekend and doff my hat to your mighty effort.
I was amazed at some of the extreme terrain you had to endure … there’s one shot towards the end where Paul is getting pulmelled by snow high on a mountain ridge … it reminded me of the Fellowship of the Ring! That looked intense!
I await your next adventure with bated breath. You should seriously consider approaching the BBC with this footage … I think there’s a 30 minute doumentary to be had out of it for sure!
Hi Mark,
1. It was shot a Sony HDR-SR12, it’s got a 120GB hard drive – which you need for a six month walk.
2. Yeah Paul took photo, think he’s still putting the titles on but you see them here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/74966698@N00/collections/72157611668315094/
3. I’ll get some download links sorted in the next couple of day, cheers for the suggestion :)
4. Yes I’ve read about the Cascades, they’re on my list!
Ahh so fantastic! What a journey and a half, dunno if I’ll ever get off enough time to do something like this, but I enjoy the trek and traverse more than anything and this is a doozy. My son and I watched the 15 minute version last night and I’ll be going through the rest of them over the next few days.
Couple of questions.
1) What camera did you use? I’ve been enjoying doing videos of late, using the D90 (http://www.vimeo.com/niffgurd/videos).
2) Did you take any photos? Got a flickr stream out there somewhere?
3) I am having to download the movies locally vs. streaming as firefox gets so bloated I get chunking/chop from the CPU and IO bogging down, it might be nice to give folks a direct URL, or if you don’t want at least know that its what I had to do to enjoy them, and folks that know can find the URL anyway.
4) You should check out the hidden and beautiful countryside of the great state of Washington sometime. The Cascades and Olympics are the great secret of Seattle.
Cheers
mbg
Ah cheers for the comments guys :) Stephen I’ll do a proper track list in a bit, for the time being the last track of New Mexico is You Fly Me by Fingathing. Janeen yes it has taken a long time to edit… still working on it, got some tweaks and new bits to upload shortly.
Awesome work. That section in Wyoming through the Wind River Ranger…holy wow. So beautiful.
Bravo!
But man, that must have taken some time to stitch all that footage together. I’m still very impressed with that camera, and I seem to recall you mentioning something about the wind noise when I asked about it last time. A friend of mine recommends this puppy http://www.sennheiserusa.com/newsite/productdetail.asp?transid=502047 (though it really did sound quite windy in places – not sure how much it would cut out.)
I must agree, this is a phenomenal piece of work. Many thanks from a trail addict. Wish I could be there for the screening!
Cookie, the doc is fantastic! You two are fine fellows for taking a break during the arduous hiking to capture each stage of the trek on video. Digging the music too. You should list the soundtrack. I’m especially interested to know the last bit on the New Mexico video.