Most hikers edit their videos months after finishing their adventures, and the nostalgia they narrate resonates with my own longing for an elsewhere that never existed.
What grows from longing?
Watered in all and due form, the seeds of another’s dreams ended up rooting and somehow becoming mine.
In 2023, two years after I first clicked on Elina’s video, many things turned upside down. For the first time in my life, I had the courage to step aside from an office job to pursue a full-time dance education. Following destructive external events, however, I decided to move away from the context, and I quit training. I suddenly found myself with lots of time on my hands, the luxury of being able to afford not working for an extra few months—and no desire whatsoever to step away from my newly acquired freedom.
I found myself in the exact limbo I had hoped for so many times. I had subverted what was “expected of me” and, facing a blank new canvas, I needed to know what to paint on it. I wanted time to process and reflect whilst maintaining a sense of direction.
There was one long way—one with a set path, beginning, and end goal that could serve as the perfect transition.
What grows from longing?
Watered in all and due form, the seeds of another’s dreams ended up rooting and somehow becoming mine.
In 2023, two years after I first clicked on Elina’s video, many things turned upside down. For the first time in my life, I had the courage to step aside from an office job to pursue a full-time dance education. Following destructive external events, however, I decided to move away from the context, and I quit training. I suddenly found myself with lots of time on my hands, the luxury of being able to afford not working for an extra few months—and no desire whatsoever to step away from my newly acquired freedom.
I found myself in the exact limbo I had hoped for so many times. I had subverted what was “expected of me” and, facing a blank new canvas, I needed to know what to paint on it. I wanted time to process and reflect whilst maintaining a sense of direction.
There was one long way—one with a set path, beginning, and end goal that could serve as the perfect transition.
[From It is the people] Laid in bed watching this and I cried. Wow. I’m currently going through a quarter life crisis and I’m not sure why, but this made me feel like I need to do something, make a change, explore, do something big.
A profile shot of a woman walking.
CUT TO: repeated shots of the same woman, but the background flashes from a desert with rocky hills, to Joshua trees and blazing heat, snowy mountains, deep forest, alpine lakes.
Finally, the camera faces her. “WE DID IT!” she shouts and bursts out laughing, followed by her three friends, waving a Canadian flag.
I want this. These same snippets are no longer highlighting this funny or faraway possibility. Instead—with a somehow embellished truth—I’m gifted a roadmap to hike through the PCT myself.
YouTube videos create ideals, but unlike other mediums, the platform makes them feel more tangible. Alongside the personal stories shared in their documentaries, both Courtney Eve White and Elina Osborne put effort into making the PCT accessible to others. They created websites with their gear and guides on what to take and how to pack.
Their work made me feel prepared and empowered. Without this extra content (and a peek behind the curtain), I doubt I would’ve connected so vividly with the emotions of their cinematic thru-hiking journeys if I didn’t feel as if I could do the same. I felt closer to the beauty and the hardship of the trail. I learned about post-trail depression, the possibility of failure, and even how incredibly addictive such hikes and lifestyles can become.
[From courtney— i first came across this film as a 17-year-old, fresh out of high school and in the workforce, sad and disillusioned with life and wondering if it was all life would ever be. the magic that you captured in an hour of film caught hold of me and worked its way into my heart...and the dreaming started. two years later and...i cross the bridge into washington today...
PHOTOS: 1. Emma (top) with hikers at the PCT’s Southern Terminus in Campo, California / 2. Washington’s Snoqualmie Pass / 3. a desert / 4. Mount Whitney / Photography by “Analog,” Emma Schicker, and “Leo”
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