Highline (2020) - full transcript

(sewing machine sounds)

(music)

- My name's Matt,
I'm a Brand Manager

at a backpacking company.

In my job I interact
with a lot of customers.

And I find out about
a lot of interesting

and unique trails
all across the world.

The Uinta Highline
Trail really stood out

because it seemed to be
such a uncommon trail.

- It's really remote,
it's really high.

Most of the trail's
above 10,000 feet.



I think it's just
kind of a hidden gem.

- Just from the little
research that I did.

And the pictures that I
saw, I knew that this hike

was gonna be
something spectacular.

- I didn't know
really a whole lot

about Utah to be
honest with you.

I wasn't expecting very much.

- I expect to be
uncomfortable and in pain.

- Logistically when you
try to get a lot of people

in one spot at the same time,
usually something goes wrong.

And this time Steve's journey

really became a
comedy of errors.

- Matt, Will and myself we flew
on one plane and then Benny

had come in a day earlier and
Steve was coming from Raleigh,



North Carolina and his
flight didn't make it.

He was late, he missed
his connection in Denver.

He stuck there, he had
to change airlines.

Thank goodness he did arrive
there a few hours late,

but we were worried.

We didn't know if
he was gonna be able

to even come with us
on the hike or not.

So it was great that
he he got there.

It wouldn't have been
the same without Steve.

- These guys, I don't know why
I like them, I really don't.

So I'm gonna be late
going into Salt Lake City.

I have no time to go
to a store to buy food.

And I'm asking them
to buy food for me

and they're like, no,
I don't have room.

I don't have time,
I can't do it.

You're gonna have to starve
to death on the site.

Well, finally, Will Wood

My Savior, went out and
bought me a bunch of food

and I had plenty to
eat on the trail.

- Fortunately, our shuttle
driver was so gracious.

He was able to
just wait on Steve

and that made that a
less stressful event.

- So basically I'm
a Star Wars nerd,

especially with the
original trilogy.

So you've got, Boba
Fett, Mandalorian,

Imperial Destroyer,
Slave I, TIE Fighter.

So I have like, a lot
of Star Wars stuff.

And because of those
tattoos, we could never get

a ride hitch hiking into town,
we had to walk the whole way.

(upbeat music)

- From Salt Lake City,
it was about a four

to five hour drive.

It was so cool
because you instantly

just start to ascend
into the mountains.

And then you go around
the mountain range.

So we went through the desert.

And all we were doing
there was climbing,

just to see the way
the landscape looked

as we were approaching the
trail, it was unexpected.

By the time we arrived
at the trailhead,

we were already right around
8000 feet or so in elevation.

We knew at that point just
seeing what it looked like,

we were in for an
incredible hike.

- The mountains and the
forests looked beautiful.

And we all just
camped right there.

We're really just amped

to be starting this
journey together.

- Well look at that spot
right there, nice and flat.

I think I'm gonna put
my tent right there.

- Right by the road?

- Right by the road.

- Are crazy?

- That when the car is
coming, you can wonder

if it's gonna run
you over or not.

(laughing)

It'll add that little bit

of excitement to your night.

- Matt you found
something good back there?

- Yeah, but it's, he's
gonna say it's good.

He doesn't wanna walk back so...

What he says has no relevance
to what's actually up there.

That's what we've
learned on past hikes.

- Okay, I'm gonna go
see what I can find.

(upbeat music)

- I feel the elevation.

Just from setting this up,
I can feel it a little bit

it's a little harder to breathe.

- Actually I see a trail looks
like a wildlife trail that

goes between our sites and
some spots where elk have been

doing their business, there's
a chance that they'll come up

through our camp tonight
and that'd be cool.

- Can't wait to see some moose.

- Lets change
that...You hear that?

- What is that?

- Matt said it was an elk.

- What time do you
think sun rise is?

- Let's say, somewhere
between 5:00am

and 6:30am would be a guess.

But either way, I mean, if
thunderstorms are always

gonna be a threat
in the afternoon

getting an early start
is not a bad idea.

- If we get going at
like six in the morning

we're gonna be done
at 12 or one o'clock.

- Well if we get started
at 10am, and then we hike

through a hailstorm
every day at 2:00pm

that would also not be fun.

- Nothing wrong with that.

- I don't think there's
gunna be hailstorms

- A $20 bet that we have
two or more hailstorms.

- Does it actually
have to hail or...

- It actually has to hail,
like a substantial amount.

- I will take that bet.

It's gotta be ice
falling from the sky.

I mean twice on the same
day doesn't count right?

- I'm gunna lose
this bet but....

- I wanna just bet
you some thing.

(soft music)

- Well, for me my expectations

for this hike was a
little bit different.

I started my summer out
hiking the long trail

that goes through the
Green Mountains of Vermont.

Once I finished that one,
I went over to California

through hiked John Muir Trail.

So I thought this wasn't
gonna be like anything

magnificent is just
100 miles long.

Don't ever
underestimate a trail.

- So today we're gonna
hike about 12 miles.

We're gonna be in a forest

most of the time,
so that's good.

The thing that's not so good

is there's not
really much water.

We may have some
water at the end,

so hopefully we
don't get dehydrated.

We're gonna start climbing slow

and then in two more days,
we should get above treeline

and be above 10,000 feet
almost the whole time.

- My name is Tom Flanigan,
I'm the Forest Archeologist

and the Heritage Program Manager

for the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache
National Forest.

The Uinta Highline Trail
traversals about 104 miles

along the backbone of
the Uinta Mountains.

The eastern terminus
is in McKee Draw

which is located on the
Ashley National Forest.

The western terminus
is over by Hayden peak,

Hayden Pass area near
the Mirror Lake highway.

The Uintas were designated
as a primitive area

long before the Wilderness Act.

So this was identified
early on as a unique place.

We have a unique topography,
we have a mountain range

that's unique in its linear
structure going east to west,

the geology, the history
and its importance

to the expansion of the West.

Even in 1935, it was
identified as unique enough

to be set aside as
a primitive area.

- The trail itself seems
to be built in sections.

We've done our
own research here.

And it was kind of interesting,
the fact that a lot

of the Forest Service folks
don't have a whole lot

of idea when the trail
was actually built.

Doing some of the historic
research we're able

to put together some of the
different aspects of it.

And probably the earliest,
identifiable concerted effort

to make a trail was during the
Civilian Conservation Corps

era under the new deal and
the Roosevelt administration

trying to put
everybody back to work.

A lot of our infrastructure
on the national parks,

national forests were
created by the CCC.

And I did find a newspaper
article dating to the 1930s

talking about some of the
early sections of the trail

from that Hayden Peak Hayden
pass area being constructed

by Boy Scout troops and
also members of the CCC.

So then probably what
happened is then the trail

was building in sections from
that, and then also maybe

existing trails had
then got tied into it.

(birds chirping)

- Hi you guys!

- Moooooooo

- Uh Oh.....

- Not the wildlife I thought
I was gunna see out here

- Day one, we were constantly
in and out of meadows

and forests and the trail
was tough to navigate.

In fact, for a huge
portion there was actually

no trail, you were really
just following a route.

- So the trail was
marked with rock Cairns

and blazes like ax
places on the trees

and a lot of it didn't
really have foot tread,

or if there was foot
tread it was very light.

And I think we got turned around

a couple times that first day.

We had a nice argument over
which was the right trail

because there was an old trail

and a new trail that split off.

- This isn't showing any turns.

There's a road that
we're supposed to cross

and we haven't crossed it yet.

And there's no
junctions on here.

- All I did was get a file,

you guys made me the navigator

I didn't ask to
be the navigator.

- Yeah, but you didn't
check your file.

- See up here, the blaze is
old, but on this same trail

going down before you get
to the...it's brand new.

- Yeah, let's stick
on the new trail.

- What do you mean a new trail?

- No, I'm saying this trail

has a brand new
blaze at the bottom.

- Yeah, because
it's going that way.

- I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

- I don't wanna get lost.

- My name is Joe Valesko.

I started a company
that makes ultralight

backpacking gear in 2005.

Since then, I've hiked probably

over 10,000 long distance miles.

- Joe's one of the
most interesting
people I've ever met.

He's one part like
robot in a way.

At work, he's just an engineer.

He's kind of emotionless,

he just wants to do
things a certain way.

- Problem there is on the other
tent on the prototype tent,

this piece shouldn't
be this long.

It's supposed to
be like this long.

- And then on the other
hand, you've got this guy

who in Scotland on top of
the second highest mountain

in Scotland, it's like 60
mile per hour sustained winds,

we can barely walk.

And we're like getting
blown all over the place.

And I look up and the guy's got

the biggest smile on his face.

So he's like, one part engineer,
and then one part living

on the edge, and it's
almost like he's two people.

- Woooo!!!

It is straight down.

- Joe has the most minimal
needs of anyone I've ever met.

- So I always hike in sandals,
they keep my feet cool.

They dry off really quick.

- There's not really any
downside to it, really.

I mean, I did the Continental
Divide Trail in sandals

in the snow and everything else,

I just had waterproof socks.

- He can get by on very little
external material things.

He's truly a minimalist,
and he's happy being so.

- Joe's kind of quiet,
doesn't say a whole lot.

