Kisatchie NF [video]

[Richard May]

I think one of the great pleasures of backpacking is the Quiet. And I don't mean the absence of noise because there are plenty of birds, and wind, and our footsteps. What I mean is the quieting down of things and people vying for attention. When walking none of this matters. I am only with myself.

On this trek I stitched together three trails to create a 28 mile loop.

View the map here: http://caltopo.com/m/3K5L

So this video is quiet – because that is how I experience my adventures.

Link to Kisatchie National Forest video on Vimeo:
https://vimeo.com/127960773

Louisiana is a flat state. We don't have glorious mountains, and snow peaked ranges. The trails are generally pretty flat. But we do have trees. And I love trees. So every trip I collect a few more tree pictures to add to my collection.

The arrow and vine just seem to go together.

This is a magnificent tree!

I've never shot a video entirely on my own. This was a personal/professional development project inspired by the recent piece on making videos. It was a lot of fun and forced me to think of storytelling with images in ways I hadn't done before.

Thanks for watching! Your thoughts are welcome, as always.

Edited to add the map.

[Bob Gross]

Good Grief!

That brings back memories. Several decades ago I was in military training at Fort Polk, which is just a little south from Kisatchie. They used to truck us up to the national forest for field maneuvers.

–B.G.–

[Richard May]

Funny you mention it. I kept hearing thunder even though the day was clear. Later I put the thunder together with the jets and decided it was probably sonic booms.

Seems I keep stirring memories. There must be some good ones — right?

[Bob Gross]

"Seems I keep stirring memories. There must be some good ones — right?"

Not.

In 1970, the thunder sound may have been from the jets doing the air power demonstration.

Kisatchie had snakes, insects, and every other form of objectionable critter. That's why the Army drill sergeant used to tell us that it was all good training.

–B.G.–

[Richard May]

> Not.

That's unfortunate. Not even a crazy pig story?

[Bob Gross]

Nahh.

We used to cruise around picking up pygmy rattlers, and we would drop them into an empty canteen and leave the cap on loosely. Then we would set that out on a rock next to a trail. We were mean.

In the Kisatchie NF, we never used sleeping bags, because the weather was too hot and humid. Instead, we would lay our poncho down on the ground, lay down on it, and then roll up in it.

–B.G.–

[Alex Wallace]

Thanks for sharing. I really enjoyed your video particularity because you left out the obligatory ambient/electronica/folk soundtrack. It was nice to just listen to the sounds of the trail.

[Bob Gross]

Yes, good audio. Who was the Foley artist?

One more question. Who carried in that picnic table?

–B.G.–

[Mark V.]

Great sound from the Zoom
I carry a Tascam dr-40 for my soundscape recordings, but I may have to give the Zoom a look.
Thanks for sharing
Do you use any type of holder or wind screen for the recorder?

[Richard May]

"It was nice to just listen to the sounds of the trail."

Thank you, Alex! I really wanted to get decent sound. Turns out I spent at least as much time on the sound as on the video.

Bob, that's all audio captured on trail. With high-quality speakers the faults show through. I'm counting on barely half-decent computer speakers to make me look good. :) There is some layering, especially where I purify the water, but all of it captured on the trail with a Zoom H1 recorder; the walking sounds are from the camera.

[Richard May]

Mark, I used a $2.00 piece of fake fur from JoAnn's Fabrics. It worked, so now I splurged $12 on a dead kitten.

[Bob Gross]

Yes, I use a Zoom H1 also. I also plug a shotgun microphone into it. The microphone has a foam cover, then I have a DIY dead kitten over that. I have a low filter to try to take out the wind noise, but it is not sufficient, and I need to do more for seriously windy days.

It is possible to record sound directly on some of my cameras. Unfortunately, I end up with the tick-tick noise of the autofocus motor on the camera lens. So, I may need to switch over to other solutions.

I may try manual focus and then closing the lens down to a tiny aperture.

What the experts suggest is to record lots of ambient sound in the woods. Then use that to patch over the track spots where some objectionable noise was present.

I am convinced that this is all a time sink.

–B.G.–

[Ryan Tucker]

Great video. Thanks for sharing.

[Geoffrey Lehmann]

Nice video, Richard. Enjoyed the sights and sounds.

Peason Ridge is part of Fort Polk and they conduct live fire exercises there, including artillery. This buts up against the southwest corner of the Kisatchie Ranger District.

The Evangeline Unit of the Calcasieu Ranger District (Wild Azalea Trail) contains the Claiborne Gunnery range where aircraft from Barksdale air base train.

geoff

[Richard May]

Thanks Ryan!

Aha! So there is a reason for hearing booms all day long. Thanks Geoff.

The H1 seems to narrow for me Bob. In post I realized that the mike pretty much picks up what it's pointed at when what I really wanted was something more omni-directional. That Tascam DR40 looks like a step in the right direction without sinking too much money.

I've decided that auto-levels and lo cut filter are not good ideas. The auto-level overcompensated for the silence of the trail and created a lot of background noise by cranking up the recording volume. There was only so much I could do in post to get rid of it.The lo-cut filter muffled noises. Both of these issues can be addressed more effectively, and with a lighter touch, in post production. At least that is what I'll try next time.

[Bob Gross]

"The H1 seems to narrow for me Bob. In post I realized that the mike pretty much picks up what it's pointed at when what I really wanted was something more omni-directional."

Most of the time I am trying to record a specific bird song or particular animal growl, so I want the directivity of a shotgun microphone. Once in a while I want the general ambient sound like you were getting. So, I have a teeny tiny microphone that I can plug into the H1, and it is about half the size of my little finger, so it meets rigid UL standards.

I agree about auto-levels and filters. There has to be a better way to get that done. I'll have to turn that over to the audio editing staff to solve. I need better wind filtering.

–B.G.–

[Owen McMurrey]

Nice video. After being down there in April, I kept waiting to hear…

:)

[Gordon Gray]

Good vid.

[Richard May]

Thanks guys!

[george carr]

I really enjoyed the video! I could almost smell the piney woods.

[Author]

Posts