What is an epic adventure?

5 Aug

For that matter, what is epic? Seeing as I have been known to describe myself as “excelling in hyperbole”, I feel particularly well suited to address this question.

As I sit here in the sweltering heat of my non-air conditioned home studio in Los Angeles reviewing the footage from the trail, I feel that I can say with one hundred percent certainty that hiking the John Muir Trail qualifies as an epic adventure. Now that I am home, I find, that in a wholly different way, hiking the trail was just the beginning of the journey for all of us. I’m currently tasked with the entirely different, however no less intimidating, mission of adding an aural landscape to our movie which will help our audience to become immersed in each moment along the trail as we were.

I’m incredibly thankful that I had the opportunity to join this group of merry miscreants as the “sound guy”. The recordings that I managed to gather along the trail, may not be as obviously thrilling to most folks as the scenic beauty, but they are nonetheless, an essential element of the story. Without these sonic memories our audience literally could not share the journey that we experienced firsthand one year ago.

In a documentary, the soundscape of the film may not be something that you overtly perceive. This is not to say that you will not hear anything. I enjoy nothing more than the “experience of listening”. That sounds weird, right? Haha. This is why you will enjoy the sound that accompanies this film. I would actually imagine that most folks who have managed to find this blog entry would not find my thoughts to be so strange. What avid backpacker/hiker/etc, doesn’t remember moments such as walking through a grove of impossibly tall pine trees, footsteps they just now realize have been, for the last half hour, slightly muffled from the thick bed of pine needles carpeting the trail, and suddenly discover that they have unconsciously stopped to listen to the subtle wind passing through the branches above…or maybe it’s just me. My adventure now, is to bring those moments on the trail to you.

It’s become increasingly difficult for most people to take even a weekend off and escape from the overwhelming noise and commotion that modern cities have become. Epic adventures are not solely the trips that are accomplished by sponsored professionals. Weekend warriors are the adventurers who go out and hike simply because this is what they enjoy doing. The group I hiked the trail with is an inspired band of weekend warriors. We had a pretty goddamn epic adventure, and we hope to inspire you through this film to go out and have your own as well.