- He's very opinionated,
he's very determined,

and he's mentally strong.

He's got more experience
backpacking than any of us.

He's hiked the
Appalachian Trail,

the Continental Divide Trail
and the Pacific Crest Trail.

Those are just the
three long trails

he's done in the United States.

Then the Te Araroa
in New Zealand.

His wife did a lot
of the hikes with him

but she did the Te
Araroa, pregnant.

If that says anything.

- He's always been
very confident.

He's very smart, he
loves the outdoors.

I think of him, I think
of the color green.

- I was outdoors a lot as a kid.

We had a kind of a
forest behind my house

and I spent a lot
of time back there.

We had a river, I used
to go swimming a lot.

My family used to
go on camping trips.

Whenever we went on vacation,

we were usually low budget
so we would go camping.

When I was in high
school, I got the idea

that I wanted to hike
the Appalachian Trail.

So I started
researching backpacking,

I'd never been
backpacking before,

I realized that lightweight
gear was important.

So I bought the lightest
gear I could find,

did some test hikes,
looked at it and realized

a lot of it was just way
too heavy and unnecessary.

So I got into making my
own gear and ultimately

ended up hiking the
Appalachian Trail

in 2004 with mostly
homemade gear.

Nobody was ultralight back
then, everybody was carrying

like 40, 50 pounds, big heavy
backpacks, it was awful.

So I was carrying, you know,
an eight pound backpack

and everybody's like,
what are you doing,

you're gonna die or
they were all impressed

or scared for my life,
one of the other.

The people that liked the
idea, they're like you should

start making this
stuff when you get off

the trail and I had
just graduated college

and didn't have a
job yet or anything.

So I finished the AT, went
back home to my parents house

and of course they were putting

a lot of pressure
on me to get a job.

So I ended up getting a
job as a software developer

but at the same time
I was starting to make

my first products to
sell and I put together

a little website and that's
how it all got started.

I met my wife in college,
I had a studio apartment

so I was working out of my
kitchen, I would come home

from work and start
working again.

I'd start building a backpack
or building stuff sacks

or building little
stuff like that.

- In 2010 we grew pretty fast,
it was actually stressful.

(motivational music)

- I spent the last decade and
a half building my business

and that was more
than a full time job.

You know we'd get up in the
morning and work until we went

to bed at night pretty
much, but I've been trying

to tone that back or
dial that back lately.

- We are having more
family time which is great.

- My family is the most
important thing to me.

Every day we try and
go and do something.

We'll go canoeing or
camping, outdoor stuff.

From what I've seen kids
just do the opposite

of what their parents do.

So I don't really
have expectations.

I hope they like the outdoors
and I hope they like doing

the same sorts of stuff that
my wife and I like to do.

But eventually they're
gonna be their own people.

I know that.

- I think he's a great husband.

I think he's a great father.

I hope I'm friends
with Joe for life.

(birds chirping)

- I got the sandals,
the staff and the hats.

So I picked up the
trail name, Samurai Joe

It'd make more sense if
I was wearing the hat.

- My tail name is Red Beard
and I think you might be able

to figure out why I
have that trail name.

I got it on the AT,
my first thru hike.

- My trail name is Plug-It-In.

Actually, it's the
name of my business.

I was wearing one of
my Plug It In t-shirts.

Whenever I was hiking
one time and a,

through hiker came
through and said

"Hey what's up, Plug It In?"

That's how it happens.

- My trail name is Cannonball.

I got it on my very first night

before I hiked my
very first hike.

I fell off the top deck
of the Fontana Hilton

Getting up to go to the
bathroom, I got a concussion.

And everybody was
very concerned.

They said, "Are you okay?"

I said, no, I'm not okay.

But no one seemed
to get up to care.

The next day, I had a
concussion, I couldn't eat.

I was dizzy, and
I almost threw up.

I love it, so I've
been hiking ever since,

I fell in love with
hiking that day.

- My trail name is Details.

Actually, Steve gave it to
me because I was obsessesing

over all the logistics of
the trip, and now they like

to make fun of me when
I miss a detail, so...

- It's built in name
so we can make fun

of him when he
gets things wrong.

And we just make up
things that he does wrong

just so we could
make fun of him.

He's a great planner.

(upbeat music)

- Dang that's good

- My name's Gordon Hirschi.

I'm president, Uinta Basin
Back Country Horsemen.

I've been clearing these
trails for about 10 years.

The Highline Trail is special
to me because there's very few

people and it has great scenery.

The purpose behind
Back Country Horseman

is we make sure that
trail stays open.

Basically, we go
through with chain saws

and other hand tools, and
the trees that are fallen

or getting ready to fall,

that might be a
danger to the users,

we remove those
trees from the trail.

We also put in water bars,
either made out of rocks

or small wooden bars, and
they're put in at an angle

to divert the water
off the trail.

If you don't, it'll
eventually wash the trail out.

In the winter, I'm
a couch potato.

When it comes time to
working on the trails,

I actually look
forward to it, I bug

the forest service I
says, get the gates open.

I need to get up
there and get to work.

And then in the health
aspect, I usually lose 30

to 40 pounds every summer
by just getting out

and climbing on and off
a horse and the gals

sometimes asked what my secret
is, so I says, come on out.

I'll put you on a horse
and give you a chainsaw

and I'll show you
how to lose pounds.

(laughing)

Something had to be done

or we would lose the
trails for posterity.

(upbeat music)

- Well, we were walking down
this meadow here looking

for some water and we
came across this beautiful

little stream it kind of looks

like it just comes
right out of the ground.

- I don't feel great.

- You don't?

What's the matter?

- I'm just hurty everywhere.

- Hurty

(laughing)

He's in the fetal position.

- Sorry man.

- I just had a great
dinner, great hiking day.

Can't wait to get in there and
go to sleep, watch some TV.

Read, write some letters.

Wake up in the morning,
and do it all over again.

(scary music)

- One of the biggest things
we run onto as trail people

is what they call
"altitude sickness".

- Will, he wasn't
feeling too good,

he was having some issues
with the elevation.

- He had a slight
headache as did I

and he was feeling a
little bit nauseous.

- You figure they're
coming from almost zero

all the way up to
almost 10,000 feet.

- It's not a fun deal.

The severe cases you
feel disoriented.

- Well, today was day
one on the Highland,

which trail are we on again?

- By the time we got to camp,

it seemed to be getting
a little bit worse.

So after he attempted to eat
some food, it really got worse.

(scary music)

- My name is Will Wood and I
work for a backpacking company

and I run the backpacking
company's social media

and I also backpack for living.

- Will's a fun guy,
he's pretty laid back.

He's usually pretty
happy go lucky.

- You're almost doing
the backpack dance.

(laughing)

- He's a strong hiker.

- The older I get, the less
I can keep up with a guy.

- He's got thousands of
miles under his belt.

He knows what he's doing
when he's on the trail.

- He hiked the Appalachian
Trail and then the year

after that he did
most of the PCT.

- He has a little camera
and he films everything.

He does gear reviews.

- Hey, guys, Red Beard here.

Well, I've been getting a lot
of requests on trekking poles.

- He filmed his hikes.

- Wow you can really
tell just how much water

got dumped in this area.

- Apparently a bunch of people
like to watch him do that.

So he's pretty popular
on social media.

- He loves the outdoors,
he loves the community.

He really cherishes his
relationship with his followers,

and I cherish my
relationship with him.

- Will Wood is quite a
tender soul much more

than what you would
think just meeting him.

He has a lot of depth,
a lot of emotion.

He cares deeply about people.

He's very smart, he
has a lot of skills.

He is just a close
dear friend of mine.

- Growing up as a kid, I was
really passionate about sports.

I played tennis, soccer,
cross country track.

And I started hiking, when
I was young with my dad,

he would take us to the
Smoky Mountains and my family

would kind of hang out in
town and my dad and I would go

into the forest and just hike
all the trails in the Smokies

and ever since then I
really started to develop

a passion for being
outside and backpacking.

- I hike because I love
being in the forest.

And I've also found
that when I'm traveling,

I love experiencing
different cultures,

whether I'm hiking just
in different states

in the United States
or in other countries.

- Well, guys, we've
made it to Iceland.

- Well, I can't believe I'm here

in southern Chile of Patagonia.

- Well, here we are in Tasmania.

- I really get a grasp for
the culture and the people

when I'm walking and
exploring on foot.

So it's just a lot different
than driving in a car.

You really feel much more
connected to the location.

(soft music)

- Before I started long
distance hiking in 2014,

I found that I was kind
of lost and a lot of times

I settled in life, I got
married young, before I really

even kind of knew who
I was as a person.

(soft music)

- Before I was kind of just
playing everything safe.

So long distance hiking
forced me out there on my own.

It really just, it awakened
me, it awakened my soul.

Since then, my life has
just been one adventure

after the next really and
all it took was that first

initial step, once I started
chasing after the things

that I was passionate about,
that's when I just started

to notice my life
beginning to change.

I met Joe and Matt in
2013, as I was preparing

for the Appalachian Trail,
a good friend of mine

who was gonna originally
hike the trail with me.

