There is a great looking new adventure film making the rounds called Paddle to Seattle that chronicles the adventures of two men as they paddled their way from Alaska to Seattle in wooden handmade Pygmy kayaks. Along the way, they covered more than 1300 miles, over a three month period, passing through the famed Inside Passage and surrounded by some of the most remote terrain in all of North America.
The two men who made this epic journey, J.J. Kelley and Josh Thomas, met purely by accident back in 2003 when they were both thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail. They ended up spending three months together, and when they reached the end of that adventure, they vowed to share more expeditions in the future. They have kept that vow, and Paddle to Seattle is a result of another one of their adventures.
The movie, which has been called “the best feature film about paddling produced in a decade” by Paddler Magazine, is starting to hit the festival circuit. It is currently scheduled to screen at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival on Nov. 7th and the Minneapolis Underground Film Festival on Dec. 6th, although I’m told that it has been submitted to a number of others as well. Checkout the Screenings page on the film’s website for more information and future announcements on where will be able to catch it for yourself.
Checkout a clip of the film below in which J.J. talks about some of the high tech gear they used to capture their adventure so they could make the film. The clip also gives you a good idea of what conditions were like for the two men as they spent days out on the water in all kinds of different conditions.
The film looks great, and I can’t wait to see it!
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After they "paddle to Seattle", maybe they can "shuffle off to Buffalo", or go to the Congo for a "rumble in the jungle"!
HAHAHAHA!!!!
What? Not the Conga in the Congo?
Such friendships as this become a wonderful element of these long enduring adventures. Companions I have met out on the trail years ago are still very close friends…
I'll bet that is one of the things that kept them going. Looking forward to this viewing!
DSD