Preparing for the JMT: cache drops

16 Apr

“The amateurs discuss tactics: The professionals discuss logistics.”

This great Napoleon quote reminds me of our preparations for the John Muir Trail hike. Whether planning an AT hike, a PCT, or any long through hike, a lot goes into preparation. After you decide what to take camping, you also need to know what you’re going to be eating weeks or months ahead of time. Then, you have to figure out how to get your food and other supplies at various points along the way in the wilderness, which is where our cache drop logistics begin.

For us, it involved a lot of driving. Luckily we live in Los Angeles which isn’t a short drive to the Sierra Nevada, but if you’re willing to put in a long day or two you can take care of most of your caches over a weekend.

We started by driving up to Edison Lake on the West Side of the Sierras. It’s a pretty rough narrow road out there. We dropped off three of our 5 gallon plastic drums at the Lake Edison Store, where for a fee they ferry the supplies across the lake and then mule them in to Muir Trail Ranch which is only a couple of miles off the trail just north of Kings Canyon National Park. If you aren’t able to do this in person you can also mail the drums to them.

From Edison Lake, we hightailed it up to Tuolumne Meadows on the East Side of Yosemite off Highway 120. The Trail meets up with the highway here two to four days from the trail head at Happy Isles in Yosemite Valley.  We stashed two large bags of supplies in the bear boxes right where the highway meets the trail. There is also a small general store there, where if you don’t have the time to drop a cache, you can buy food and supplies.

The year we did the trail happened to be the snowiest year in two decades, which made not only the journey exciting, but also the preparations. We had planned on dropping off our next cache at Red’s Meadow in Devil’s Postpile National Monument. The only problem was even though it was the last weekend in June, the road out there was still closed. (Of course it opened only two or three days after we needed to get out there.) Lucky for us we had already planned on having friends meet us there, so it was just a matter of giving them our supplies to bring along. There is also a general store at Red’s Meadow in the monument where you can mail supplies and they’ll hold them for a fee. Or again buy food, but this is the last spot along the trail where there is a reasonably stocked store.

Once you’ve left Postpile, you don’t come in contact with a road again until you have finished the JMT at Whitney Portal, so it becomes more interesting from here on out. Of course as I already mentioned, you can use Muir Trail Ranch’s services. There’s also Vermillion Resort which isn’t far from Edison Lake where you can mail or drop off your supplies. It’s further north so you’ll get that cache a couple of days earlier. One disadvantage to Vermilion is that it’s on the west side of the lake, so you have to take a ferry to get there and stay for the night. We skipped this and just waited the extra 3 days to get to Muir Trail Ranch which worked out great for us. We stayed the night there, and it was a wonderful break from the trail.

Once you’ve left the ranch you enter into some of the most spectacular and also remote wilderness in the country. There is no easy way to resupply for the rest of the trip. Our initial plan was to hike over Kearsage Pass the weekend before and leave a cache at Charlotte Lake. Heavy snow and a really severe case of altitude sickness on the way up forced us to scrap our plans. We ended up hiring Berner Packers from Bishop to meet us on the trail. This wasn’t the cheapest of options, but it certainly beat us having to hike an extra day off the trail and back over a pass to get supplies at Onion Valley. You can also hike in from Cedar Grove on the west side of the Sierras if you have the time. The Berner’s rider met us right on time at the junction of the Kearsage Pass Trail and the JMT to deliver our final cache.

Again, it’s a lot of work, and I wouldn’t recommend putting it off until the last minute. There are several great guide books and some really helpful websites to help you along the way. Also, I think my favorite resource is the Yahoo JMT Group. It’s a pretty big collective of wonderful, knowledgeable and helpful people. If you have questions you can post to the message board, and you will always get answers promptly.

Music to Hike To

9 Apr

We were blessed to have the uber-talented Paul Bessenbacher and Bernard Chadwick of Opus Orange join us for our trek along the John Muir Trail. Sitting around the campfire with live music, not only makes the moment more tangible, it also allows a return to that moment at any time, with just a few well-placed notes.

Opus Orange took that free-spirited creation from the trail to the studio as they composed the soundtrack for Mile… Mile & A Half. Now, you can be transported to the trail through their incredible music.

