Great Eastern Trail - hiking from Niagara Falls to the Gulf of Mexico with a D800

Pickerel

Here we go again,

Some of you may recall, I hiked the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine in 2013, carrying my D800 and extensively photographing that hike. For the first half of that hike I carried my AF-S 16-35mm f/4G VR and AF-S 85mm f/1.8G as my two lenses. For the rest of the hike, I mixed things up constantly because I kept my truck near me while I was hiking, hitchhiking back to it every few days to keep advancing it north as I walked north. I posted a while ago about a last bit of good fortune related to this hike - for the first time I was published, with a photo on the cover of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy's magazine and many more within. Since then I was published a second time, again with AT Journeys and this time I was on the cover of the magazine in a self-portrait.



These successes, and my poor fortune in finding "regular" employment, and my ability to live off almost nothing, and the encouragement of others to keep trying this photography thing since evidently I was able to do it, led me to decide to keep hiking. I was going to keep hiking, but I would abandon the process of looking for a normal job and trying to settle down and save money for a while. I'm still living really light while saving up for this hike, but I'm much happier since making this decision.

Instead of going straight for the next of the "big three", the Pacific Crest Trail, I decided to go for a much newer trail called the Great Eastern Trail. This trail extends from Alabama to New York, roughly paralleling the Appalachian Trail. It's so new that only two people have completely hiked this trail, thru-hiking together in 2013. My past skills as a cartographer are useful here, for I am largely making my own guide and map for this trail. That involves making a map of all existing portions of the trail - the Great Eastern Trail utilizes existing shorter trails to cover much of its completed length thus far - and connecting the usable pieces of trail with road walks. This is being made into a guide, a mile-by-mile guide which lists all the features described on the trail maps and guides as well as all the features and navigation for the road walks.

I'm starting this hike in June, hiking southbound from Niagara Falls to the Gulf of Mexico. The Great Eastern Trail doesn't actually start or end in those places, but I thought it would be cooler to start and end at such landmarks. The Great Eastern Trail's northern terminus is its junction with the Finger Lakes Trail near Corning, NY and the southern terminus is where a monstrous 260-mile road walk through Alabama (the largest undeveloped stretch of the trail) ends at the Florida state line and a connection with the Florida Trail. I won't be the only hiker on this trail this year, surprisingly, because somebody who was going to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail this year decided she would like to be the fourth Great Eastern Trail thru-hiker instead of the 15,000th Appalachian Trail thru-hiker. It turns out we get along really well, and I'm excited to be sharing this experience with somebody else. (Somebody who turns out to be really lovely and is a great companion and... I won't get into all that.)

Pickerel

I have plenty of writing that I'm doing as I prepare for this hike. That can be found mostly on TrailJournals, with infrequent articles on my Shepherd Adventures blog. I also have a fundraiser website, but I'm not sure if I'm allowed to put a link to that on here. I don't discourage support from anybody that might enjoy watching the crazy younger folks run off on adventures, or discourage anybody that would like to come hike or feed us or give us a bed and a shower if we happen to be passing through their area. Maybe somebody will say I can put up a link here, or if anybody wants to help us on this hike I can be messaged too.

I'm carrying my D800 again, and this time I have a much better system of carrying it. Since my Appalachian Trail thru-hike my backpacking system has changed greatly, reducing my cold-weather pack weight from 45 to less than 35 pounds. Changes in advance of this trip have included some distribution of shared items between my partner and I. I carry our Warbonnet Blackbird XLC hammock and rain fly, she carries the sleeping bag and the stove. I've also made some changes to my system, the relevant change being the addition of Aarn Balance Pockets. These attach to the shoulder straps and hip belt of my backpack, and have an aluminum frame which makes it pivot off the hip belt and away from my body. These move weight out of my backpack and onto my front, shifting my center of gravity forward and letting me stand straighter while I'm hiking.

Most importantly, the pockets are very capacious and can easily contain a D800 with 70-200mm f/2.8, 300mm f/4 (the recently-replaced version), or 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6 lenses attached. In my case, this will probably be my older-model AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G VR That fills up most of one pocket, with lightweight items like my pack's rain cover squished around the lens barrel for some cushioning. The other pocket will contain one or two other lenses, water bottle, water filter, and snacks. This means I don't have to loosen or remove my backpack to get at most of my things, most importantly my camera. I'd always have the longest lens attached while it's in my pack anyways, since I figure the most fleeting shots would be wildlife and demand my longest lens.

I have a few camera-related preparations to make before this hike. My D800 is badly in need of repairs, with a bent aperture lever caused when a careless person ran into me and made me drop the camera. I liked my AF-S 16-35mm f/4G VR but after much rough treatment it is badly decentered, and I don't feel confident using what little money I can allocate to cameras to try and fix that. I'm going to try to get camera and lens sponsors to see if anybody bites, though I don't think I could get Nikon to sponsor me. Maybe one of the third party companies... Tamron please let me field-test a 15-30mm f/2.8 VC? I'll be fixing the aperture lever on my D800 at least, so then I can use all my lenses again. Tentatively, I'll carry my 70-200mm f/2.8 (and damn the weight, I made my pack more than 10 pounds lighter so that means I can carry more camera gear if I want!), 24mm f/1.4G, and 50mm f/1.8D. In my dreams I also fancy replacing the 70-200mm f/2.8 with the new and remarkably lightweight 300mm f/4 VR... then have a shorter telephoto prime in addition to that one. That's all speculation though. Nikon or any F-mount lens manufacturer sponsoring this hike or letting me test lenses (or even camera bodies... 2,000 miles of walking is a hell of a stress test) would be really cool but is not likely.

donaldejose

Congratulations on being published and finding a trail mate so share the journey.

kanuck

Great story and I am looking forward to seeing more images. Amazing that you are willing to haul the 2.8 70-200mm though :-? I hope your repairs go well and don't cost too much as well. Looking forward to seeing this thread updated

donaldejose

Maybe you should consider the 70-200 f4 instead? It is a great lens and lighter. How often will you really need f2.8?

