Cave Dog Here

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dvd?

Hey dog, any chance that OLN or the dog team will be selling a DVD of this series or some expanded version?

Congrats on your most excellent adventure.
 
Ahhhh....the Na Pali Coast. The Kalalau trail is awesome, huh Cave Dog? I wish I could be hiking it again right now! Nothing like the red dirt getting nice and slick in the rain. You ain't slipped on nothin' til you slipped on red dirt mud! That stuff is slicker than snot on a doorknob.

- darren
 
BorealChickadee said:
Please make sure you tell us when the repeat episodes will be. I didn't check in here tonight until after the show was already over.
Ditto. Dog rules.
 
Cave Dog: you dream the impossible dreams, and then make them real. Thanks for taking us mere mortals along for the ride.

W*rk (an Arm-ism) kept me from seeing this note. Wish I had known earlier so I could have TiVo'd it :( I will DEFINITELY watch the next 2 shows! Can't wait!
 
duder! been followin' your trip on the internet at work (HEEHEE!! :D ) as i'm livin' off the grid seein' as how i have no tv anymore! :eek: wish i coulda seen the oln thing though. maybe they'll repeat it and i can watch it at eddie70's place. anyway, you know you da man!!! :) :) :)
 
As Zakk Wylde would say..."Ooohhhh Yeaaaahhh!".

Hey it was nice hiking Katahdin with you, Frodo and your partial Dog Team a few years back. I hope to catch the show, and possibly up with you again at some point.

So, how long do you (the VFTT community) think it will take for Cave Dog to get a double green square?
 
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Thanks again for all of your support. It is exciting and making me want to finish up those 51 trip reports. I also enjoy the side photos. Head-that photo of Bondcliffs brings back great memories of Yankee Dog taking photos of me in the same spot during the Whites challenge. During a speed attempt, I usually do not stop for photos, but how can you refuse Frodo. Darren-that is a stunning kayak photo. BorealChickadee-is that Colden in the background? Pilgrim-I hope you are okay.

Beverly-The theme song is a bit much. I have to admit that I am not quite sure what to make of it. I am not sure, but I think that the song and the voice over was by a bluegrass singer from the South that is friends with the producer. The amazing thing is that this narrator had not seen the show. He reads the scripts and makes sure that he hits key words at certain time stamps. I am not in the production side of the show. But I have found the process fascinating.

OLN’s feedback email is: [email protected]
Duofold’s can be found at: http://www.duofold.com/contactUs.asp

One of the aspects of this process that I have learned is that the success of the show is not rated so much on whether it is good or bad. It is rated on how it is perceived to be received. There is nothing that is more likely to give me another crack at this than if OLN and Duofold started getting emails asking for more. I doubt that the fishing shows that “Live Your Passion” was straddled by get tons of emails asking for more views of a person’s back standing in a boat waiting for the next fish. Even a few emails could make the difference. “Live Your Passion” is cram packed, and there is so much more to offer.

Dan Schwachter, the cameraman, is a three time Emmy award winner. We are so incredibly lucky to have someone so overqualified. It kills me that his amazing pans of the stunning scenery get hacked because each state can only average about a minute of footage. Each show has 22 minutes, 26 seconds of content. Since the first show covered only 9 states, the next two episodes will cover 21 each. I would not want to have the editor’s job. There was almost one hundred hours of footage shot, and Dan was very economical on what he shot. That means for everything that you see, there is ten times that amount of footage still waiting to be seen. I feel they should make a feature length documentary or a full TV series out of it. It kills me to find out that Wisconsin only gets twenty seconds. We hit the Ice Age Trail in prime fall colors.

If you did not get a chance to see the show, tell them you heard it was good and you want them to repeat it. If you saw the show, tell them you want more. Believe me, you could make a difference in this case. This is new territory for them, and they are trying to decide if it was worth it.

