Adventures with Mutcluck

Youtube in HD - African Adventure - Roadside in Lesotho

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Mutchler) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 19:59:00 +0000

Youtube in HD. Pretty sweet. I tried to hack for the embed. Hopefully it works. I just happened to upload in 720p last night. Didn't know it would go live today and now I've got an HD embeddable youtube video. It may even be better quality than vimeo. Haven't done a side by side comparison.

Roadside in Lesotho from Mutcluck on Vimeo.

I don't have vimeo plus yet, so you have to go to vimeo to see the HD version. I'd love to see what people think. I'll upload something with less color correction tonight. Hard to truly see the best of the resolution upgrade with my film look and saturated color correction.

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Mutchler) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 06:34:00 +0000

Close Call with Elephants near Chobe from Mutcluck on Vimeo.
Out on the highway near Chobe National Park in Botswana we came upon a pack of Elephants. We decided to get a closer look. Hope you enjoy. Sorry for not updating youtube, but they've been doing a ton of site maintenance during my last two updates.

Poling down the Okavanga

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Mutchler) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 02:00:00 +0000

Poling down the Okavanga Delta from Mutcluck on Vimeo.
Thought I'd get another up. Madel, part of the Poler Collective, took us through the delta toward the Okavanga River. We came across some kids that were having a blast in the water.

Crazy Lizard in Namibia

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Mutchler) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 06:39:00 +0000

Crazy Lizard in Namibia from Mutcluck on Vimeo.
Another video from the Africa trip. Sorry it took a week to get off my lazy ass and post. Also on youtube. Hope you enjoy. It's short.

Chasing Goats in Namibia

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Mutchler) — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 06:46:00 +0000

Chasing Goats in Namibia from Mutcluck on Vimeo.
Here's the latest upload of my Africa videos. You can also watch it here on youtube.

Flat Tire in the Middle of Nowhere

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Mutchler) — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 23:37:00 +0000

Flat Tire in Namibia from Mutcluck on Vimeo.
Also up on youtube, but the quality is better on vimeo. I'll get more of the videos up in the coming weeks. Finally got a faster computer to speed up the exporting. Also trying to be less lazy since I've already done rough edits that are good enough for sharing.

Paragliding off Dunes

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Mutchler) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 05:52:00 +0000

Paragliding off the Dunes from Mutcluck on Vimeo.
Figured I'd get another one up. More to come.

Jumping off a Bridge - Victoria Falls

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Mutchler) — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 01:47:00 +0000

Jumping off a Bridge - Victoria Falls from Mutcluck on Vimeo.
Not sure what was wrong with my export settings on this one. Seems a little low rez. Oh well. Enjoy watching Augustino jump off a bridge at the border of Zim and Zambia.

Magunies for all

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Mutchler) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 06:09:00 +0000

Vimeo seems to be down. I uploaded to youtube as well.

Eating Magunies near Katima Mulilo Namibia from Mutcluck on Vimeo.
We bought this strange fruit from some kids on the side of the highway near Katima Mulilo in Namibia. Cracked them open and ate them. You sort of suck on the flesh covered seeds. It's extremely good. Someone should make juice from this fruit.

Running Down Deadvlei - Namibia

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Mutchler) — Mon, 19 May 2008 08:45:00 +0000

Now I embedded the vimeo version.

Running down Deadvlei - Namibia from Mutcluck on Vimeo.

Thought I should post something. It's been a long long time. I decided to post various videos from my trip through Africa in no particular order. We climbed the highest dune in the world and then ran down it. Probably was shot midway through my 3 months out of the country. I hope you enjoy the video. I highly recommend climbing and running down the dunes if you're in Namibia.

The Trip Thus Far - South Africa and Lesotho

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Mutchler) — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 13:00:00 +0000

I've been terrible with the blog so far. It's been harder than I thought getting on the internet and it will only get worse as we get into Namibia and Botswana. Only one hour from the border as I type, so I'll get this up quickly. Be forgiving of any typos and terrible grammar. I'm trying. Photos with some blurbs and description of the trip thus far...