Just a taste of the audio genius to come… check out the pre-release Diving Bell from the upcoming soundtrack, due to release in May. And kudos to Avant Gerard for their stunning artwork. In their words, “music inspired by the trek, design inspired by the music.”

Love how the inspiration of the trail continues long after the hike is finished.

And if you wanted to know what to take camping? Our vote, is Opus Orange.

Backcountry Pizza Recipe

1 Apr

I wrote about camping cooking before in Trail Chow, but we’ve been asked for this specific recipe, so here ya go!

What to take camping with a big group? A JetBoil.

DECONSTRUCTED PIZZA

Sure, it’s not easy to “bake” in the JetBoil, as the only speeds are high and off. Low is a beast that can’t be tamed – especially with mountain winds around you. Patience is key, so make sure you have a little appetizer before starting, or you’ll curse me and the process.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Bisquick (or other brand) baking mix. With Add a little garlic salt & Italian seasonings. Store in ziplock bag. Then you can add water for easy mixing.
• ½ cup water
• 1 package pepperoni
• 2-3 sticks mozzarella string cheese
• Homemeade dehydrated sauce – I’ll share this recipe next time.

Process:
1. Oil the bottom of the pan
2. Add your prepped baking mix
3. Cover the Jetboil and keep as low as possible for 5 minutes
4. Remove biscuit bottom
5. Line bottom with pepperoni and replace with biscuit, uncooked side down (or if you really want to go crazy – like we did – add more pepperoni on top)
6. Add mozzarella string cheese
7. Serve with heated, rehydrated pasta sauce

I’ve seen that some people can get the dough to cook without flipping. I’m guessing they have a bit more control over the heat source, or maybe more of that patience thing I was talking about. Also, someone suggested adding cornmeal to pan before putting in dough. I think I’d try that next time. Either way, your fellow hikers will be fighting for the last bite.

Also, check out the video & documentary backstory we shared with REI.

We ate the pizza once in Yosemite, and again, further along the John Muir Trail at Squaw Lake.

Color Changes Everything

19 Mar

GUEST POST: Bruce Goodman, Colorist for Mile… Mile & A Half.

In August of 2012 a friend of mine sent me a link to Trailer #2 for “Mile…Mile & A Half”. This seemed like so much more than a travelogue or a nature documentary to me. It was a personal record of the experiences that a group of friends shared one summer in one of the most beautiful places on this Earth. They made life long friends with some very interesting people along the way. Some of whom even joined the group and finished the journey with them. Having hiked several portions of the JMT myself, I knew firsthand how challenging this endeavor was. I was especially inspired by extra effort that it took to haul all of that extra gear and take the time to document their experience in such a professional way following a winter with particularly high snowfall.
The Sierra Nevada mountain range in all of its beauty holds a special place in my heart. I’ve experienced many magic moments on the trail so I kind of felt a bond with the people who I saw in the trailer although we’d never met.

With my interest piqued, I delved deeper, discovered Trailer #1 and then learned that the film makers had a Kickstarter campaign in progress. I made a small donation and reached out to Ric to ask him if he and his team had selected a colorist to do the final color grade on the film. Being a colorist and a lover of the Sierra Nevada, I told him that I would consider it an honor to be a part of this film and that my experiences on the trail could be put in to play in order to serve the imagery in the best possible way. As an added bonus, the studio where I would do the work was so close to his home that Ric could bike over to supervise the sessions and just hang out.
We set a time to meet at HotPixel Post along with Jason Fitzpatrick and Durand Trench where we viewed the trailers and I showed them what I could do to add the right touch to their already beautiful footage. The chemistry was there and the rest is history.

Even before the color grading began, I knew that this would be a labor of love. The challenges that I faced were many. The footage was shot with a half dozen different cameras (Canon and Nikon DSLRs, GoPro, Canon Vixia camcorder, a point and shoot still camera in movie mode and an iPhone). Each camera and lens combination required extra care in matching the tonality of the images. When the film makers reached an area of particular beauty, shots were set up and pictures were recorded. Since they had to balance the needs of maintaining a schedule and “making their miles” as well has capturing their story, some of the vistas were not shot under ideal lighting conditions. Using Da Vinci Resolve, I had the ability to create multiple power windows to isolate specific areas of the frame which I used to re-light the vistas making them more appealing. When there was camera movement or people moving within the frame I could track these shapes to keep these enhancements from being a distraction to the viewer.

