David Gray's video: Tecumseh Trail Indiana Backpacking - April 2019

For my 2nd trip of the 2019 backpacking season I decided to do a 20-mile section of the Tecumseh Trail near Bloomington, Indiana. My original plan had been to once again do an early spring hike on a section of the Appalachian Trail, but various time conflicts, and having to take the dogs along (which I wouldn’t want to do on the AT), led me to do a trip closer to home. One other major consider in choosing a destination in my backyard was that the trip became the first ‘shake down’ hike for my new Nikon Z6 camera. That’s right… I have now made the leap to mirrorless technology and 4K video! I decided to keep the hike fairly simple so that I could spend more time focusing on getting to know the Z6 in the field. Initially my plan was to basically do a repeat of my 2015 Tecumseh Trail hike – an out-and-back overnighter to the AT-style Fox Den Shelter – but in the end I decided to set up a shuttle ride so that I could do a 20-mile, south-to-north, point-to-point hike, covering basically the northern half of the Tecumseh Trail. That 20-mile stretch is my favorite section of the Tecumseh, and has everything from isolated deep woods stuff to rural Indiana road walk stretches, with plenty of terrain to keep things interesting (and physically challenging!). Adding to the ‘fun’ were very heavy rains that had hit the entire area in the days before the hike, which caused significant road flooding that made even getting to the starting point an adventure in map reading and finding alternate ‘high’ routes. Of course that rain also caused flooding along the trail which certainly added to the ‘adventure’. In the end what I thought would be a bit of a ‘yawner’ trip (but a good camera shakedown hike) ended up having more than its fair share of drama! The woods were absolutely gorgeous on the hike, coming alive with new vibrant green leaves and with spring flowers everywhere you looked. And it didn’t hurt that we once again had perfect weather, somehow managing to hit an ideal ‘window’ of sunny weather sandwiched between rain and cold temperatures on both sides of the hike. Despite some challenges it was a really pleasant hike! For those who have watched my other videos this one is done in the same style - about 45 minutes in length, intended to bring the audience along for the 'ride', and with a still picture slide show with music at the end. If you just have a few minutes skip to the end and enjoy the pictures. Equipment / Gear List: Still and Video Camera: Nikon Z6 with Nikkor 20mm f1.8 lens Video Editing Software: Vegas Pro 16 Pack: ZPacks Arc Blast 52l Slide show music - Acoustic Guitar 1 by Jason Shaw, AudioNautix. www.audionautix.com