David Gray's video: Tecumseh Trail Indiana Backpacking and Tribute to Jaden - October 2021

First, my old yellow lab Jaden in not dead! At 16-years old, he is getting really old, but he's still doing OK. (I've realized sometimes when I say 'tribute' or 'memorial' people suspect the worst, which I can understand.) As I contemplated a 2021 season-ending hike in October 2021, it dawned on me that Jaden might not have many (any) more backpacking trips in him, especially with the long Indiana winter upon as. I wasn't sure what kind of shape Jaden would be in as we got into the 2022 hiking season. So, I decided to use that October 2021 trip to make a video that combined the quick overnight hike on the Tecumseh Trail along with some 'flashback' clips of the many backpacking trips that Jaden and I have done together. At the time it seemed like a great idea, and relatively straightforward, but it turned out to be a rather epic video editing task which partially explains why it took me five months to complete the video (sorry about that!). All of the original videos I intended to include clips from were roughly one hour in length, but my plan was to include just a couple minutes of 'highlights' from each of the 20+ trip videos. That meant that I had to effectively 're-edit' each video entirely, a task that was pretty complicated and ended up taking a ton of time. But I feel the effort was worth it because the resulting video allows you to re-live Jaden's entire hiking 'career' in a relatively short and concise format. In addition, I've included some previously unseen photos of Jaden's puppy days along with a short video of Jaden meeting 8-week-old puppy Bailey for the very first time. Despite my best 'optimizing' efforts, the video turned out a bit longer than I was hoping for (1hr 18min) but I do feel that it flows quickly, and the viewing time goes by fast. However, I plan to publish a separate video with just the Tecumseh Trail hike (no Jaden flashbacks) as well as another video with only the Jaden flashbacks plus a still-picture slideshow (no trip video) for those wishing to view the two separate portions separately. So, with that, come along as Jaden, Bailey and I enjoy a late-season night out in the woods of Indiana as well as re-visit the hiking career of an exceptional trail dog and hiking companion.