Working with Ric, Jen, Jason, Durand, Zee, Bernie, Paul, Kia and Ethan on “Mile, Mile & A Half” is one of the reasons that I love being a colorist. I think they should meet again over beers and brats and make another film next year. This time I might join them on the trail instead of just in the studio.

-B.G.

It’s all about ACCESSIBILITY

11 Mar

GUEST POST: Mathayu Warren-Lane, Hollywood Access Services

It was a text message that came in from Ric that tipped a metaphorical domino one night.  A nifty, little dawning moment for him, his lovely Jen, and my yearling company.  (Sidebar for Jen: I could/should just as easily say it was a dawning moment for you and your lovely Ric, but Ric is the one who texted me. So, sorry, the more patriarchal sentence prevails.)

Now, what my company does is pivotal to this anecdote, but hold that thought.

At the Adventure 16 event in San Diego, (or so Ric’s text message informed me), two women from the audience took the opportunity to thank and congratulate him, and one of the pair – a blind lady – very good-spiritedly laughed and noted that she “would’ve loved to have seen more.”  I can only guess Ric’s thought and feeling in that moment.

But I am guessing my guess and your guess might be polar opposites.  You might suppose Ric laughed along, understood sympathetically, and found a friendly, respectful rejoinder that managed to cradle and lay down the mildly bittersweet reality of the situation.  Maybe Ric had to put it out of mind as more people stepped up to compliment him.  Maybe it stuck with him.  Maybe, when he was later reviewing the evening with Jen after brushing his teeth, he found himself helpless before the remark of this art-smart fan every bit as culture-loving and entertainment-loving as himself – only living with blindness.

Now, anyone who didn’t know of my career or my company or the other dedicated companies out there that do what I do (just not as well, of course!) might assume that’s how it went for Ric.  But I know for a fact, Ric was probably pleasantly surprised by the encounter.  You see, in the course of the many days and nights that Ric and Jen and my wife and I have all enjoyed our kids and dogs and high school humor and massaged kale salad, we have naturally traded tales of our career aspirations and accomplishments.

It so happens that my business partners and I specialize in describing TV, films, and geographic sites (like theme parks, zoos, museums, and aquariums) for people who are blind or live with low vision.  We write description of what you and I see in between the lines of dialogue in a show or movie, that is, all of its unique visual content, and then we record it with a narrator and offer it in one way or another for playback along with production’s audio.  We turn a visual experience into one someone listens to, like a radio show.

Our company Hollywood Access Services has all the chops a media accessibility company could need, with a collective 40 years describing and captioning content.   When Ric’s text came in, I smiled BIG at the little yellow pop-up on my smartphone screen.  For our new “Little Company that Could,” the opportunity to just step right up to a polished, final piece to execute our mission of access for blind audiences – without having to explain the service or establish its worth – made this a boon.  Suddenly, because of a complimentary and outgoing blind woman from San Diego, (Thank you wherever you are!) here was a moment where a friend’s passion and my own could make a perfect picture like the sun over Mt. Whitney.

As you might guess, my business partners and I love writing and producing vivid, engrossing audio description every bit as much as Jen and Ric love being in and celebrating nature and friendship on film.  That text from Ric has been gold to me.  Such a nice little closing of a loop.

In working with Jen and Ric on making Mile.. Mile & A Half accessible to audiences with sensory impairments, I’ve gotten more than artistic beauty, official cred as a new company, deeper friendship, and the occasional bowl of potato-chip-peanut-M&M trail mix.  I’ve gotten the satisfaction of knowing that these two fine artistic people truly care about bringing their love of nature to as broad an audience as possible.  And if that ain’t a propos to a certain Mr. Muir, then go take a hike.

(Sidebar to Jen: what is that crazy trail mix called again???)

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