He went to the warehouse
of the backpacking company

where Joe and Matt work at
and he introduced himself

and they invited us to come on

a hike with them in the Smokys.

It was about a 70
miles section hike.

We started to bond on that
hike and form a friendship.

After I finished the
Appalachian Trail,

I ended up moving down to
Florida to work with them

and we've been close
friends ever since.

And we've hiked all over the
world together the last four

or five years it's been
quite an adventure.

- Will and I met
actually on a dating app.

- She was different
than any girl

that I had seen since
moving to Florida.

Her pictures were
of her on a tractor.

She's a farmer and
she's very passionate

about what does, I just
was really drawn to that.

- When we first met, he
popped his head in my window.

And was super smiley and I
just saw all this red hair

and he was just super
funny, made me laugh a lot,

we got along great, he
was also a little nervous.

I could tell, but
it was really cute.

(upbeat music)

- Long distance
hiking definitely

can impact your
normal home life.

Obviously, if you're
gonna be gone for a month

to six months hiking
through the forest,

sometimes you don't even
have cell phone service.

It can be tough, it can be
tough for those you love

and those that you leave behind.

But for us, it's
definitely a little bit

more difficult because we
are running a small farm.

So it does put more
work on Joelle.

But she's a worker, so she's
able to hold things down

until I get back and I'm
kind of more her helper.

She's the professional farmer,
so I'm learning from her.

- Hiking for Will is his passion

and I want him to
do what he loves.

He's always excited
to come home and share

with me his experiences
and I really love that.

(upbeat music)

(coughing)

(barfing sounds)

(Mellow music)

- Typically, when I hike at
elevation I've walked 1000 miles

before I've gotten there
so I've had no issues

but on this trip after
the first day of hiking,

we were approaching
10,000 feet in elevation.

So last night I experienced
for the first time

having elevation sickness
and it was pretty rough.

I attempted to eat
dinner and threw it up

so I threw up twice,
today's a new day.

I'm feeling great this morning.

So let's keep our
fingers crossed.

It's gonna be different today.

- Will seem to be doing
fine and all the effects

of the altitude had gone away.

- So Benny and I took
a little side trip down

to Mill Park, which had an
old sawmill and we found

these old cabins that were
like 100 years old or more.

It was really cool
to see the history

of the pioneers,
to see the relics.

- The remnants maybe just
three, four logs high,

but still, that was
very cool to see that,

especially to step
in those cabin areas.

Knowing that 100 years
ago, people lived in those,

and people were walking
on the very spots

that we were walking on.

(saw mill sounds)

(soft music)

- Near the end of the
day, we're gonna pass

Carter Military Trail and
there's a stream there

so we can load up, then
after that we're gonna

be hitting a bunch of water.

(upbeat music)

- Day two was very
similar to day one

we did pop out of the forest.

- We came next to this
one hill and we could see

just this one pile of rocks
up there and we thought,

you know, that looks pretty
cool, let's go check it out.

It honestly look like a
chimney, is was basically a huge

rock cairn that someone
had built up that was

probably eight feet tall,
if not taller than that.

- We got our first view of
the mountains all around.

So that was pretty cool.

We sat up there on top
of this little peak

for quite a while and had
our lunch and everything.

- So you see this hill
behind me it doesn't look

like it's that tall, right?

It's maybe like 40, 50 feet,
just climbing up this hill.

I felt like I was about to
die, I could not breathe.

We're at about
10,150 feet or so.

There's just not
much oxygen up here.

But I can say I'm loving
it, it's beautiful out here.

- Throughout day two,
Joe seemed to be coughing

and falling behind,
which is not typical Joe,

he's usually near
or at the lead.

So we were all kind
of concerned to see

what was going on there but
it didn't seem like too big

of a deal 'cause his spirits
were still pretty good.

- We continue to
gradually climb all day

as we were approaching
the High Uintas.

We had a GPS file that we
used, it was on our phone

and it would have
been tough to get

through that area without that.

- The trail was still
mostly non existent

We were just following cairns
and blazes on the trees.

- So it's hailing
out a little bit,

hoping it doesn't start raining.

We found this nice
little spot to relax

under the pine tree here while
we wait, have a little snack.

Hopefully it'll just blow
by without raining too hard.

It's dripping on me, but
that's about it right now.

(upbeat music)

- During the first 20 some odd
miles as you're approaching

the High Uintas there's really

not many opportunities
to get water.

- We stumbled across some water

that may have been questionable.

It seemed like there was a lot
of cow activity in the area.

And the water tasted
reminiscent of that activity.

- It looked like
cows had done nothing

but pee and poop in this
thing for like years.

- It was pretty disgusting.

- It was kind of gross and
kind of yellowish brown color.

- You know cow poop water is not

your first choice,
I don't think.

- There really wasn't any
water that day on trail,

other than that, so
we just did our best

to filter and scoop from there.

I don't think I filtered
it but I did, I did boil it

and cook with that
water, it was all right.

It wasn't the worst
water I've ever had.

(birds chirping)

- The Highline Trail does cross

what was the historic
Carter Military Road.

The Carter Military
Road is named

after this guy
named Judge Carter.

He was a veteran of the
Seminole Wars down in Florida.

He was out of the Fort
Bridger Area, he was a sutler,

which is the guy who supplies

the army with all
their equipment.

It was a fairly
lucrative business

that he got through
a friend of his.

With the advent of the
transcontinental railroad

making access to the
west a lot easier.

And Fort Bridger being
a nexus of things

and you had all the
settlement in the Uinta Basin,

encroaching on what was
also designated in 1861

as the Uintah Ouray Reservation.

(tense music)

So there was back and
forth between a lot

of the Native Americans
and the settlers.

So it obviously had a serious
impact on the Ute folks,

all three bands that are
now on the reservation,

two of them from Colorado
that were forcibly removed.

(Tense music)

The Battle of Little
Bighorn, also known as

Custer's Last Stand

is when basically the
Seventh Cavalry was decimated

by a fairly large
conflagration of a bunch

of different bands
of Native Americans.

And that was the first
real defeat that the army

had suffered at the hands
of the Native Americans.

So that of course sparked a
lot of fear among settlers

that they would be next if the
army couldn't protect them.

Of course there was
mistrust on both sides.

In the Uinta Basin after
the Ute's were forcibly

put on the reservation,
the local settlers,

white settlers wanted
protection and petitioned

to have a military
encampment there.

So military Fort
Thornburgh was created.

In order to connect the
Uintah Basin with Fort Bridger

and Carter, of course,
probably for his own elevation

on the fact that he could
supply two military forts.

Had this road made that
crossed the Uintas.

(birds chirping)

- Good day hiking
today, stayed hydrated,

and there's the raw water
out of this little puddle.

That's not even really a stream.

Probably moving very
slowly, you had to dip.

And then this is it, filtered,
it's got a little red tint

to it from the Kool Aid.

So here we are set up I'm right
in direct line of the sun.

Somehow Joe always
gets the best spot, so,

that's why I'm here.

- Well, we did about
10 miles today.

We got hailed on just a
little, bit got sprinkled on

just a little bit,
nothing to get us wet.

Matt says it's about three
miles to the next potential

water source, it
should be all right.

(soft music)

- Good morning

- Well we had a little
stormed kind of just kind

of glanced us a little
bit not too bad.

The lightning was
pretty dang bright.

I almost had to crawl way up
underneath my sleeping bag

to kind of block a
little bit of that out

but besides that I slept great.

Just love being out
in the wilderness.

Just something
peaceful about it.

You can just sleep forever
but time to wake up,

time to get going and
we got miles to do.

(upbeat music)

- I got a nice rolling
boil to get all

the crap out of
there just in case.

- You gotta do that
for about 10 minutes.

- No, you gotta do it
for like 60 seconds.

- That's why your kind died off.

(laughing)

- I get blisters because
I have a narrow heel

and it slips up
and down in a shoe

and I get a blister
no matter what I do.

So this is a product
made for hiking.

If I don't put enough,
I'll still get a blister.

(laughing)

- You should put honey on there.

Put honey all over your feet.

- Have you ever
thought about that

You're not the
star of this film.

(laughing)

So stop trying to
horn in on my time.

(soft music)

- Today's day three, we're
gonna be venturing out

of the forest into some
of the higher mountains

above treeline, we're
gonna start hitting a bunch

of lakes and streams
and that water

shouldn't be an
issue going forward.

It's only 10.7 miles today.

But we have a 700 more
feet of elevation gain

than we did yesterday.

So 2300 feet in total,
which still isn't that bad,

but elevation gonna
still get you winded.

- So as we were going down the
trail, animals ran across it.

- I was in front of everybody
and off in the distance

I saw what appeared to
be full grown moose.

- I saw it first, Will is
gonna probably dispute that,

but I'm like, look, look at
the elk, look at the moose.

I called them moose and
the big dispute arose

from that because Joe
said "Those aren't moose"

He and Will went
into a big argument

for about three days on this.

- They had white butts,

I've never seen a moose
with a white butt.

- I'm pretty certain
they were moose.

I'm gonna go ahead
and stick with that.

- We were heading towards
a peak called Leidy Peak.

And it was the first time

that we were gonna
go above treeline.

- It's just so mind boggling,
looking up at a mountain.