Pickerel

I like to have one fast lens, because when I stop at folk dances I often photograph them and I need all the light I can get. Also, unless any lens makers want to sponsor me I don't have the income to replace lenses. On my Appalachian Trail thru-hike my long lens was 85mm, and I definitely want more reach than that for the occasional wildlife and to pick out the interesting bits when the views from an overlook aren't terribly inspiring. If I was going to substitute the 70-200mm f/2.8 for anything slower, my first choice would probably be the new 80-400mm to give me even more reach.

donaldejose

Right, I forgot about your folk dancing.

Ironheart

It costs only shipping to send your 16-35 off to Nikon for an estimate. If you get a reasonable number, I'll help you pass the hat to cover it. Never hurts to include a letter telling the story of how the lens got that way and the journey you're on. I've heard of Nikon doing pro bono from time to time.

Pickerel

I'm going to write Nikon about sponsorship for sure, and also ask with Tamron, Sigma, and Zeiss as unlikely as they may be. Maybe even Sony, and see if they would possibly even sponsor me to try out their mirrorless full frame system. I like my Nikon, but if I can get the same great sensors in a package that weighs half as much, that is appealing enough to at least try something else. I tried the Fuji system before my 2013 thru-hike, though, and decided the weight savings weren't enough to merit a change that time.

Pickerel

Hey folks, checking in again. Preparations are going well, though I am unsure of the hike's start date as of yet. Depends on my work situation... may be sooner or later, depending if my current job as a surveyor runs out of work for me as it is rumoured that this might happen.

I'm writing an email to send out to a few different companies as mentioned in the post above, but as I am doing this I wonder if anybody has suggestions on specific people to contact to ask about supporting a long-distance hike, whether at Nikon or Sony or anywhere else. I fear that if I send an email off to a generic catch-all email account it will certainly never lead to any kind of useful communication.

Msmoto

Love it! Keep us posted.

Ironheart

The best set of contacts will be in the recent nikon press releases. For instance in the free NYC wedding photo press release (in the "too lazy..." thread) this person was mentioned. I would just address it to the Melville HQ address c/o: Lisa Baxt, Associate General Manager of Communications, Nikon Inc.

Pickerel

About to start the fifth day of hiking. The first day of hiking picks up at this post on TrailJournals, and I'm also posting at least daily on a Facebook page I've made.

Pickerel

Checking in again... unfortunately I don't have new photos because I've been a little too clever. I had all the photos store to my CF card, so I could process JPEGs onto a microSD card and then upload them from my phone. Circumstances led to my partner and I reverting to slackpacking and using our cars as support vehicles for now. This means I have access to my laptop to process the photos in Lightroom... the raw files of which are stuck on the CF card, because I don't have the cord handy to connect the D800 directly to my camera. Guess it'll be JPEGs when I get around to it... Also, we've gone roughly 500 miles so far. Niagara Falls to the middle of Pennsylvania.

PB_PM

@Pickerel In the playback menu you can choose to transfer images between two internal memory cards, so you could easily move them to a SDHC or microSD card in an adapter.

Pickerel

An update - unfortunately this hike did not work out. There were too many differences between my former partner and myself. I was patient and hoping things would improve for a while, but after much time and effort in making things go smoothly and enjoyably I recognized that things were not getting better. After about 600 miles I decided to leave this trail, as it had still not become the hike I wanted it to be. I may try this trail again in a few years, starting over from the beginning and probably hiking alone so this can't happen again.

The good news is this will all have me back to working at the beginning of September. Though not making much income, my expenses are very low if I continue living as frugally as a long-distance hiker. I will have September through March to save up for a thru-hike of the Pacific Crest Trail next year. I should even be able to save enough to fix my camera (still has a broken aperture lever), service a couple of my lenses that are worse for the wear, and replace my dying computer. I don't have much preparation to do for the Pacific Crest Trail since there are almost enough resources for the PCT as there are for the Appalachian Trail, so it should be relatively easy to get ready for this trail.

tcole1983

That is too bad. I was looking forward to the pictures and everything. I admire your determination to do these things. I always have it in the back of my head to do some hiking/climbing and I just don't find the time or money with a family. It takes a lot to follow dreams these days and do what you want...to see that having tons of stuff isn't as great as the experience of these hikes. Hope you get at it again and have a better go at it next time.

kanuck

Yes, this is too bad. It is so important who you go hiking with that is for sure. I have had a similar experience as this on a much smaller scale ( simpler 4 week hike) in South-East Asia. I think when you get a second crack at this it will be a huge success, keep your head up

Pickerel

Now that I'll be back to work, at least I should be able to get regular again on the photo-a-day thing and share more of my Appalachian travels.