I am starting to get too verbose again; however, I wanted to write a bit more about Dan. He took a huge pay cut because he believed so strongly in the project. His longest hike before this challenge had been 12.5 miles. His first day with me, he hiked 32.5 miles and ended up taking a trip to the hospital. No worries, nothing too serious, he had fluid in his knee. He just did a few miles in Washington but then 25 miles is Alaska. That amazing footage of Alaska was taken through some absolutely excruciating pain. The doctors told him that he must stop hiking and the show would have been over. However, he refused. He continued on hiking with an immobilizing split. His knee eventually got better but the trials remained. He lost most of his toenails, acquired some of the biggest blisters known to man, and a horrible case of poison ivy. And he never once complained, not even a little bit. He was having the time of his life. His goal was to hike 500 miles with me. That came and went effortlessly. So, he upped his goal to 600 miles and ended up with 680 miles, all the while carrying camera equipment over mountains, through bogs, into the forest, and across lava flows. I hiked with Schwach Dog (or he know goes by Under Dog) more miles than anyone else in my life. I feel I have gained a true friend.

Drewski-Under Dog and I noticed the cleared out section of our route on the AT-VT. We both commented at the time how much harder it would have been for us if we had to clamor over all that blowdown. There were a lot of small trees downed. It must have taken you an enormous amount of time to clear the trail. We are both very appreciative. I wish that we would have connected. We got a bit of a late start because of our long drive from central Pennsylvania. We also took a lot of footage of me running along fallen trees along the side of the trail that took a fair bit of time. I usually took a time check at noon. If I remember right, we had only done about seven miles by noon and around thirteen by 3:30 pm when Under Dog parted. I picked up the pace after that because I did not want more than half of the day’s endeavors to be in the dark. I barely made it because I had to pull my headlamp out shortly after 4:15 pm. I was surprised because I had made it much later the night before in PA.

I would love to see the DVD of the Whites, if I still can.

Is there a way that I can put a photo with this text?

Frodo-If there is anything else I can do to get you to the Kalalau Trail, let me know. It was one of the best days of my life.

Rik-This challenge was so huge and had so many logistics that I never had much time to think passed it. Besides, my next project will depend a lot on the success of the show, which is still being determined.

Spencer-I know of no clips online. It is a good idea, suggest it to OLN.

Eddie-I am trying to get a DVD version made, no word yet.

Mr. X-I had a great time with everyone on Katahdin. I hope to get back there to do the knife edge that the authorities would not allow us to do the day we were there.

What is a double green square?


Live the Dream,

Cave Dog
 
Cave Dog said:
Frodo-If there is anything else I can do to get you to the Kalalau Trail, let me know. It was one of the best days of my life.


VFTT trip in the making!!! I'm in! That is one trail worth repeating.

I fired off an email to OLN. I hope a bunch of you do too.

- darren
 
In awe

Cave Dog,
I am just simply in awe over your accomplishments. My mind cannot even comprehend what you had to put your body (and mind) through to complete this, as well as your other trips (the adk 46, etc). I'm looking forward to the other shows, and will fire off some e's to duofold and OLN on your behalf. If this does indeed make it to a dvd, you can bet I'll own a copy! With extreme respect, Slamdog (not related to any of the other "dogs"!!)
 
Cave Dog,
Emails sent. I would buy a dvd too if they were produced! Keep it up!
 
I emailed OLN and Duofold, too

On the OLN website it appears they will show repeats after the December 7, 14 and 21 shows.
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
5:30PM - 6:00PM
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
5:30PM - 6:00PM
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
5:30PM - 6:00PM
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
4:00PM - 4:30PM
Friday, December 30, 2005
4:30PM - 5:00PM
Monday, January 02, 2006
3:00PM - 3:30PM
Friday, January 06, 2006
4:30PM - 5:00PM
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
3:30PM - 4:00PM
Friday, January 13, 2006
4:30PM - 5:00PM
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
4:00PM - 4:30PM
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
4:00PM - 4:30PM
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
4:00PM - 4:30PM
I did a couple of miles of the Kalalau Trail years ago and it is spectacular. I'd love to go back and do the whole thing.

