In 2003, Josh Thomas and J.J. Kelley each set out to hike the Appalachian Trail. After five weeks of hard trekking and just 300-miles to show for it, the 22-year-old adventurers were feeling the solitude and strains of hiking the trail solo. That same week, Josh and J.J. met on the trail by chance and became fast friends. Four and a half months later they summitted the trail's final peak together, finishing the 2,269-mile journey as a two-man team.
The success of that first adventure soon led to a second- this time they would head off to Alaska and travel not by foot but on bike. Armed with two camcorders, the friends pedaled north along Alaska’s Pipeline Road to the Arctic Ocean documenting every harrowing and hilarious moment of the 1,200-mile trek. In 2007 Pedal to the Midnight Sun was released and aired on National Geographic's Wild Chronicles the film went on to gain recongition at film festivals including Boulder Adventure, Durham’s All American, and the Anchorage International.
Most recently, Josh and J.J.’s exploits have taken them from the land into the sea. Paddle to Seattle: Journey through the Inside Passage, follows their 3-month sea-kayaking adventure from Alaska to Seattle.
Today Josh and J.J. spend their days traveling around the country to bring Paddle to Seattle to wider audience. In addition, J.J. works as an Associate Producer at National Geographic Television in Washington, D.C., and Josh continues to seek out opportunities for adventure in Alaska. The two friends are also planning their next adventure under the company name Dudes on Media.
It’s a desire to be outdoors and undistracted, just to put some time away for reflection. To travel through new and sometimes undiscovered landscape. To travel, but not in the normal sense i.e. trains, planes, and automobiles; it’s to move through areas under our own power, whether it’s by bike, boots, or kayaks. If we see things at a slower pace, then maybe we will be able to take more in. We put ourselves at the mercy of nature and sit back to see what happens. I wouldn't travel any other way!
What have been your favorite projects?
Incorporating video into our outdoor adventures/expeditions has no doubt enhanced the experience. It gives us a chance to share what insights we gather along the way and hopefully inspire others to follow their hearts into their individual adventures. It also provides us with motivation to put ourselves "out there", to interact with the environment and others more than we otherwise might.
Our latest film, "Paddle to Seattle: Journey through the Inside Passage", has been a wonderful opportunity for us to put these ideas to use. On top of carrying all the gear necessary to survive in the wilderness, we were able to carry the means to film it. It’s possible for anyone to go out and document his or her adventures; never has technology been so accessible.
What information is stored on your LaCie drives?
During the trip our Ruggeds contained: Photos from our adventure, podcasts to keep new ideas streaming in (very important when you are in the wild for three months with just one other person), a QuickTime copy of some of our favorite movies (we carried: the Indiana Jones series, Into the Wild, and The Goonies), and we also stored web clips that we would post when we had Internet access so folks could follow our adventure in real time.
How long have you been a user of LaCie products?
Since our first film Pedal to the Midnight Sun in 2006. We would never use anything else!
How did LaCie products assist in the Paddle to Seattle? Which products did you use?
We had such little space in our small kayaks that storage was a major issue. We needed to fit all of our personal gear, camping equipment, food, and filming equipment in a boat that we would propel from Alaska to Seattle. We were in an ideal scenario to benefit from the LaCie Rugged Drives.
For five months this project was our life. The quality and durability of LaCie products made them the obvious choice for the storage of our video and stills. Being able to trust a product in the office and in the wilderness was essential in meeting our goals.
During production, we carried two 500GB LaCie Rugged drives. We used the drives to store over 3,000 still photographs, dailies, and web sequences. Having a laptop in the field, we were able to cut basic sequences that we could store on our LaCie drives and upload to the web when we emerged from the wild.
In postproduction, we used two 2TB Big Disk Extremes to store 65 hours of HD video.
As of June the film has won 15 festival awards around the nation.
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