Lean On Me

26 Aug

I can’t say I was happy when my alarm went off at 4 in the morning July 9th 2011, but I was pretty excited about what was to come. The night before I had been at one of my best friends weddings, and had only gotten home about an hour and a half before the Pogues song had roused me from my uneasy sleep. Within minutes Kia, with Durand in tow, was at my front door and we were on the road.

Kia had generously volunteered to drive us up to Yosemite so we wouldn’t have to leave a car there for a month. For those of you who haven’t done it, the drive up Highway 99 from Los Angeles to Yosemite isn’t all much to write home about, until the last hour or so. Kia had never been up there before, and one of my favorite things is to see people’s reactions when they first round the bend before Tunnel view and see El Capitan and Half dome in the distance. I think it’s the first hint of the magic that is Yosemite Valley. We stopped for a moment at Tunnel view, so she could take it all in. If I recall that was the first time I heard her utter the sentiment “I can’t believe I’ve never come up here before,” which she repeated more than once over that weekend.

The night before we started the trek, we all camped at the Backpackers Camp in the valley, and Kia joined us on our evening hike to Mirror Lake. In the rocks above the lake there’s a cairn garden, and we built one for good luck. Kia placed one of the stones in our cairn. She was there at the start of our journey, and now we’re lucky enough to have her on board to help us carry it through to the end. I can’t think of a more determined, knowledgeable and dependable person to help us finish the “Mile.. Mile and a Half” journey.

I am crashing this blog today to share exciting news with you – a dream of mine recently came true! You see, I have been a long time friend of Ric’s (since film school) and I have been a Producer on many of his projects for the past several years. I fell in love with this project in 2010 when I first heard about it while Ric, Durand and I were in Hawaii shooting a CBS promo for “Hawaii Five-O”. They invited me to join them as a hiker and a Producer. What a great offer, right? But I had to decline because I already had plans for my own adventure to scuba dive with sharks in the Great Barrier Reef. Not a bad reason to decline but sad nonetheless. As time passed and Ric and I worked on other promos together he would update me on how their JMT plans were progressing. Always, I would feel a twinge of longing to be part of the project but my travel and work schedule could not sync up and, likewise, both of their hiking buddy and Producing slots had been filled. However, now all of that has changed… Everything has aligned… I am happy to announce that Ric and the team have re-extended the invitation and I have joined the film as a Producer! Let the party begin!

I am thrilled to be a part of the project because I love this film! Let me tell you, I have seen the entire film several times and it makes me cry. It is heartwarming, inspiring, hilarious, gorgeous and a just a plain, fun ride. Also I am thrilled because I love this team. It is such an honor to be collaborating with a great group of artists.

So, in order for you to be able to experience this film for yourself and to be inspired to have adventures of your own, I’ll be helping get this film out into the world. I’ve got my pack on and I’m ready to climb this mountain! Besides, we have only a mile or a mile and a half to go, right guys? Guys…?

For more information about me (possibly even my pseudo-trail name), here’s my bio.

All the best,
Kia M. Kiso