Pictures from Mount Jo and post Long Trail 2004:

Cave Dog on Mount Jo
Windy on Mount Jo
post hike suffering 2004
Post Long Trail 2004
 
Ya know, now that I look closer at the pictures of Cavedog, I think I ran into him on Upper Wolfjaw or Armstrong a couple of years back. I'll have to look at my notebook and figure out when I did the Upper Range with my firends to get the right dates. Either way, he (being Cavedog or not) was nice enough to take our picture with my camera.
I'm almost positive it was him...

Cavedog, all I can say is you're unbelievable. I wish I didn't have an aversion to paying for TV and got the OLN at home. Oh well, I'll just check out your site.

Take care and happy trails!
 
Cave Dog said:
Is there a way that I can put a photo with this text?

What is a double green square?

Cavedog:

When you are posting, there is a button just above the text box that has a mountain in it (what a surprise! :D ). If you click that, you can link or imbed a picture in your post. Darren prefers links...

I see you are half way to a 'double green square'. If you look at one of your posts, you will see a single green box under your name. If you hold the mouse cursor over the green square, it will say 'Cave Dog will become famous soon enough', which means you have 50 or more 'reputation points'. If you go to your 'User CP', you will be able to see who gave you points and for which posts. When you get to 100 points, you will have 2 squares (like I do).
Other exalted members of the community have 3 or even 4 squares.

I'm sure you'll be up to 100 very soon! :D
 
48 dvd

if you can give me an address sherpa john or i will mail you a copy of 48.the dvd shows people why some of us fools love to hike..
 
What you do is amazing! It's nice to hear about your adventures! It makes us dream big....we will probably not try to speed hike the way you do (because I'm slow...just ask my kids) but we can see that if we want to do something and we put forth the effort, we can achieve! That is a great thing to pass on to others especially our younger generation! We all need a goal in life! Thanks for inspiring us.
 
Beverly-Thanks for the schedule. All indications are that your emails are making a difference. They are now planning on having at least twice as many showings as originally planned. They do not expand programming lightly. They must like the response that they have been getting to the show.

Jbrown-Pleased to make your acquaintance again. Next time it should be on a hike together.

Tom Rankin-Thanks for the info on imbedding photos and green squares. With this terminology, I feel a bit like we are talking about incestuous wartime correspondents or maybe some sort of D&D game. What is “User CP”? I am sorry, but I am not very bulletin board savvy. Maybe these questions are not appropriate for this thread, but you have me curious. I just discovered by happenstance that there is something called “private message”. Apparently, I have had some messages sitting around for over a year. Sorry, I did not know about them.

Darren-Do you want me to imbed or link. I can make the picture small and imbed it. If I link, how do I do that? I could put it on my website and link to the site? Is that the proper custom?

Drewski-Thanks, I would love the DVD. Any opportunity to spend some time looking or ruminating about the White Mountains is time well spent, in my opinion. I believe that I have an email in my cue that I can reply to with an address. I am horribly backlogged on my emails. But I am almost done with the trip reports. Catching up on email will be my next challenge.

The Sikes-These challenges are really not about speed hiking. They are about living your dreams, whatever they may be. They may be writing that book or taking that trip around the world, or even, just going out and visiting your old buddies that you lost touch with years ago. We all have dreams, big and small. However, the vast majority of people tend to get stuck into the routine of life. Wake up, eat, shower, drive to work, work, drive home, eat, watch TV, sleep, wake up, eat….If that is your dream, great. However, for most people it is not. Yet, somewhere along the way that ends up becoming the vast majority of our lives and dreams fade.

I do not want to trivialize my generalizations. Everyone’s situation is different. There can be real obstacles to anyone’s dreams. They probably would not be dreams otherwise. Spouse, kids, parents, pets, school, disability, money, the obstacles can be many at times. The point is that those obstacles, in most cases, are not as big as they seem at the time. I really believe that, within reason, if there is a will there is a way. Sometimes it takes juggling. Sometimes it takes sacrifices, but the rewards are worth it. So, get out there and start writing that book or find the resources and time to take that trip around the world or start googling your old forgotten buddies or just get out and hike. Live life like you mean it, live life with meaning.