It looks like it's
just right there.

When you get up on top of
it, it's extremely high.

It's just so hard
to get the scale.

But we climb up Leidy Peak, we
get some cell phone service.

Everybody's on their phones.

- And I don't think
anybody was really

paying much
attention to the sky.

- We're all standing around
taking pictures and I'm looking

around thinking, I
don't wanna be up here.

This isn't looking good.

That was a moment that I
thought, sure enough...

Okay this is where I die

- A lightning strike
got really close.

Everybody freaked out.

Right as we were
at the high point,

this thunderstorm just opened
up and started hailing on us

and lightning started
striking all over the place.

- There's a lightning
storm right there,

but there's not
really anywhere to go.

Except right down here.

- And it was like
a mad rush to get

back down to the tree line.

So we don't get burned
into a crispy critter

from a lightning bolt.

- I owe Matt $20
bucks because it said

it was gonna hail every
day, I thought he was lying.

- He was not lying.

- Some hail hit me
in a sensitive part.

You can say, that
wasn't so much fun.

(screaming)

- Once we made it down into
the forest, it was pelting us.

And the lightning was
crashing right above us.

I look over at Steve and
he's got his cell phone up.

And he was looking at a picture.

And he turned his
phone towards me

and was like, look
at my girlfriend.

Isn't she beautiful?

And I was like, damn.

It was definitely
a Steve moment.

That's what I love about Steve.

He wasn't even thinking
about the lightning

or the danger that he
was in, he didn't care.

He was just thinking
about his girlfriend.

(soft music)

- Everyone scattered and
we all got into cover

and back into the tree line.

So that cell exhausted
itself and went away

and we gathered up and
got a game plan together.

We pulled up the weather radar,

and it showed another big
cell just coming our way.

So we got back down
into the tree line

just to be protected from
any lightning strikes.

So we're waiting it out,
better be safe than sorry.

- We wrote out like two waves

of storms until
the weather clear.

- That was the end of our first
real hail lightning storm.

But then we didn't have cell
phone service after that.

- I didn't die there, so
that's good, I'm still here.

To hike another day.

- That was probably the most
fun part of the trip, for me.

It was the only part when I
forgot that everything hurt

and that I couldn't breathe.

- We reached the top
of the plateau there,

close to 11,000 feet, and it
was like walking in a field.

But on top of a mountain,
I would say kind of like

The Highlands or something maybe

that you would
imagine in Scotland.

(upbeat music)

- One of the really cool
aspects of the Uintas is really

they're a monument to
19th century science.

The Uintas kind of formed
a sort of a crossroads

of what they used to call the
great surveys of the West.

You had the Hayden survey,
the Clarence King survey

that came out of California,
John Wesley Powell,

and they all kind of
converged on the Uintas

at about the same
time at about 1870.

They mapped the geology and
they had paleontologists in toe.

So if you look at
a lot of the peaks,

they're named after
naturalist, geologists,

explorers, surveyors,
and paleontologists.

(soft music)

- So you have Untermann Peak.

Untermann was well
known for doing some

of the early renditions
of both dinosaurs

and some of the early mammals
and trying to make them

lifelike and sort of bring
them to life for the public,

translating that from the bone
to the actual animal itself.

Leidy was sort of a
gentleman scholar,

also the father of
Vertebrate Paleontology.

So there's a peak
named after him.

He was one of the foremost

paleontologists in
the 19th century.

(soft music)

Marsh Peak is named
after Othniel Marsh,

A fairly famous sort of
paleontological war took place

between Othniel Marsh
and Edward Drinker Cope.

Marsh was associated with
Yale, Cope was attached

to the Hayden Survey for a
while, and they were battling

over the fossil
fields of the West

It was sensational enough

that they basically warred
with each other in the papers.

When it started off Cope was
in New Jersey and was actually

getting some fossils
from a rock quarry.

Paleontologists would team
up with rock quarriers

and people that were
miners and things like that

and as they would
come across things,

they would then relate
them to the paleontologists

and that's how they would
get a lot of their specimens.

So Cope was down there and
he was using this one quarry

and he invited Marsh
down to check it out.

And then by the time he
left, he didn't realize Marsh

made deal with these
guys and they started

sending all the fossils to him.

So basically these
guys were constantly

scooping each other's finds.

So that of course put them
at odds very early on.

(old time music)

With the transcontinental
railroad,

access and logistics
are a lot easier.

So once that sort of opened
up, and everybody knew

about the fossil
fields of the West,

it was almost like a gold
rush but for paleontology.

So these guys were always
kind of trying to stake

out claims, and then claim
jumping each other's claims

and then every time they
would find something,

they would rush into print

so that they would be
the ones to name it.

And then trying to
one up the other guy.

That's why you would have
maybe say something like,

the Uintatherium it might
have five different names,

by the time it gets
published, 'cause everybody's

finding them and then
naming them themselves.

Marsh kind of had more the
financial backing that he kind

of pushed Cope out in a
lot of ways while Cope

was still able to find hundreds

of different fossils
and fossil fields.

(old time music)

Another big bash
against Cope was,

Cope had sort of a Plesiosaur,

and he had mounted the
head on the wrong end.

So Marsh got a lot of traction
out of basically trying

to make fun of him and saying
didn't know what he was doing.

But then of course, Marsh
is also famous for creating

a Brontosaurus by putting

the wrong skull on
the wrong skeleton.

Leidy was so disgusted with
the whole Marsh and Cope war,

going back and forth that
he actually kind of bagged

out of it and stopped
investigating in the West.

But overall, this went
on and on they both died

about the same time.

There really wasn't
a winner in the end,

but volumes have been
written about these guys.

Cope is still the
most highly published

scientists in American history.

In fact, actually what we've
been talking about recently

is even trying to
nominate one of the peaks

to be named after
Edward Drinker Cope.

(soft music)

- Our first pass on this
great hike was Gabbro Pass.

And once again, you just can't
get the scale you're looking

at it going, how am I
gonna hike over that?

- Like most of the
passes on this trail,

it was a pretty vertical
climb, it was Rocky.

But for me the passes
are my favorite part.

So maybe some people dread
them because it's a hard climb.

But with each step that you
take, every time you turn

around and look back, the view
just gets more spectacular.

(soft music)

- It was just gorgeous,
just beautiful.

- Gabbro Pass was really
our first experience of what

the next few days were gonna
be like for us on this trail.

- We ended up down at Deadman's
Lake, not really a name

of a lake you wanna
be hanging out at,

especially after
nearly getting struck

by lightning like
multiple times.

- Deadman Lake is named
after the unfortunate body

of a prospector
that was found there

by a couple of
individuals later.

The north slope is known to
have fairly harsh winters.

Even today, we lose
people in the Uintas.

So the idea that this prospector
could be up there and run

afoul especially, you know,
back in the early days,

when you don't
have all the fancy

equipment that we have now.

It's pretty status quo back
then you're really taking

your life in your hands,

especially as an
individual going in there.

It's an undertaking
now, but to do it,

say in the 1870s,
or 80s, or 90s.

It's a whole
different ball of wax.

(soft music)

(coughing)

- Today was probably one
of the most eventful days

of hiking I've had, it
started off pretty normal

and pretty awesome and then
some crazy storms rolled in.

I almost got hit by lightning,
then it started to hail,

which was kind of good
because I won my bet with Joe

that it would hail
at least three times.

So I won 20 bucks and then
promptly a piece of hail

struck me in my genitalia,
which was pretty not awesome.

But, it's funny now but wasn't
really funny at the time.

I haven't even looked, it
could be bruised, who knows.

- I feel like
today was the first

real day of hiking.
After the storms past.

It was beautiful and it
felt like a ton of climbing.

It was only supposed to be 2300
feet, but it felt like more.

So it's a beautiful day.

We're here at this
beautiful pond tonight

and we're gonna get some
good rest 'cause tomorrow

we've got it again,
we got 12 miles

and we're gonna probably be
going over a couple passes.

(soft music)

- My name is Matt, I work
for a backpacking company.

I love to travel.

I love my family and
I love backpacking,

and I love it when I can
incorporate all three together.

- The best way I
can describe Matt,

he lives his life
with integrity.

He makes it a point.

He is really dedicated
to his family.

And that speaks to me, those
two things speak volumes to me.

I would say when it
comes down to it,

me and Matt are probably
the two most alike people,

even though we come from
totally different backgrounds.

- Growing up, I was
a little explorer.

I was always spending
time in the woods.

I was always building forts,
going farther than my mom

would like on my bike
or my skateboard.

I grew up with a single mother,

so I never really got the
chance to travel or go anywhere.

As I grew up, like after
high school, I was in a band

and I used that as
an opportunity to
explore the country,

go on tour, see places
I'd never been before.

And I learned through
those experiences

how valuable travel
really was to me.

- He was a singer in
a heavy metal band.

He's tattooed from head to toe.

He's never been high,
he's never been drunk,

and his memory is
like a steel trap.

He will pull names and
dates out of his memory.

And you wonder, where
does this come from?

- Matt was the person
that I instantly

connected with when I met him.

He's a fun guy to be around.

On the trail, he's all for
hiking 30 miles without breaking

and it's hard sometimes
to keep up with him.

