One of my favorite things about Netflix is the availability of small, independent narratives on Instant View. I stumbled across Southbounders last night which was so spot on for thru hiking the AT (Appalachian Trail)– it felt like a documentary.
The story is simple to the point of purity (life has a tendency to be rather anti-climatic) and production was interesting as seasonal changes are a framework for the story. (They had two camera crews during production summer/fall and progressed locations southerly all the way to Springer Mountain, Georgia.)
Southbounding on the AT is pretty rare, not to mention a solo female thru-hiker. I had a chuckle because the main character, her trail name being “Next Step” was avoiding medical school at Northwestern (the degree granting organization that gave me a BA), which sufficiently annoyed her father.
That's me with the glasses. I look like one of the junior high kids I took on the trail.
My folks always thought the trail was pretty good for me and at one point I announced I was quitting college to be a trail guide in North Carolina, of course I was 19 and calling from a pay phone at the Walasi-Yi Center near Blairsville, Georgia and no doubt making decisions on the thrill of the backpacking life.
It’s easy to get sucked in. The film is a total nostalgia piece for me, and definitely a tight little feature length for using what you’ve got.
The narrative is driven by trail journals that are left at each shelter, I was only able to track down one of my trail notebooks– which is mostly cartoons and observations. But I had two quotes in it:
“You have a destiny.”
“It’s really stupid to worship the work of your own hands.”