RWANDA:

Before leaving Kigali, one of Pedro's friends Dirk and I at "Planet". Based on stories I've heard from the Expats in Rwanda Planet always seems to turn into a ridiculous evening whenever you go. No change that night.

Later that week, I headed out solo on the bus to... Butare to see the Murabi Memorial. After a 45 minute moto ride through the spectacular mountainous terrain, I arrived as the first and only guest so far that day. The caretaker in fact unlocked the main building and led me to the 6 large buildings which were once classrooms to show me the memorial. Room after room of bodies. The remains of the mass graves exhumed from nearby. The bones, semi-preserved with plaster, still had pieces of clothes and hair peaking through. The experience was not conventional, like so many western memorials. Western memorial seem to focus your experience personally yet through a public lense. The other's in attendance and the gravitas of the moment and the crowd are as important as the personal reflections of the momoent. This memorial was quite different. I had a completely solitary experience despite the caretaker waiting just outside. Just myself and the bodies in each room. So raw and real, the experience almost crossed into the surreal. Both moving and alienating at the same time. The immediate tangible closeness of the corpses made the narrative somehow recede to the background. It seems to me, westerners process things through a narrative, through storytelling. This is something entirely unnecessary it seems to Rwandans, a people so aware and steeped in its recent histories, that it would be redundant to force a narrative that is already seared into their mind and everyday existence. This history while shared as a history of a nation is much more than that. More complicated. It's a collection of histories, all immensely personal and immediate for those who lived it, for those continuing to live it.

I returned to Butare and visited the National Museum before my bus returned to Kigali. I met two young high school kids. We traded stories and they asked me about cities in the US. This is the picture of us. I have to dig up their email addresses, which I forgot in Kigali and send them the photo. An odd cultural disconnect occurred when they first requested I take a photo of us all; a female worker at the museum told me I couldn't take photos. Both the boys and myself were confused. Then she explained that if I took a photo of them, I should pay them. She didn't understand that they wanted the photo as much as me, a memory of a short friendship and an afternoon of conversation. In East Africa, I've never been more aware of my whiteness. The word for White, "Mazungu" echos in every locale. In passing conversation, in shouts, my whiteness is who I am. I am the symbolic Mazungu before I'm anything else. The invisibility of blackness in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, was finally palpable and tangible rather than purely intellectual. It pales in comparison to the African American experience in Ellison's book. It's much simpler, with more positive than negative connotations, but it scratches at the edge of the high visibility of Ellison's invisibility. The more you are physically seen or noticed, the more you as a person recede into obscurity, into invisibility.

UGANDA:

I spent several days in Kampala Uganda visiting a friend and having Thanksgiving dinner in Africa with her, her boyfriend and their friends. They were amazing hosts. Late nights and long days exploring the city. I met a boxer/electronics shop owner, who showed me around the market, who talked openly about African Politics and his sometimes paradoxical points of view. The city was hosting CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Goverment Meeting) which had 53 heads of state in attendance, including the Queen of England. Military police were everywhere. Listening to a Ugandan Political Radio show, while having a customary Ugandan steam bath and massage (not to be missed), one broadcaster recounted a story in which a head of state asked sincerely whether Uganda was a military state or a free state, due to the insane military presence.

The following day, I headed out first thing in the morning to go whitewater rafting on the Nile. Class 4, 5 and 6 rapids during the trip. We walked around the class 6, but saw several of our safety kayakers surf through the insanity. Unfortunately in a couple years, most of the rapids will be gone, due to a hydro-electric dam project that is in the works. Hopefully the dam brings the electricity they need to the country. Electricity is more important than tourism, but its sad the rapids will be going. As a demonstration of Uganda's electricitu woes, newly installed street light (for CHOGM) were no longer being turned on at night on Sunday, when the heads of state had left; too expensive and too much of a "waste" to keep them running.
That night I hopped on an all night bus ride back to Kigali. With music blaring the whole way back, I barely slept. So sleep, packing bags and the following day flew to Joberg.

