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5 Friends. Make that 6. Nope, make that 13.

219 miles.

25 days.

This is The Muir Project.

In July of 2011, a group of five artists including director Jason Fitzpatrick, director Ric Serena, and still photographer Jen Serena, left their daily lives behind and set out on an epic 25-day journey on the 211 mile John Muir Trail. Their goal: to document the sights, sounds and experiences of life in California’s Sierra Nevada high country.

Through their time on the trail, the collective now known as The Muir Project collected enough video, still photography and sound recordings to produce a feature length film called, “Mile… Mile & a Half.” Unlike other adventure movies produced in today’s never ending series of one-upmanships – featuring die-hard rugged athletes defying all odds to endure the harshest conditions in the worst environments, “Mile… Mile & a Half” (MMaaH) spins a different kind of tale. Rather than attacking your ego with incomparable heroism, the JMT group has made an 87 minute movie that brings the viewer along with five friends whose passions for the arts and the outdoors carries them through 25 adventure filled & fun days of their life on the trail.

I know what you‘re thinking though, “How much fun can it be watching a group of strangers hike for 25 days through a forest?” Normally, you’d have a point, thinking that it would be a similar to watching a group of retirees knitting hats for their grandnephews. Not today though.

The crafty little crafters of The Muir Project have created something unique. What you get with MMaaH is a candid, stylized and authentic view of what it looks and feels like when regular people set off to accomplish big adventures with modest means… and have a truly great time doing it. Successfully getting that message out in a way that’s fun for the viewer makes this all the more impressive.

The other day, I had the chance to speak with the intrepid & artistic crew of The Muir Project to ask them a few questions about their experiences of hiking a long distance “through-hike” and how the movie came to be.

This is their story:

The original sparks of inspiration for a project like the JMT came to Jason at least ten years ago while (insert irony here) while watching those early HD television channels on cable TV. He was frustrated by the lack of quality programming and felt like there was an opportunity to create new and compelling content to help fill in that gap. Coincidentally, Jason began to get to know Ric at work and they each realized that they shared a passion for backpacking and the outdoors. Over the ensuing years Ric, Jen and Jason would kindle their friendship around several camping and backpacking trips. Fast forward 7 years on, and the group revisited their desires to do another camping trip, but there was an unmistakeable pull to do something different, something bigger this time. They had in mind something… epic.

They picked the John Muir Trail (JMT).

The group chose the JMT due to its relative proximity to where they all lived and, its top notch scenic quality, and the real world logistical advantages. Along the course of the next 6 months, the team picked up a couple of colleagues named Durand and Zee – who, like the others, were also enthusiasts of the outdoors. During the interview I asked, “What’s with the 6 months of planning for 1 month of backpacking?” They replied, reminding me that while packing a few weeks of belongs may not take 6 months to perform; it does however take ~6 months to get a hiking permit for the Yosemite to JMT trail area. Then they dropped the bomb on me when Jen mentioned that the group decided to buy and cook all their own meals. That’s 5 people’s meals for 4 weeks… That turned out to be a lot of work, but it was worth it – especially on pizza night.

Without revealing too much – our band of merry heroes held up pretty well together despite the challenges of life on the trail. When asked about how they managed their time between the constant and pressing need to cover the miles while pausing often enough to collect video, stills and sounds, they replied that the group’s ambitions meshed well together and they gave each other the space to be creative. No one was super aggro when it came to hiking and they all allowed each other all the time they individually needed to fully indulge in their artistic pursuits.

“The beginning was easy” said director Jason Fitzpatrick. “but soon enough, snow became an X-factor.” 2011 turned out to be a record setting year for snowpack in the high Sierras – coming in at a bountiful 200% of normal. The extra snow had impacts in a myriad of ways, from trail & route finding to the sloppy endless slogs through massive snowfields, to the abnormally high melt off in the rivers (normally creeks) they occasionally had to cross. But the challenges didn’t thwart them. If anything it helped hone their changing priorities.

A person’s priorities and perspectives change in the backcountry. “Cares and worries disappear” said expert soundman Durand. “Travel becomes forefront and you become in tune with each other.” Photographer Jen Serena said that you figure out what you truly appreciate in life – from exactly which luxuries you really miss to just how much family and friends mean to you back home. Ric also mentioned that his priorities have also changed after he returned today to day of society. Now he recognizes the need to be outside more and that disconnecting from the pull of technology can be a worthwhile break.

There’s also some interesting social elements to life spent putting one foot in front of the other. Jen mentioned that she was not only impressed with the friends she was hiking with. She described Durand as smart, snarky and incredibly positive. “Humor,” they all chimed in, “was essential.” There was very little contention, Jason said. When someone was having a rough moment, those moments weren’t shared or exploited by the others. There was room in the group for bad moods if they came up.

Jen also mentioned how impressed she was with the people she met on the trail. “When you see them on the trail the first time, they’re nice acquaintances,” she continued, “by the second time, they become friends, and by the third – they are family.” And despite the changing crew size from 5, to 6 – and later 13 … the few newcomers that joined the group never disrupted the flow, but rather added something valuable and special to it. When Coloradans Dave and Kelly ran into our hikers, they ended up falling in love with the group, enjoying the Muir crew’s humor and tempo.

There are dozens of other stories in Mile… Mile & a Half , but the last I’d like to shine the light on is the artistic expression that comes through in the movie’s presentation. The group ran into Kolby Kirk, legendary through hiker and famous youtuber, at the Golden Staircase near the end of the hike. Kolby and the Muir crew got along great and decided to collaborate on the movie’s art when they all returned home.

It was Kolby’s injection of his minimalistic themed artistic vision to the project with his supercool hand-drawn “trail journals” that accentuated the Muir crew’s already gorgeous videography. Together, it all comes together to form a piece of art unto itself. It’s a well-crafted movie and you can see the skill, care and talent come through in its final production.

So keep an eye out for Mile… Mile & a Half in your area as they are taking the movie on a national tour which kicks off at the 16th annual Dances with Films Festival at Hollywood’s Chinese 6 Theater on June 1st. You can keep track of their progress through their website, http://themuirproject.com/.