***
Teejay just brought it to my attention that there was a long thread with some vigorous debate about me in November of 2004. I wanted to give you a few impressions.

First of all, I was surprised at how civil it remained. There seems to be something inherent to this kind of communication that, when emotions get involved, it tends to lead to misperceptions about the other person or their point of view. Certainly the anonymity is part of it. The fact that it is really less a dialogue than concurrent monologues, seems to be part of it too. Timing may be at play, at times. The fact that it has created a culture of memos instead of letters may be a factor as well. I also feel it has something to do with not being able to see or hear the person you are communicating with. It makes it harder to understand emphasis. I feel like people sometimes overcompensate by adding meaning to their words that sometimes goes astray to their feelings. So, I was glad that, although the thread wavered a couple times, it generally remained civil.

Next, I think that it is not appropriate to answer specific questions from that thread here. It is so old. I would probably write a fifty page response and no one would read it anyway. It appears to have answered most people’s questions already, and it went off on to topics like ageism or correspondents. I could offer my opinions about ageism, but I am not sure who would care, and I know nothing about correspondents since I am not a member of the 46er club. That being said, I do enjoy vigorous discussions, dislike unanswered questions, and above all value truth. So, if people would like to read my thoughts on those matters, I urge you to ask them again on this thread. I am not saying that this thread should go in a totally different direction. I am only offering it to you should you choose it.

Do you want to know if I have been back to the ADK again? Do you want to know if it matters to me if I ever come back to the ADK again? Do you want to know if I believe people should hike their own hike? Do you want to know if I think that I am a publicity hound? Do you want to know if I have ever smelt a rose? Do you want to know why I never added publicity to hiking clubs or trail maintenance organizations in the northeast, when I have in other parts of the country? The reasons are many, and they are not all neutral. In fact, they are not at all neutral.

Though I have no need to offer any opinions, do not assume that I do not have any opinions. And expect that my opinions are not going to always be the same as yours.

That segues into my next point. If we decide to move the thread into a very different direction, a potentially controversial direction, I have one ground rule: respect.

Let me digress for one paragraph. I spent ten years living out of my car traveling around the country doing my own study of society, people, and nature. One of the things that seemed to always crop up, in most serious discussions, is that for any given number of people, their ended up being the same number of differing opinions. I remember back in college I spent some time asking people various versions of an impossible and scary situation. Essentially, it ran like this: You are in Nazi Germany during the Holocaust. You see a long line of Jews being forced to the edge of a ditch and shot dead. Would you try to stop it? After each response, I would change the scenario slightly to eliminate the reasons people gave for the answer in an effort to find their breaking point. The results struck me as astounding and in some ways opened my eyes. Before I started, I had assumed that there would be a certain number of people in one group and a certain number of people in another group. That was not the case at all. Every single person had their own opinion. Nothing since that time has changed this personal opinion about opinions. Sometimes it takes some digging, but we all have our different experiences, our different perspectives, and that is part of what makes life so interesting.

The reason I tell this story is that differences of opinion should not be surprising. They should be expected, appreciated, and enjoyed. If there were no differences in opinion, we could not learn from each other. My opinions are never final, and I hope they never will be.

That being said, this may not be where we want this thread to go.

I want to leave you with one last thought. I am not an expert. I have never claimed to be an expert of anything. I am not even an expert on speed hiking, ultramountaineering, or any other label one puts on my activities. I only claim to be doing my own thing and having a great time doing it. I could be doing it alone, but I would rather sharing it.


Live the Dream,

Cave Dog
 
Looking forward to catching the rest of the shows on OLN - thanks for posting the schedule, Beverly.

Darren - in addition to the slick red mud on the Kalalau, don't forget the rotting guava fruits adding another factor of slipperiness! :eek: Never thought I'd be wanting crampons on Kauai! Scenery and the 2 mile side trip to the waterfall & swimming hole made it all worthwhile though.
 
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