SOUTH AFRICA:

Our maps of Joberg were terrible, but we eventually found our way to the hostel and then headed to the new China Town for some food. P, as always found someone to converse with in Chinese despite the fact that we ended up eating Thai. In the morning we did some shopping, to grab the handful of things we forgot to pack, and then headed off to Pretoria, the admistrative capitol of South Africa. I snapped a photo of P, using the color accent function of my digital camera. Gives it a kind of dreamlike quality. Good people and good food at the hostel. Once again, P found a chinese speaker. This time a Hungarian girl, that had lived in Hong Kong for the last couple years with her boyfriend who also spoke some Mandarin.

LESOTHO:

Off to Lesotho the next day. We stayed in Maseru the first night. A dirty derelict shell of a city, but the place wet settled on for for supper in an upstairs stripmall seemed to be pulsing with a vibe completely opposite the oppression of the street. It was definitely the "cool" place to be and the DJ spun a mix of African, European and American music that would have made any DJ in the States jealous. We got lost looking for the hostel, which was the Anglican Church in the area. We arrived extremely late and eventually found Father Adam, who let us set up our tent in the courtyard, since the rooms were full, due to a convention of priests from all over Lesotho. The Basotho priests were the nicest people I'd met, although, I don't think whispering is in their arsenal. Always full volume despite people sleeping everywhere. The same full volume fun started at 4:45 the next morning. I guess, early risers, have early prayers and don't whisper their thoughts to God.

We drove into the countryside in search of some cave painting. On the way, we asked directions and ended up picking up a young man and a women who were walking in that direction. She got out half way, but the young man, who was a big fan of 50 cent and other US rappers, decided he'd show us the way to the cave painting. We parked the car and headed down the gorge. We ran into a cow-herder, who our "guide" knew from his childhood since our "guide" was only back visiting family. We shared some peaches and a couple beers I brought as we admired the old cave painting.

Later that afternoon, we drove to the Semonkong Lodge to spend the night. There had been a lot of flooding the night before and the road was being cleared of boulders. A local couple had in fact been washed away when they attempted to ford the river the night before with their car. Fortunately, we made it and decided to hike to the waterfall the next morning. Here are some of the sights from that day. P decided to run there and back, so unfortunately we didn't see eachother at all during that trek, but we each had our own mini-adventure.

When I got back to the lodge, P was on his computer uploading some photos and pre-writing some emails for when we were on the grid once again.

SOUTH AFRICA AGAIN:

We headed toward East London that day/night and made it befoe midnight. Not much of a town, but P was able to finish up some work at an internet cafe the following morning.

Leaving East London, we got stopped at a police checkpoint, a relatively common experience we've soon realized. Our car's registration was out of date. After about an hour on the phone with Thrify/Dollar Rent a Car we sorted out what we're going to do. Off to Port Elizabeth to exchange the car. Before leaving we met, Gary, a "Coloured" police officer who shared his views on South Africa's various populations and the problems they are still having today. His own Coloured population, which he feels has no real place in SA society, the Zulu, the Khosa, the White (British) and the White (Africaans). He also went to school in New Haven like P and I. So we shared some stories of New Haven Pizza and dancing at Toads and other local watering holes. Pretty ridiculous how small the world is. He was quite enthusiastic to meet New Yorkers and then more so when he realized we also lived in New Haven.

The next day, we headed to Jeffrey's Bay. A quiet hostel near some beautiful beaches. We went to an Africaan's bar for some Africaan's dancing and some quality SA beer. The next morning, we signed up for a surf lesson. A great easy break in J-Bay led to some nice rides. I felt like a real surfer for the first time in my life, although my arms were so out of shape I nearly died of exhaustion.

That night, we shared the first night of Hannukah with the family that ran the hostel. A few prayers and a photo to commemorate.

The next day, we drove to Buffaal's Bay. We partied late into the night with some South Africans on Holiday from Joberg, played poker, and P learned some more Africaan's dancing from a local guy and girl. The next morning, I followed through with my plan to shave my head. It's been a long time in the making. I've been slowly thinning in the back and figured I should see how I'd look with nothing. If Bruce Willis can do it, why not me. We shot some video of it out on the rocks overlooking the ocean, but haven't had time to upload and edit it down to a minute or so. It took nearly an hour, since originally I didn't have any scissors and was only using my razor. Defitely not the recommended way to do it. This is my white bald head. I'm still trying to get used to it. I kind of scare myself.

