Project: Pacific Crest Trail
Pacific Crest Trail Marker / Emblem
In mid 2008 my roommate randomly said that I should photograph the Pacific Crest Trail. I’m not even sure he knew at the time what the PCT is, but no matter — the idea stuck in my mind. I’m going to use this page, and subpages, as a virtual repository for the ideas that I develop in relation to this project.
Pacific Crest Trail
The PCT is a 2,650 mile hiking trail that runs from Mexico to Canada (the direction it is most commonly hiked) through California, Oregon, and Washington. Hiking the PCT takes about 6 months to complete and is attempted by about 300 people per year (I have no idea how many complete it).
The Goal
This is the most important section of this entire idea, but at the moment it is the least concrete. I’ve been mulling this over for a while and this is the prioritized list of what we want to accomplish:
- Hike a significant portion of the Pacific Crest Trail
- Produce art-media
- Produce stunning still photographs of nature and the trail with an emphasis on showing the need to conserve our natural environment and celebrating the conservation that currently exists. Ideally the images would once again help raise awareness for our public lands and proper stewardship thereof.
- Produce stunning video — using the above criteria
- Document the hike itself
- Photo-document the hike itself: difficulties, set-backs, strategy, etc.
- Video document certain aspects of the hike using the above criteria.
- Maintain a consistently uploaded blog/website with all this media as a means to generate excitement and possibly action while the hike is being conducted instead of waiting for 6 months. Also means finished media can get to the sponsoring parties quickly.
- Complete the entire Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada
So, I just threw out all of of the above without thinking about it too much and it’s not bad.
How to do it
While logistics are a huge part of this project, the real stumbling block is figuring out how to finance it. What’s the pitch? How can I show the return on investment? Should I screw the commercialism and create a non-profit organization? Here’s what needs to be discussed
- Staffing
- Technical / Equipment
- Budget (Google Docs embed)
- “The pitch,” how to market this idea to people with money
Note: At this time I have no budget, no timeline, no staff, and no equipment to make this trip happen — these are ideas — perhaps dreams — of a plausible, but not yet possible, activity.
Random Links, images, ideas, whatever
I’m using the following list as a repository for scattered bits of info that I haven’t had the chance to digest yet.
- http://www.nps.gov/oreg/parkmgmt/index.htm — up to $30,000 matching funds
- http://www.pctmap.net/index.html – Free electronic topo maps of (almost) the entire trail
- http://www.pcta.org/images/logos/PCT.jpg – The logo
- Idea: Create a non-profit whose goal is to do the above type activity for all the National Scenic Trails
- List: National Scenic Trails: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Scenic_Trail
- List: Long-ass trails in the US: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-distance_trails_in_the_United_States
- Quick overview map: http://www.pcta.org/images/media/pct_map_high.jpg
- Neat site, low on information, but fun to read: http://www.photo-mark.com/articles/backpacking/page4.html
- “Stuff the lenses into hiking socks”<- awesome practical idea for smaller lenses
Budget
This is an embedded Google Doc Spreadsheet where I outlined a rough estimate for the “how much will this cost” question. Short answer: I estimate that it will be around $300,000 — mostly in personnel costs.
What a cool idea….I have a friend who just started seriously considering hiking the US portion of the trail. I hope you find the means to accomplish it eventually, as I know I would follow along with great interest!
Thanks Monika. Hiking the PCT (in full or in sections) has been an interest of mine for a while. Taking a bunch of photography equipment would be awesome, but the huge problem is weight. So then it became, “bring more than two people — a crew — and spread the weight around.” It’s slightly evolved since then.
I’m trying to figure out a way to do what I want to do without me personally needing to finance the entire trip, equipment, etc.
Enough of my rambling — I’m sure I’ll keep everyone (via FB, Twitter, etc) up to date, especially if anything materializes.
I still recommend contacting a magazine or two and one of the big cable stations (i.e. the Discovery Channel). Pitch the idea entirely on its merits: explain exactly what you plan to do, and ask them for a portion of the budget (not the entire thing). Think of it like a company – you’re selling “shares” of the final project. For $50k they’ll get copies of the images. For $75k they’ll get images and a “sponsored by” banner on your blog/website. For $100k they’ll get credited as a “producer” in the video. For $200k they’ll get exclusive distribution rights for the photos/video/documents/whatever. For $300k they’ll get exclusive rights to everything. For $400k they’ll get the rights to follow-up interviews with staff, supplementary making-of documentaries, etc. For $500k they’ll get all of the above plus naming rights for your first born. So on and so forth.
From a marketing perspective, you’ve got a fantastic idea. It’s something you’re passionate about and 100% willing to manage and produce. From a sales perspective, getting the right pitch-man in front of investors will make it happen. For less than a half-million dollars, investors are getting a HUGE return in high-quality (HD?) video footage of the western half of the country, high-resolution stills of some of the most gorgeous scenery the country has to offer, and the rights to use and distribute both under their own label. To build this from the ground-up within one of these companies would cost a lot more in terms of oversight, money, and management time. You’re offering to do it all for them.
You’re the guy who comes up to my door on a Saturday when I’m busy and offers to mow my lawn for $5 … where it would cost me a half hour of my day and probably $10 worth of gas. How can you refuse that kind of offer?
@eric:
Coming up with a pitch that can clearly capture the return on investment is where I’m having difficulty. I can imagine the trip and the resulting media, but I’m not sure how to translate that into dollars. Perhaps estimate the valuation of each image and video clip or is it worth more than normal because if the difficulty in getting there?
I’m almost 100% leaning toward using the Canon 5D Mark II for both stills and video. It’s HD (1080p) with good low-light characteristics. It’s not a video camera though, and since it’s so new none of the networks inherently trust it. I feel like I would need to produce some “teaser” clips from short hikes (something financially impossible for me right now).
A recent thought I had was to skip the commercialization of the project and instead start a not for profit that covers this expedition and others (such as the A.T., or CDT). Perhaps the overall goal of the non-profit is to raise outdoor recreation awareness by pulling of these stunts. I’m not sure the traditional commercial photography business model fits this situation well, but perhaps I’m just not familiar with it. The non-profit business model seems to fit very well, but maybe that’s my familiarity with it.
I’m working on the pitch for the actual project right now. Gathering statistics and whatnot.