- My name's Kim Favero,
I'm married to Matt.

I'm a cardiovascular specialist.

I met Matt on MySpace.

He tells me he was
impressed with my picture

'cause I was pretending to
lick Borat on like a bus stop

promotion for the movie.

So that was enough to
reel him in I guess.

- And 11 months later,
we were married.

On my honeymoon,
we stumbled across

this trail in Canada
and we just decided

to walk down it and about 15
minutes in, I was in heaven.

It was the first time I'd
been in the woods in so long,

ever since that day man,
it led me to my job.

It led me to so many adventures.

Every time I go into the
woods, I just wanna go back.

- When I married Matt,

I knew that it wasn't
gonna be boring.

I knew it was gonna
be an adventure.

I knew that for sure.

(upbeat music)

Matt's crazy passionate

about everything he does,
just unconventional.

I can just list off so
many weird things he does.

He was in a band.

- Matt's a good organizer
of everything really.

- He did A.M radio show.

- He plans most of our hikes.

- He was running all
night scavenger hunt game.

- He also for a while was
running a soccer club.

- He made t-shirts.

He did screen printing till
like four in the morning once.

- That's what Matt does.

He finds people and gets
them together to do things.

- People tolerate
him pretty well.

(laughing)

(soft music)

- My family came to be,

again in true Favero fashion
very unconventionally.

And I think at the time, we
were talking about having kids,

and then we stopped
talking about it

because he had gotten laid off.

We moved in with my mom,

we just weren't really in
the position at that time.

And then I got pregnant.

- So in 2010, my wife and I
were working out of our garage,

we were still building
everything ourselves.

It was getting to the point

where we couldn't
keep up with demand.

As I got into backpacking, I
stumbled across Joe's website,

and I noticed that Joe had moved

to the next city
south of me Palm Bay.

- Matt emailed and asked
if he could come over

and check out some gear.

So he came to our house to our
garage, checked out some gear

and we talked, we ended
up going out to lunch.

And basically we
ended up extending him

an offer to be a
seamster for us.

So he was our first
first outside employee.

- We kind of just went
with it and slowly got

our lives back
together structurally.

And then Lu was born in 2010.

(soft music)

But then, a few weeks later,

we found out she had a
serious heart defect.

- She had a couple holes in her
heart and some other things.

(beeping)

- It was a really trying
time for my wife and I

because we were
broke at the time,

our living situation
wasn't the best.

And then we had this
huge, horrible situation

with our daughter and
through it, I was still able

to go on hikes, and it
really helped me decompress.

For me hiking lets me get
into a place in my mind

where I'm at peace with
how I feel about things

that have happened
and how I would feel

about things if they happened.

And going through a
difficult situation

like that hiking really
helped me stay strong.

(heart beating)

- From then on, she's
just been everything.

She's guided us
through everything

and everything has been for her.

- My trail name is Champion.

I like to hike with my family.

The longest hike I've
been on is Italy, France

and Switzerland. 100 miles.

I was the youngest kid that
hiked it. In the world.

(soft music)

- The older I get, the
more I realize life

isn't about obtaining
possessions.

It's about obtaining
experiences. What
that translates

to with my family is traveling
together and hiking together.

So the outdoors and hiking
in general has become

an experience that
we share to build

and foster our relationships
with each other.

(heart beating)

(birds chirping)

- Well, now today is
day four, just got off,

just got packed up, spent
the whole night coughing

so that wasn't great.

We're meeting somebody
and we're picking up

our food drop today, and
we're gonna go from hardly

any food to a six days of food

and so that's gonna be fun too.

Oh, and then I guess we
have like a bunch of passes

to go over with
all our heavy food.

And we've got 13 miles today,

so it's gonna be a big day
for us, so there's that.

(laughing)

(birds chirping)

- So we've been smelling
smoke all morning.

And you can see in the distance

here that the sky is all hazy.

You can smell it
pretty good here.

So we're wondering if
there's fires nearby

or how far away it is.

Hopefully it's not
gonna impact our route,

but you never know.

(soft music)

- One of the great things about
this hike was the community

in the area, we actually
had someone that was willing

to drive out there and
bring us our resupply.

So this allowed us
not have to carry

10 days worth of
food from day one.

- And we appreciate
the kindness.

Of the gentleman who did our
resupply, a phenomenal guy.

- Cameramen down.

- There was a little unexpected
event, we lost Gordy,

our cameraman, he
jumped off the trail

'cause he had extreme
foot pain and blisters.

- It's been a crazy four days

seen stuff I'd
never seen before.

Vistas I never
imagined I would see.

Too bad my feet
aren't hold up but..

It was cool, while it
lasted, super cool.

- Cool, we're gonna
miss you Gordy.

- See you in Salt Lake.

- I'll try to meet you
at the end of the trail.

- All right man

- Best of luck out there.

- Stay safe

- Take care

- You too, it was
awesome hiking with you.

- We hated to see Gordy go
'cause we got attached to him,

he was like became
one of our own.

But we definitely understand
we've all been there.

- So he was able to get a
ride with Aaron off the trail.

So he was out.

- It left us with our producer

and other cameraman
and Matt and Benny.

They picked up some cameras

and they were taking
shots as well.

So we managed to get through it

but Gordy did miss a great hike.

(soft music)

- Chipeta Lake is named after
the wife of Chief Ouray.

And he was one of the
most well known Ute Chiefs

that the government actually
sort of identified to speak

for all the Ute during
the negotiations

over the Uinta Ouray,
named after him of course,

Reservation in the Uinta Basin,

where now the three
bands of Ute's reside.

- The Native American
story in the Uintas

goes back to the late Ice Age.

We're talking about
15,000 years plus

of human habitation in
North America, it's not new.

There's an archaeological
culture called Clovis Culture.

And we know that we have
artifacts from very close

to the forest, a famous Clovis
cache of weapons was found.

And those date back to
say 14,000 years ago.

- These are the
folks that are still

in the last waning
stages of the Ice Age.

These are the people that
are still hunting mammoth,

and hunting extinct
forms of animals

that we don't have any more.

We've got some more
severe weather patterns.

We've obviously got
lower sea levels,

that's affording people to
actually come across Beringia,

which is the Bering Strait,

coming down into the
continental United States.

- Time marches on, things
change, the environment changes,

people adapt to their sort of
home range ecological zones,

you see a little bit
of diversity in that.

We don't necessarily know how
they were organized, socially.

What they call themselves up
until about the historic period

when we do have all these
other sort of Western Shoshone

Piute and Ute bands that we
see in more recent history

that we can identify with
the names that they still

identify themselves with today.

- Obviously, native people
have a very different

relationship and a
very close relationship

with the archaeology and
history of their own people.

As archaeologists, our job is
to make that Native American

history relevant to people
that aren't necessarily

of Native American ancestry,
because I think a lot

of our problem comes
from people see things

as the other, or they're
not concerned about it

'cause they don't feel
some sort of link to it

with that sense of stewardship
and that sense of time depth

that we seem to always
be yearning for.

But we have. If it
can just be recognized

by more people as an
American archaeology.

This is an American history
and we're Americans.

- It really stunk to have to
go on without one of the guys

in our group, but you
just got to keep moving.

And that's what we did.

We threw all that
weight into our packs.

And we took off again.

We still kept an eye on Joe.

I was kind of wondering
if he was gonna bail

at that point because
he was in bad shape.

In fact, I think, in my opinion,

he seemed to almost be
doing worse than Gordy.

So I was nervous, and at that
point, you know, I didn't know

if we were gonna have
other opportunities

to get out of the mountains
if it was necessary.

- I'm feeling all
right, right now.

I've just been having
a hard time breathing

on all the up hills,
and I feel like my lungs

aren't working right.

I can only breathe
in like halfway

and then it kind of like hurts.

So I don't know exactly
what's wrong with them,

but I just have to go
real slow going uphill.

I was like, can't
breathe, so I'm dealing

with that but whatever,
maybe it'll go away.

That's what I'm hoping for.

- Of course, as luck would
have it, we got our resupply,

and then immediately had
to go up what is routinely

considered the toughest pass

on the Highline Trail,
North Pole pass.

- Every pass seem to be a
little tougher than the one

before 'cause we
were going west going

into more aggressive terrain.

(soft music)

- I'm not sure exactly what
happened, but I think I had some

kind of like, chest
cold or chest infection

at the same time as
being at altitude.

So when we got to North
Pole past, what I was doing

is putting one foot in front
of the other like this,

little bitty stops 'cause
that's all I could do.

- It seemed like it
took forever to get

to the top of that pass.

I remember seeing this
sign, thinking Ashley

my wifes name is Ashley.

So I thought about her a lot

when I was sitting
there at that pass.

I love the outdoors, I
love going backpacking.

I love being out for days and
weeks and months on the end.

But I still miss my wife.

- Well, today was day four.

I will say it started off today

and I was a little nervous
because the smoke blew in.

We could smell it when we
woke up and I was thinking

that we might be walking
into a fire, but it sounds

like that smoke is
just blowing to us here

from California and Oregon
and maybe for some other

smaller fires around Utah.

So that's really good news.

We'll see if it clears
up because it still
is a little hazy.

(birds chirping)

- Today was a tough day, man.