The next stop was a B&B on a beautiful farm in Robertson, a town in the winelands, not to far from Stellenbosch. This place was recommended to us from one of P's roommates in Rwanda. The owner, Carl and his wife, Elsa were amazing. Carl sat down with us and helped rewrite our itinerary since he and his family have travelled extensively through Namibia and Botswana. We went wine tasting and bought a bunch of wine for the remaining trip.

One the ride to Capetown, we stopped at butterfly world. Mostly for kids, but I liked it. Butterflies, Spiders, Marmosets, Iguanas and Snakes. Always a good time.

In Capetown, we hung out on Long Street for a lively Saturday night. Early in the night we met an up and coming South African band, "Love Jones". After many beers and a lot of conversation, we decided we'd shoot their concert for them the following day. Later that night on the way home, we were pulled into another club for some dancing and some cherry tobacco out of hookah. The night wouldn't end, but eventually we got to bed.

Hopefully the grammar hasn't been too bad, but I'm nearly caught up on the trip. Yesterday, we checked out the National Art Museume and attended the Love Jones concert. About 2-3 thousand people at an outdoor venue in the Kirstebosch Gardens. P was up on stage with the band filming, and I was shooting from the crowd getting the long shots and two shots. Hopefully they'll be able to do something with the footage. I think with the two cameras, they'll always have a decent shot to cut to whether its for simple live concert video for youtube or some stock footage for posterities sake. They're heading to the US on a tour in February. They're definitely worth checking out. Great live, and amazingly cool people. Check out their myspace lovejonesband if you want to hear some of the music.

If the link doesn't work copy paste this into your browser www.myspace.com/lovejonesband

That's it for the last month. Apologies ahead of time for not updating regularly and any thing confusing or lacking in the blog post... but I need to just press publish. I'm only an hour from the Namibian border. Yesterday we were lost trekking through the rock formations of The Cedarberg, and today we're speeding toward the Kalahari. Until the next time. Hopefully it won't be a month.

Rolling through Rwanda - The African Adventure Begins

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Mutchler) — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 21:46:00 +0000

Motorcycle "Taxi" in Kigali, Rwanda from Mutcluck on Vimeo.

Motorcycle "Taxi" in Kigali, Rwanda
Uploaded by mutcluck

In case people don't read the entire pseudo diary account. Which hosting site do you prefer?

For those of you who knew about my plans for South Africa, they got thrown for a loop last week. My travel companion, who lives in Rwanda, got two freelance jobs this month and wanted to switch around the trip. Since I'm free from any real restrictions, I was happy to make the change. So Rwanda first, the rest of Southern Africa in December.

So I arrived 2 nights ago in Rwanda. Met an interesting nurse, Eli, from Belgium on the plane, had some good conversation during the 8 hour flight. Music, politics, culture and languages. I never knew Flemish was just Dutch with a thick accent. Waited around for over an hour for my bags in Kigali. Luckily they eventually showed up. I was worried for a little while. As I exited the baggage claim....
I saw Pedro, who then wisked us off on an adventurous night.

-------------

NIGHT 1: We dropped off my bags at P's house, which is down a rutted bumpy dirt road and then headed to "Hotel Rwanda" where they were having a brand relaunch party of a Rwandan Beer, Mutzig via the Heineken Company. It is delicious going down, but P and his roomies said it doesn't bode well for the next day. It treated me fine though.

We met some really interesting people at the courtyard party & barbeque, including J, a Ugandan born Rwandan, who went to grad school at Pepperdine and now works for Heineken and M, a Security officer from Blackwater, yes that Blackwater. He works at the US Embassy in Iraq. He's on vacation and decided to do something a little different with his time off. We also met a young Rwandan named JP, who rides motorcross here in Rwanda. How weird is that. He said it isn't big in Africa, but he really wants to get to the US and Canada to train with the best. It was an interesting mix of Westerners and Upperclass Rwandans. Definitely a place to be seen.

