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Continuing with my ‘throwback time’ series of re-edit older videos, this is a fresh look at my second Colorado backpacking trip, the South San Juan Wilderness in July 2012, with my son, Christian, and our dog, Jaden.
I recently published a long-overdue video of our first Colorado backpacking trip, the 2011 Zirkel Wilderness trip, and though that trip was a bit of a disaster from a planning and logistics standpoint, it did provide us valuable lessons that made the 2012 Colorado trip much more successful. We ended up doing about 40 miles over 5-days with a two day side-trip to take in the summit of 13,150-foot Conejos Peak. Along the way we had an excellent off-trail, bushwhacking day on the Continental Divide plus more ‘off-trail’ hiking on the way to Conejos Peak. There was also fishing in Blue Lake and the usual amount of camp and campfire fun.
This video is a great example of our early ‘learning’ trips, in which there was every bit as much fun and excitement as actual backpacking knowledge (perhaps more!). I really enjoy watching these early trips because at this point we had never experienced any ‘lessons’ that teach you that things can actually go wrong on backpacking trips in the Rockies! The learning was coming at us in ‘firehose’ fashion at that point, and that knowledge paid off in a big way in all of our later trips. But on this trip we were both basically Colorado Rockies backpacking newbies.
This trip was a long time ago and I had forgotten what an incredibly beautiful and special place the South San Juan Wilderness is. It takes some work to get there, but after watching this video I’m guessing you might just give some thought to adding it to your trip ‘bucket list’.
Equipment / Gear List:
Still and Video Camera: Nikon Z6
Lens: Nikkor 24mm f1.8 Z-mount lens
Tripod: Sirui T-025X carbon fiber tripod
Camera shoulder clip: Peak Designs Capture clip system
Video Editing Software: Vegas Pro 16
Pack: Zpack Arc Blast 52L (me), Exped Lightning 45 (Christian)
Tents: Nemo Meta2P, Zpacks Hexamid Solo-Plus
Sleeping Bag: Zpacks 20degF Sleeping Bag
Sleeping Pad: Therm-A-Rest NeoAir X-Therm
Sleeping Pad: Therm-A-Rest NeoAir XLite
Pillow: Exped Air Pillow UL
Stove: JetBoil Flash
Stove: MSR PocketRocket 2
Pot: MSR Titan titanium 0.9L kettle
Headlamp: Black Diamond Spot
Buff: Merino wool Buff
Recharging Battery: Anker 3500mAH ‘lipstick’ charger
Camp Chair: Helonix Chair Zero
Camp Shoes: Xero Shoes Z-Trek
Wet Wipes: Survivorware Wet Wipes