Got up, walked a little
bit, got our food drop,

and climbed the
biggest pass ever.

North Pole pass with six
days of food on our backs,

seemed like it went on
and on and on forever.

Finally made it to the top
came down the other side

and ended up here in
this grassy meadow,

which is really nice,
so I'm glad to be here.

- So Joe's been having some
trouble with the altitude

and climbing at higher
altitudes, he's having a real

hard time breathing and getting
a full, full breath inside.

So he's been struggling,
he's been coughing a lot.

(coughing)

If you know Joe,
he's a tough dude.

So he's gonna make it
to the end for sure.

But he's just dealing
with some stuff right now.

And we're concerned for him,
but I think he's gonna make it.

(coughing)

- During the night, I
woke up some where around

two o'clock and I could
hear Joe coughing.

And I was a little
bit concerned.

(coughing)

- I listened to him for, you
know, probably 15 to 20 minutes

just struggling to breathe
in the middle of the night.

And then I dozed off,
but the next day,

I just knew that Joe's trip
might be coming to an end.

- It was like the worst
night's sleep for me ever.

I got this cough that keeps
getting worse and worse.

So I don't know what
to do right now.

We're a long way from anywhere.

So there's not really
any great escape plan.

I couldn't breathe
so like I didn't blow

my sleeping pad up last night.

I was like I'm so
short of breath.

So in the middle of the
night like I wanted to blow

this thing up because I
kept tossing and turning,

but I just couldn't do it.

So if it's worse
tonight, I'm more screwed

'cause we're gonna
be farther away

from any escape plan.

- Unfortunately, Joe was
not getting any better.

He seemed to be going slower.

He seemed to be coughing
more, and we were considering

that a helicopter ride
might be on the horizon

for Joe to get him out of there.

- When I got up, I knew
that I wasn't feeling well.

So I'd already started
looking at my maps

and trying to formulate
an escape plan.

And there was one trail
where I could hike

out to a trailhead
near Fox Lake.

And I was thinking well if I
keep going and if it got worse,

I don't know what I would have
done because we would have

been too deep into the mountains
and it would have been like

a multi day hike to get to a
trailhead to get out of there.

- We got to the end of Fox
Lake and there was an old cabin

and we sat down for a break.

- We were all in good
spirits except for Joe.

He was real quiet and just
kind of keeping to himself.

- I remember I was sitting
on a rock just exhausted,

couldn't even move and
everybody else is like dancing

around and having a great time.

Like they hadn't been
hiking or anything.

So we got to the end of the
lake and there was a dam

and that's where the trail
splits off, where I knew

I could hike eight miles
and get out of there,

if I wanted, I was like, well,

I'm not dying,
I'm gonna be okay.

(birds chirping)

(upbeat music)

- Joe's got the beginning
stages of pulmonary edema.

So basically Joe's gotta bail.

- So we hiked about
another mile or so and

Joe had had enough.

He was coughing, he
couldn't catch his breath.

So he finally made the decision

that he was gonna
get out of there.

- Somethings wrong with
my lungs right now, so...

- He said, "Look, you
guys, I am not enjoying it.

"I didn't sleep, I'm
in pain, I'm coughing.

"And on top of that, my
hands are turning cold."

And I noticed when he was
holding his trekking staff

that his knuckles were white

that he knew at that point

that there's just really
nothing he could do.

He needed to get out of there.

And it just wasn't worth it.

It wasn't worth
risking his life.

- And I think he made
the right choice.

Anytime you're dealing
with that kind of issue,

it can be life threatening.

We had a brief discussion
about a helicopter,

a brief discussion
about a horse.

If you know Joe, he turned
those down pretty quickly.

- Hey, Gordy.
- So we found

an alternate route.

We made a satellite call
at Gordy who now was free.

- I'm gonna hike like an
eight mile side trail down

to a trailhead and Gordy
who got off yesterday.

He's gonna come pick me
up in the rental car.

So I'm out of here, but I
bet you guys will have fun.

Five more days to
go after today.

And I'll see you
guys at the end.

- So we all said our goodbyes,

and Joe headed down
the trail away from us.

And we were all pretty sad
because we really wanted

to complete the journey together

but it just wasn't in
the cards this time.

(upbeat music)

- It took me the whole day
to do that eight miles.

So it was probably 5.30 by
the time I got down there.

- How are you doing?

- All right, how
are you doing right?

- All right.

- Gordy had a pickup
truck and he had a half

of a turkey sub in the car

and it was the most amazing
sound I've ever had.

All of a sudden I went from
I don't feel like eating to,

oh, I do feel like eating.

It's amazing what getting
in a air conditioned vehicle

and knowing you don't
have to walk anymore

will do for your morale.

I was a little disappointed
that I wasn't able to finish

the trail but at the same time,
I just wasn't able to enjoy

it at all with how I felt
so it wasn't worth it.

I was able to catch a
flight out of Vernal,

Utah, the next day.
It was really good

getting back home
especially on this trip.

It took me a couple nights
of sleeping sitting up

until whatever was wrong my
lungs cleared out of there.

So everything kind of
worked out really well.

- So we were down to
five people. Four hikers

and our producer cameraman.

(upbeat music)

- Well today, really the one
thing that stands out to me

is we kind of lost
our captain, Joe,

the most experienced
hiker of the bunch.

He had to check out early
and I've hiked with Joe quite

a bit, and I've never seen him
like I saw him on this hike.

So we're definitely gonna
miss having him here with us.

- We're kind of beding
down for the night

getting ready for another
epic day tomorrow.

We go to the highest
point on this whole trip

We'll be climbing Kings Peak.

That's the highest point
in Utah so that'll be cool.

That'd be another high
point state for me.

I think we got a pretty
tough time in the morning

but I think a lot of
us are ready for it.

We're kind of used
to it at this point.

Should just be like
another day on the job.

(upbeat music)

- Today, we are climbing
up to Anderson Pass,

the highest point on
the Highline Trail

and then we are gonna take an
off-shoot up to King's peak,

the highest point in Utah.

So we'll see we're
gonna be about, man,

I think 3000 feet higher
than we are right now.

So it's gonna be pretty
crazy up there, I'm excited.

- I really am not crazy
about climbing 700 feet

straight up, but peer
pressure got the best of me

and I will be making that climb.

- Today is gonna be awesome.

We're gonna go really
high and pass out

because we're gonna not
have a lot of oxygen.

And then we're gonna hold up
a sign that says, Kings Peak,

and then we're gonna
like do crazy faces like.

UINTA!!!

Now my throat hurts.

UINTA!!

- This was our big day.

This was a day that we
were looking forward to.

But we were also a little
nervous and apprehensive about

because we knew we were gonna
be doing a lot of climbing.

- We weren't doing
huge miles on the hike,

we were only really doing
anywhere from eight to 12.

So that wasn't a big deal
but being above 10,000 feet

in elevation, a 3000 foot climb
just feels so much harder.

- We started making our
way to Anderson Pass.

It took a while. It meandered
and switchbacked and we

finally got there

and it was the first
pass that when you got

to the top it was like
dropping off a cliff

on the other side and just
a big expansive valley.

- So we could already feel it,
we could feel the elevation,

but the views were
just unbelievable.

- We put our packs off
to the side on some rocks

and just start
going up this peak,

all of a sudden the
trail disappears.

The side trail to the King's
Peak should not be called

the side trail to anywhere
because it is not a trail.

It is simply giant rocks
for 700 vertical feet,

all the way to the top.

- I've never seen a
mountain like this before,

it was just a pile of rocks,
rocks that are about anywhere

from the size of a coffee
table to the size of a car.

And you have to just kind
of hop from rock to rock

and just hope that
you don't fall.

- I don't think anybody
really expected it

to be as difficult
as it actually was.

Some parts of it, we were
actually going hand over hand

and it just kept
going up and up and up

and I complained, I
bitched the entire way.

I yelled at
everybody, I was mad.

I was like, why are
you making me do this?

You said I was gonna
have cell phone

service halfway
up this mountain.

That's the only reason I'm
coming up this mountain

so I can call my girlfriend,
was their cell phone service?

No, there was no
cell phone service.

(screaming)

- It is completely
rewarding being up here

and doing it with these guys.

Makes it all that much better.

These guys let me tag along.

I feel pretty grateful
and lucky for that.

- It was a good time,
and here we are.

- The Highest point in
Utah. Here's to Utah.

(screaming)

- It's one of the reasons why
I hike is for those moments

and it was a moment that
I'm not gonna forget.

- We made our way back
down Anderson Pass

which took almost as long
as it took to get back up

because you couldn't move
fast 'cause there's no trail.

- We're all sitting
there at Anderson Pass

and we're just kind of relaxing

and Will says, is that a
patch of snow on the side of

that mountain, I look at it
and I seen the head move,

I was like, no, that's
a mountain goat.

That's first time I ever
seen a mountain goat.

(soft music)

(birds chirping)

- So we're coming down from
King's Peak, none of us

were smart enough to bring
enough water with us.

So we're all out of water,
we're in this valley.

We can't find any, we're
thirsty, and that sucks.

(upbeat music)

- So we saw some herds of
sheep, two or three times,

and you would hear
'em ahead of time.