We all piled into J's truck later in the night and headed to a bar, Carwash, which doubles as a carwash during the day to hang out with some of J's' friends. What a great collection of people. Some pretty amazing conversations at Carwash. J's cousin, E, is in fact an aid to the president of the country. It was a great networking opportunity for Pedro and his various interests, but more so it was incredibly fun. JP, got way too drunk, and became a little irritating to just about everyone, but he was young, only 21. The other Rwandans were pretty fed up with him and he eventually staggered his way out of there.

We then headed to Cadillac, a local dance club. Even though it was Saturday, we were still the only Westerners in the place. We danced for awhile and then had to avoid/reject some ladies of the night that had zeroed in on us. I never realized how obvious a target I'd be in a country with so few whites. It was annoying and funny all at the same time. Eventually we grabbed a bite to eat and walked up the road.

DAY 1: We headed into Kigali to do some shopping for the week with the house cook Matilda. Headed into town on a little crowded mini bus then walked the city in search of the grocery store. Unfortunately the best stores were closed on Sunday and the only store open was a more modern supermarket built in a new mall complex. Pedro said everything was unfortunately almost double the price here.

NIGHT 2: I cooked a lamb stirfry with rice that night for P and some of his roomies. Great stirfry with marginal meat. It was better today for lunch once it had softened a bit. That night, P's friend Greg dropped by. We ended up having some amazing conversations that bridged politics, culture, bogus pharmaceuticals, virtual economies, the coexistence of past, present and future in a single place. Quite a whirlwind of ideas.

DAY 2: Didn't fall asleep till 3:30 AM, so I was tired in the morning, but we had some errands to do. Pedro had to pick up a couple books for a doc filmmaker he works with in the states, and get a couple keys copied for me and I needed to get some cash as well. Let me just say, things take a little longer in Rwanda. We ended up going to 3 different floors of the bank for P to do his money transfer at his bank, then my card wouldn't go through and they couldn't put it in manually. So we went to a 2nd bank whose network was down, and then to a 3rd bank that was able to make it happen; but that took nearly 45 minutes. I didn't mind. It was an adventure just to see how things worked. Next,off to the bookstore which took an hour and a half, since they kept disappearing to look for a book in the back room/down the street and wouldn't return for 20-30 minutes. We still weren't able to find a Rwandan proverb book that fit what he was looking for.

Then we headed home on motorbike; the quickest way to get around. You jump on the back of a bike for a little less than a dollar, with helmet on and hands holding tight to the back of the seat you weave through the streets, cars, and people of Kigali. I have a little video captured from my still camera. Nothing special, but kind of fun. I also discovered a new site: Vimeo. I think the quality is better here. Hopefully it plays for everyone no problem. The upload took hours though, since the internet here in Rwanda is only a little faster than dialup.

Today I went into town by myself. Despite my lacking/nonexistent French, I bounced to 3 stores on an errand run; some books for Pedro, and groceries for the house. I promised the roomies I'd make Chocolate Chip Cookies, since they don't really exist here. If you have a good recipe, email me. Unfortunately they don't have chocolate chips, so I'm going to cut up several chocolate bars.

Next post will be a London Recap in a day or so. I just have been slow to do it.

JMT: Mead, a Marmot and the End of the Road - 20 of 20

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Mutchler) — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 21:38:00 +0000

JMT: Mead, a Marmot and the End of the Road - 20 of 20
Uploaded by mutcluck

This is the last JMT post of the series. The mead wasn't that bad. In fact it had mellowed a bit. We had some of the same batch 4 months earlier on top of Mount Baldy, and this was a lot better. I hope you've enjoyed the videos thus far. I'm off to London on Monday and then on to South Africa after that. Hopefully, I'll be able to update occasionally from the road. Regardless I'll be capturing plenty of video too share with you when I get back.

JMT: Conquering the Behemoth - 19 of 20

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Mutchler) — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 20:05:00 +0000

Hiking the JMT: Conquering the Behemoth - 19 of 20
Uploaded by mutcluck

The 2nd to last video of the JMT series. I was left in the dust by my hiking partners this day. The filming slowed me down. Watching the footage makes me want to get back to it. Nothing like standing on top of the world. Only days away from my trip to London and Africa. Hopefully I can update you all along the way, but sometimes its hard from the road.

