Mile Mile and a Half

steve

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Anyone seen this film? My wife and I bought it and watched it a few weeks ago. If this film doesn't get you excited to go backpacking, I don't know what will. Very entertaining film with stunning photography. I highly recommend it.

Mile mile and a half documents a group of people who hiked the John Muir trail during a record snowpack year. They made a documentary about it.

http://themuirproject.com/mmah/film/
 
I've just seen the trailer. I guess I got kind of turned off by how long they dragged out releasing the film and how over-marketed it got. I should probably get over that and watch it though. It looks great and I'd love to hike the JMT in the near future.
 
I kinda feel like Nick for some reason. I'm not sure exactly what the turn-off is for me.

Actually... I'd like to check it out because it's the same year I did the hike. I probably passed them early in my trip as they neared the end of theirs (I was northbound and they were southbound like 95% of everyone else.) It was a crazy snow year and I'm curious to see what the water/snow levels were like about 3 weeks before I got to a few spots.

Maybe soon...

- Jamal
 
I'd love to hike the JMT. I don't know if I'll be able to put a whole 30 days aside, well convince my wife to let me. I'm thinking about doing half this summer, and half next summer. Only portion I've hiked so far is Whitney.
 
I'm more interested in doing the Tahoe to Yosemite trail, but I don't imagine ever being able to get 20+ days off work.

Having made a few short trip report videos, I can completely understand why they took forever to get it done. Then again, I kinda stumbled upon the website; I never saw it promoted or advertized (I must be out of the loop).
 
IMHO -- it should never take 30 days unless you are... making a movie!

I did it as part of a longer hike and did the JMT portion in about 15 days. That included some off-trail parts of the Sierra High Route. I think any sturdy hiker should be able to do it in about 2 weeks. A more causal hiker in 3 weeks. I met 3-4 people out there trying to do it in under 10 days!

This year could be an extremely terrible snow year which should make it even easier -- unless fires close parts of the trail. :(

- JG
 
I didn't realize it already had a lot of hype, you may be disappointed if your expectations are super high.
 
You have the entire summer off! What's 30 days!?

We don't all have partners with such enthusiasm. ;)

I might talk her into doing half with me, then completing the rest without her.
 
I was thinking about buying/renting this and was kind of blow away that it's nearly 90 minutes long. What in the world do they talk about for 90 minutes?!? The trailer doesn't really allude to the plot, do they actually follow someone's journey or is it just a bunch of random shots along the trail?
 
Its sort of like a documentary. They have video for each day, intermixed with interviews and dialogue about what the challenges were, highlights, surprises, etc. Its like a trail journal with videos of the trail each day.
 
Nick, if you buy the dvd and end up not liking it, I'll buy it off you. I bought the digital download, and I wish I had bought the dvd. I've watched it 3 times so far whenever I want to get pumped about backpacking for the season.
 
I just watched a show on Netflix you might be interested in. It's called River of No Return, A honeymoon adventure in Idaho's wilderness. It's found in the documentaries category. They spend a whole year in the backcountry chasing wolves. It only about a hour long or so and I think it had four out of five stars.
 
Cool, I'll definitely check it out. I just watched Kon-Tiki on Netflix and loved it. It definitely brings out the spirit of adventure in me.
 
I just watched a show on Netflix you might be interested in. It's called River of No Return, A honeymoon adventure in Idaho's wilderness. It's found in the documentaries category. They spend a whole year in the backcountry chasing wolves. It only about a hour long or so and I think it had four out of five stars.


I enjoyed this as well.

Not backpacking per se, but 180º South is fantastic. I'd really like to see Patagonia before it gets flooded. RIP glenn canyon :(
 
I watched most of 180* south. It had some interesting parts, but when it turned into a save the environment movie, I turned it off. I started River of No Return, and it was decent.
 
I watched most of 180* south. It had some interesting parts, but when it turned into a save the environment movie, I turned it off.
I did the same. LOL!
 
The impact of 180º South, beyond just adventure makes it better. My favorite chapter of Desert Solitaire is the float down Glenn Canyon. Just imagine being in such an amazing area, only to know it's going to be destroyed in the name of "Progress." How could you just leave that out? There is a reason people that spend time in the back-country care to protect it. We know what's out there.
 
Not trying to start an argument, just remember that "protecting" means different things to different people.

Even if I agree with the philosophies of a movie, I don't like it when any movie goes off course and morphs into a political, environmental, or religious crusade to convince others of their ways. I don't mind environmental, religious, or political documentaries when they are promoted as such, I just mind when an otherwise interesting movie takes a turn to slip some propaganda of any form into it. That's all. It's not the message they're sharing, it's the sneaky way they did it that got me to turn the movie off.

Being outside gets me more motivated to save the planet than any subtle (or not-so-subtle) message in any movie.
 
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