And I said, why are those
sheep making so much noise?

And Benny just makes this up.

He says, "Oh,
they're just trying

"to tell each other
that we're coming."

And he was totally serious

It was the biggest
crock of crap.

- I've never heard
so much bahing in my
life, like (baaah!).

It was kind of crazy.

- There are sheep drive
lines that do cross the trail

at times, we've had
almost 150 years

of grazing history
in the Uintas.

Sheep grazing mainly
in the high elevations.

And the Uintas are
a primitive area,

now they're a wilderness
area, but it's still part

of our public land system.

So grazing is still
an acceptable use.

(sheep sounds)

(birds chirping)

- Well, today was definitely
one of the hardest days

of hiking that I've ever had.

And that's saying a lot 'cause
I've hiked a lot of miles,

a lot of places, a
lot of countries,

but the climbing
was pretty insane.

And the sun was just
beating on us all day long.

The water was plentiful
on the way up,

but on the way down,
we kind of ran out.

So we were hiking without
water for a while.

So we were a little parched.

Pretty much ran
down the mountain

so that I could get
to water source.

So as you can see, I'm in a
reclined position right now

that's because I'm literally
about to fall asleep.

I just ate my food.

And I'm gonna go
climb into my tent,

and we're gonna do it
all over again tomorrow.

(soft music)

- Usually I wake up a little
chipper, didn't happen today.

- My name is Steve
Kaiser, and I'm 60.

And I feel like my
life has been a life

of adventure and enjoyment,
for the most part.

- Steve is like a mix of a big
brother and another father.

He's just this big,
jovial personality.

He's always optimistic.

He's a person who's not
afraid to give a compliment.

He will always find
something positive to say

about you to build you up
and to make you feel good.

- When you're down
or you're feeling it.

Your legs are feeling it.

Steve will come up and
he'll just make you laugh,

and make you smile.

- There's only so
much oxygen here

and I need it to
breathe, not laugh.

- And don't tell him
that he's 60 years old

because he's hiking
with all us young guys.

Sometimes he's moving
faster than us.

He pretty much started
hiking with Joe

and Matt right
from the beginning.

So all he's ever
known is moving fast.

So Steve is just crazy.

Honestly, I really
aspire to be like Steve,

when I'm his age, you know,
in that good of shape.

- Steve is a crazy character,
I absolutely love Steve.

If you're not laughing
when you're around Steve,

then you're deaf.

- I love hiking.

Well, I love everything
except the walking.

- Can be moody at times so
we tease him about that.

He gets Hangry.

- Look a bone!

(growling)

- But just a great guy who
would do anything for you.

- He's had a crazy
life, you know,

he's lived in a bunch
of different places.

He just has a lot of stories.

He's a real interesting
guy to hang around with.

- I have some core
passions that really

have been with me all my life.

I have to work with my hands.

I do a lot of original
designs, you know,

nothing really too
complex, more artistic.

I make a lot of
gifts for people.

So woodworking and metalworking
those are two very important

core passions of mine
and also fitness,

I try to be as fit as possible.

As a person, just my
overall path in life,

I just feel solid and
I'm happy, I'm content

and my life is perfect.

(upbeat music)

- Life before hiking,

was, well, a lot transpired
around the same time

I started hiking, so my
life is very different now.

My life of addiction
actually began when I was

about three or four years old,
being the youngest of five,

I guess I was a surprise for
parents that were over age 40.

My two older sisters were
15 and 17 when I was born,

and by time I was
three, they were gone.

So, back in the 60s they
didn't know about abandonment

issues and all of that, you
know, it just wasn't a thing.

But it's real, so my
life changed at that time

and I kind of went
dark for 52 years.

My parents back then
they smoked about eight

or 10 packs a day between them,
just lighting one cigarette

off the other, and so I would
get cigarettes just take them,

just steal them and they
would never miss them.

But I was addicted where
I needed a cigarette.

I was addicted by time I
was four or five years old.

From age 27, I had been
involved with AA or NA,

and most of my adult life
from age 20 to age 55,

I only had six years cumulative

of active alcoholism
or addiction.

All those other years
were just dry years

trying to be sober,
but miserable.

And throughout my adult life,
I had probably six bad spikes

of depression where I really
needed to go get help.

I would go to AA, I would go
to NA, I'd work the steps,

I would get sponsors, and the
story was always the same.

When I was three years old.

My two older sisters had left me

so it just stopped right there.

There was no more, there
were no more questions

about any other trauma.

And so I had had other abuses

that I didn't realize
were a factor.

And I struggled with that
until I was about 55 years old.

(birds chirping)

I discovered hiking as a
series of random events

that began with reading a
novel entitled, "Lone wolf."

And in that novel, there
were things mentioned

about hiking and things
like that or wilderness.

And I got this idea of hiking
the Pacific Crest Trail.

My motivation was pretty dark.

Actually, I'd been to therapists

and psychiatrists
and nothing worked.

Nothing could help, and suicidal
thoughts were escalating.

And my plan was to go out
to California in 2014,

and hike the Pacific Crest Trail

and just die and
just not come back.

I was not coming back.

I knew I just did not
wanna live anymore.

I researched probably
200 websites,

looking at gear of
just reading about it.

I had not done any
hikes at that time.

That's how I met Joe Valesko.

- Steve Kaiser is a
good friend of ours.

He started off as a customer,
he had bought something

or other and he came to
the shop to pick it up.

And we were going on a
like a short section hike

of the AT in a couple of weeks.

And we just happen to
ask him if he wanted

to come on the hike with us.

- And I thought, "what?" Do
you see what you're looking at?

I'm an old fat man, I can't
even walk barely, you know,

and here's Joe like not even
30 years old inviting me

on this hike and I was
a little uncomfortable

with it wondering, what
the correct answer was,

of course, I wanted
to go but I felt like,

oh my God, I'm gonna be
imposing on these people.

Well, I went with him, his
wife Sheryl and Matt Favero.

That's when I first met Matt.

He was a little scary at first,

but really hit it off with them.

(soft music)

I went to treatment,
and the therapist said,

"I'm gonna put you
in the trauma group."

So I go the trauma group, and
there's about three people

in there plus the therapist.

And she said, "Well, you know,
Steve, why are you here?"

And it just came out with this
sexual abuse I had as a kid,

10, 11, 12, 13 years old, a
couple of different incidences.

And I remember saying it

and then feeling
this feeling inside.

And I just said, "I
guess it was important".

And I just started sobbing.

I had no idea I was
carrying this around.

I was free at that
moment, because I'd worked

on so many other
things in my life.

There really wasn't
anything left, except that.

Since then, I haven't
had any more depression.

No more thoughts of suicide
at any level whatsoever.

It was a very fortunate
event, because I think a lot

of people are walking
around with those things

that they don't know
how to get rid of.

And I was one of the lucky ones.

- That was probably
five, six years ago.

And ever since then,
he's been coming on

almost all the hikes that we do.

He does great, he keeps
up with us, no problem.

We have to keep up with
him, half the time.

(birds chirping)

- All right, so
today is day seven.

It's gonna be one
of our easier days.

We've got about just
a little over 10 miles

and we 1700 feet
in elevation gain,

which is about half of
what we did yesterday.

We're gonna go over
Tungsten Pass immediately.

Then we've got Porcupine
Pass, and then we're looking

forward to that Red
Beard dance party.

When we get to camp early today.

(upbeat music)

- Growing up my dad always
had nice minerals and rocks,

you know around the house
from places that he went.

And so doing this hike,
you just see all kinds.

This just gives you a little
sampling of these red,

there's purple, there's
green, there's yellow.

Just beautiful.

- My name is Ryan Buerkle,

I'm the Recreation
Program Manager

for the Ashley National Forest.

Once you're on the
Highline Trail,

especially in those high
basins, you're gonna come

along these big rock cairns,

Six to eight foot
high pile of rocks.

And what those are for
is for way finding.

So you can see from
one cairn to the next,

and see where you're
supposed to head towards.

Because in that alpine tundra,

there's not a specific
worn in trail tread.

It's just walking across
a natural landscape.

- Stone cairns are a
difficulty for archaeologists,

because you can't
just date stones.

So basically, unless
someone's already identified

them historically, and you can
go back to a historic record

and know that one was there.

There's really no way
to know necessarily

when they were built.

Sheep herders are a kind of
well known for making some

of the more complicated
cairns that you might see,

like some of the nice
sort of cylindrical ones.

The hard aspect of that too,
is the fact that what you see

in a lot of wilderness
areas and public lands,

especially in the West,

is a lot of the hikers
creating cairns themselves.

Existing human infrastructure
that's already there.

That's historic, we like
it and it's good stuff.

But as far as creating
new infrastructure
or new structures,

whether out of trees or
rock or anything else,

that's something
that's kind of a big

no, no in the wilderness,
we wanna try to leave

that as untrammeled as possible.

(soft music)

- I was walking along
the rock path yesterday,

one of the rocks turned over
and the sharp edge of the rock

went "pow" right into
the side of my shoe.

I screamed a few choice words
at the rock and kept going

and I just realized
that hey, look at this.

I got a nice bruise from it.

- What are you gonna do?