JMT: Early Morning Wake-up - 18 of 20

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Mutchler) — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 16:46:00 +0000

Hiking the JMT: Early Morning Wake-up - 18 of 20
Uploaded by mutcluck

The morning we climbed Mount Whitney we woke up at 5:30 in the morning. Originally Smelly wanted to get up at 2 or 3 in the morning to avoid potential storms that could prevent us from making the summit. With no clouds and good weather, we all agreed to nix this crazy idea. The night before we changed our exit plans a couple times after some lively text conversation with Kenji (our original ride) via our satellite phone. He originally said he'd rather not hike the mountain if he didn't have to. The Angler had driven up Smelly's car to the Whitney, so we had transportation home. Instead of camping on the summit (our original plan) and seeing Kenji in the morning, we decided to book it home fast instead. Dreams of milk shakes, beer and burgers were too much for us.

Hiking the JMT: Dinner in the Shadow of Whitney - 17 of 20

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Mutchler) — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 22:07:00 +0000

Hiking the JMT: Dinner in the Shadow - 17 of 20
Uploaded by mutcluck

Just some contemplative footage from dinner the night before we ascended Whitney. We had tons of pad thai and the last quesadillas of the trip. I'm also having some issues with Divx. You'll notice the audio goes out of synch. Sorry bout that, but after 4 attempts to correct it, I gave up. 3 more videos to go and 10 days until I head out for my international adventures.

Hiking the JMT: Baywatch Dives - 16 of 17

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Mutchler) — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 18:47:00 +0000

Hiking the JMT: Baywatch Dives - 16 of 17
Uploaded by mutcluck

After arriving at Guitar Lake below Mount Whitney, the Angler and I decided to dive into the freezing cold tarn. As you can see, my heart almost stopped from the cold. Definitely a refreshing way to wash the sweat away though. Clearly my "Baywatch" dive was pretty pathetic, but the Angler delivered with a quality Hasselhoff inspired dive. Bonus videos are coming.

JMT: First Glimpse of Whitney - 15 of 17

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Mutchler) — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 21:38:00 +0000

Hiking the JMT: First Glimpse of Whitney - 15 of 17
Uploaded by mutcluck

We came upon this barren landscape and saw our first glimpse of Mount Whitney over the ridge. Exciting and sad at the same time. The trip was almost over. There was a small lake in the middle of the wasteland. Sort of reminded us of a Dali painting.

I realized a couple of days ago that I had more than 17 videos worth of footage, so expect a couple bonus videos of the climb up Mount Whitney in the coming weeks. I'm only 10 days from my trip to London and then to Southern Africa, so I need to pick up the pace with my writing. The first draft needs to be done before I journey into the heart of darkness. Until tomorrow.

Hiking the JMT: Pinchot Pass and the Resupply - two videos today

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Mutchler) — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 21:36:00 +0000

Hiking the JMT: Pinchot Pass - 13 of 17
Uploaded by mutcluck

Hiking the JMT: The Resupply - 14 of 17
Uploaded by mutcluck

We had a tough day hiking up Pinchot Pass, but the view was beautiful. A couple days later, we were resupplied at Charlotte Lake by some of Smelly's friends. We had two members of Pasadena's Search and Rescue Crew and two international paragliders. They brought a box of wine, a couple bottles of beer and the first true dinner we'd had in awhile. We had ground beef, bean and cheese burritos. They were absolutely delicious. The next day, The Angler joined us for the final trek toward Mount Whitney. As we climbed out of the Charlotte Lake Valley, we caught a glimpse of our friend the Paraglider, jumping off a cliff and flying across the horizon. At that moment, paragliding was officially on my lifetime to-do list. Seems like a serene way to take in the world while simultaneously getting an adrenaline rush.

JMT: Tickling the Fish, The Thin Man, and a Creepy Grad Student

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Mutchler) — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 17:42:00 +0000

JMT: Tickling the Fish and Creepy Men - 11 of 17
Uploaded by mutcluck

Freezing once again, so I'm going to be quick. Same night as Boy Scouts and Pyros. Since it isn't explained in the video, "The Thin Man" was a very tall very thin hiker who creepily snuck up on Smelly and Jekyl in Mammoth. He also had a knack for silently creeping up on you on the trail. Part of our motivation for our brutal 17 mile day was to ditch the Thin Man and the Israeli (Another creepy solo guy). Hope you enjoy.