- Towards the end of our
day, we got to a location

and we stopped there initially
just to take a break.

But it was so incredible
that we all just kind of came

to the conclusion rather
quickly that this was a great

place to spend the night.

(birds chirping)

- Around 10.30 I
climbed out of my tent.

The stars were just incredible.

They were unlike anything
I'd ever seen before.

And I just remember standing
there and taking it all

in for a few minutes before
climbing back in my tent

and going to sleep that night.

(soft music)

- Steve here, he had
to go to the bathroom.

We just started
hiking so he went off

into the woods to do number two.

(laughing)

(Elk calling)

- No way.

- He just got an Elk to
freken call back at him.

The Elk's like, "I wanna
hang out with you".

- It was amazing.

(upbeat music)

- As we climbed up Red Knob
Pass, the beauty around us

was just spectacular again

like it had been on
this entire hike.

But once we reach the top of
the pass, I'll never forget it.

It was by far the best pass
that we had been up so far.

It was almost 360
degrees of mountains

with a deep valley,
almost a canyon.

(upbeat music)

- We did this right going from
east to west on this trail.

Every day was great.

And the next day was even
better and today was the best.

The whole mountain
range was just so much

more defined and
jagged and pretty.

Everything was
just better today.

- My name is Benny Braden,
I'm Electrician by trade,

but I also have a great
passion for backpacking.

First of all, I'm
follower of Christ,

and I absolutely love my family.

- Benny is Mr. Loyalty, if
you need him, he'll be there.

He'll drive hours to help you,
he really values friendship,

and he values a
quality relationship,

whether that be with his family,

his friends or the
hiking community.

- Benny is one of the
most passionate guys

when it comes to hiking
that I've ever met.

He is pretty much
always on a trail.

He holds some records, he's the
fastest person to ever hike.

All the trails in the Great
Smoky Mountain National Park

is about 900 miles of trail.

- I think Benny is the
most physically fit

45 year old I have
ever met in my life.

- He's a man of few words.

He's an electrician by
trade, and I guess he's able

to just stop his business
and then his clients wait

for him and when he gets
back to town, he picks up

where he left off and he's
able to make enough money

to basically support himself
and support his hiking.

- When I was growing up,
I was, I like to say,

I was a good son, I
was a pretty quiet kid,

and I really enjoyed
just being outside.

(soft music)

In the early 2000s,
I used to be an EMT.

I did it because I would
hope that someone would do

something for my family
member if they were in need.

It is a great opportunity,
I enjoyed it at the time.

It's tough to do that job
and have a normal life.

We did all kinds of
calls, mostly medical,

that they could
range from anything

from a vehicle
accident, to drownings.

To spare everybody the
graphic nature of that job,

I just simply tell folks,

I've seen people die every
way they can possibly die.

Those kind of events can
really impact you mentally.

Whenever I would leave a
scene, I would just block it

out in my mind as if it didn't
happen, and I would go on

with my normal daily routine.

And when I was on call, if
I was let's say extricating

a person from a
vehicle, I wouldn't make
patient eye contact

because it wasn't
human at that point.

I'd focus mostly on moving
the metal of the vehicle

to get that person out,
and that allowed me

to just kind of "out
of sight out of mind".

And that worked for years,

until after I was
completely out of the field.

I first noticed
the effects of it,

shortly after we got married.

I had a son from a
previous marriage,

and Ashley had her two daughters
from a previous marriage.

In addition to that,
my brother passed away

in that same time period,
and he had two girls.

Most people call it PTSD, post
traumatic stress disorder.

Nobody wants to be
labeled with a disorder.

So that's why choose
simply to call it PTS.

You try to block out some stuff
but at some point in time,

you can't block out anymore.

It sent me into a
very deep depression.

- To see Benny go through
PTS was really heartbreaking.

It was kind of like walking
on eggshells all the time.

- I would just become
a monster I would yell

and scream. Not just at
Ashley, but at the kids.

- Then he would leave and he'd
say gone through the night

he would go park in a
parking lot and sleep.

- And before I knew it, there
was an attempt at suicide.

I woke up a day or two later,

being evaluated in
a mental hospital.

- That was definitely a
hard thing to go through.

And I did a lot of praying.

But I knew that there would come

a time where it would be over.

So you just have to
like, work through it.

And I wasn't gonna stop
loving him no matter what.

- Whenever I'm on a
long hike, I pray a lot.

Talk to God a lot, just
try to clear out my mind.

And I started
seeing some answers.

It's like I have a
huge desk in my brain

and is just piled up with
images of different events.

It's like I can take
one of those images

and look at it and pray
about it, meditate about it,

and try to make
some sense of it.

Now some things I don't
ever make sense of,

like why did this
one child have die?

Or why did this family
have to suffer this loss?

Some things I simply
cannot answer,

but I'm able to
make sense of it.

So that allows me to move on.

Then I can pull another image.

Now it might take me a
day to deal with that.

It might take me the whole
hike to deal with it,

but at least that's one
situation that I've dealt with.

And I can move on.

My whole demeanor was
different, it was changing me.

Every day I would be out in
the woods, it was changing me.

I was less aggressive with
my discipline, with my words.

It softened me up

- We're closer as a couple
and closer with kids.

He's a better husband,
and a way better dad.

- Well, my life now
is a lot different

than what it used
to be for sure.

And I'm so thankful, I
couldn't have scripted

my life any better
than what it is.

And it's all thanks to
long distance backpack.

And of course to God. A
lot of answered prayers.

Our time together is very
well spent and is cherished

'cause we know how
life used to be.

(birds chirping)

(cheering)

- The finish!!
- Congratulations!

(cheering)

- Good job Benny!

- You beast!

- Good job Benny!

(laughing)

- Careful.

(upbeat music)

- Best pass so far.

No doubt definitely the
sketchiest pass, my gosh.

- Amazing, geeze.

- You can definitely
knit a hat out of that.

Yeah, I love wool hats.

(upbeat music)

(thunder roaring)

- I was just in the worst
hailstorm in my life basically

it started off pretty tame
and then it just got crazier

and crazier and
heavier and heavier.

- It only lasted for maybe
three or four minutes.

And then we were able to really
just jump out of our tents

and hang out together and just
enjoy each other's company.

As we experienced our last night

on the magical Uinta
Highline Trail.

- The final day.

Me and Will are some of
the first to wake up.

We're sitting there taking
pictures of the sunrise

reflecting off of the
lake, and all of a sudden,

I thought Will was gunna
choke on his coffee

because he's like, "moose!
there's two moose!"

- We're seeing two moose right
now, right in front of us.

It looks like a male and female.

It was really a special
moment for me on this trip.

And I'm like pumping my
arms and I was like yeah.

- What a great ending.

Really, I don't think we could
have scripted it any better.

To have these incredible
majestic animals just walk out.

And it was a great
experience really,

and something I'll never forget.

(upbeat music)

- The thing I missed the most
every time I'm on the trail

is my wife and my daughter,
I know that sounds cliche,

but it's totally the truth.

- What I miss on this
hike is just communicating

with people that I
talk to every day.

We've gone so many days
without any phone service.

You know how it
is it's traumatic.

- The thing I miss the
most is my girlfriend,

Joelle and just my life in
Gainesville and the farm.

- I miss my wife, my
beautiful bride, miss my kids,

the last couple days just before
you start going back home,

you start anticipating
what that moment

is gonna be like
whenever you reunite.

- The thing that really
means the most to me in life

are my relationships,
because you can't buy them.

You can't fake them.

You have to earn them
through shared experiences.

- I can be in the country,
I can be in the woods,

I can be in the city, and enjoy
myself no matter where I am.

I guess what's most
important is who I'm with.

- Yey!

- Yeah! yeah!

- Another one done baby!

- 104 miles.

- It was incredible.

I couldn't imagine
finishing up my summer hike,

any other way at
any other place,

than on the Uinta Highline.

- And it's just one of those
things you kind of have

to just chase after your
passions and you don't know

what tomorrow is gonna
hold and that's the whole

excitement about long distance
hiking, you don't know

who you'll meet the
next day, you don't know

where you'll sleep the next day.

- Everybody spends
their time indoors.

You know, you go from in
your house, to in a car,

to in an office, back to in
your car, back in your house.

So I think you know,
getting outside

is important for everybody.

- My children are watching.

We don't only teach our
children right from wrong,

but we also teach
them how to live.

Do we want them to be ordinary?

Or do we want our children
to be extraordinary?

We lead by example?

- I'm so grateful for my life
and I love the experiences

and the adventures that I've
been on in the last few years.

I look forward to
what's to come.

- It's our path, and this
is where I'm supposed to be,

right now, at this very moment.

And what we do next, matters.

(soft music)

- All right, day
night, oops, day night.

Okay, it's day nine.

(laughing)

- Take 12 Matt.

Day nine.

- He's really struggling with it

- My favorite animal.

I don't know if I have
a favorite animal,

maybe the honey badger,
'cause they're pretty badass

(laughing)

- Hi! Make a happy face.

- Make a silly face Lu

- That's awesome.

* Lets get physical, physical

* We're gunna get
physical, physical, yeah *

(laughing)
- That was wonderful.

- Please don't put
that in the video.

(soft music)