JMT: Boy Scouts and Pyros - 11 of 17

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Mutchler) — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 21:39:00 +0000

Hiking the JMT: Boy Scouts and Pyros - 11 of 17
Uploaded by mutcluck

Down in Lower Pete Meadow I followed a use trail to this little campsite. It had nice benches and was close to a stream. We did some bathing and then started a fire to get warm. I though a little Melly Cam might warm your heart as well.

JMT: Evolution Lake and Muir Pass - Two videos today

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Mutchler) — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 21:13:00 +0000

Sorry I'm not writing anything today. I'm sitting outside of the Canada Lake store and freezing my ass off. I forgot my fleece. I'll do better tomorrow. Since it was raining yesterday and I didn't make it out to the only internet connection for miles, here's two videos today.

Evolution Lake Videos

The JMT: Farts, Shits and Giggles at Evolution - 9 of 17
Uploaded by mutcluck

Muir Pass Videos

Hiking the JMT: Pulmonary Adema on Muir Pass - 10 of 17
Uploaded by mutcluck

JMT: The Girls Go to Mammoth - 8 of 17

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Mutchler) — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 20:50:00 +0000

Hiking the JMT: The Girls Go to Mammoth - 8 of 17
Uploaded by mutcluck

We woke up a little hung over and the girls headed off to Mammoth to get Jekyl some new shoes. I hiked ahead looking for a campsite. We only hiked 5 miles or so, which was a good resting day for our feet. That afternoon, I took a nice bath in the stream and then we camped between two little streams in the woods. It got a little buggy that night, so once again I fled to the tent for salvation.

It's a little rainy up here in upstate New York, but I've been moving forward with the screenplay. Hopefully the first draft will be done in 3 weeks before I leave for London and Africa. I've been flipping through Lonely Planet and getting really excited. Should be a pretty epic trip.

YOUTUBE VERSION

JMT: Lancing the Blister - 7 of 17

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Mutchler) — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 21:35:00 +0000

Hiking the JMT: Draining The Blister - 7 of 17
Uploaded by mutcluck

We arrived late at Red's Meadow. After the grueling downhill, Jekyl's Blisters had gotten pretty bad. She was contemplating getting new shoes at Mammoth the following day, and decided to lance one of her blisters using a sanitized safety pin. I went ahead the next day while Smelly and Jekyl took the bus into town. We bought a bunch of beer and washed our pain away that night. Also hung out with some fellow JMTers going in the opposite direction. A bear had ripped through their "bear can". It was the kevlar bag type. Clearly they are no longer on the approved list this next season. I guess several people encountered the same problem. I had a pretty leisurely day finding a suitable camping spot while the girls were in Mammoth, although the trail was a little bit tricky, so I trekked back, read some of Moby Dick at a river crossing and waited. They had 2/3 of the food and part of the tent. Would have sucked if we hadn't found one another.

JMT: Bad Blod at Devil's Postpile

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Mutchler) — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 18:36:00 +0000

This day was the closest we came to blows. Jekyl confessed later that night that she was ready to smash the camera in if I had kept filming her. After a grueling day of downhill, we got a little lost in Red's Meadow which compounded or stress. For some reason downhill really punishes the feet more than uphill. I'm still recovering from what is most likely stress fractures in my feet. Stock up on arch support and good insoles if you hike the JMT.

The Devils Postpile formation is a rare sight in the geologic world and ranks as one of the world’s finest examples of columnar basalt. It towers 60 feet high and displays an unusual symmetry for such formations. Established in 1911 by presidential decree after John Muir and the Sierra Club lobbied to save it from being inundated with water from a proposed damming project of the San Joaquin River. I wish we had gone to the top of it. I hear it looks like a flat hexagonally tiled floor.

Also, it seems dailymotion looks better, so I've linked to it below and I've heard good things about bliptv too. I'll try uploading at bliptv in the coming days/weeks.

Hiking the JMT: Bad Blood at the Devils Postpile - 6 of 17
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