Yooo Bear
Having lived without a car until two months ago, I’ve always had an interest in exploring the nature. Walks around parks, tiny woodlands, and alleys helped me establish a baseline interest in a world beyond the confines of school and work.
However, my time constraints have gradually monopolised my reality since the first COVID lockdowns. Between a day-job, hobbies, and cooking, my time outside has become increasingly regimented and predictable. Doing the same walks around the same sleepy suburbs isn’t bad, but leaving these restrictions unchecked has gradually eroded my imagination for the depth and purity that the outdoors has to offer.
Adventure Archives, hosted by Andrew, Bryan, Thomas, and Robbie, offers a compelling fix for the ailments of modern living. Each two-hour episode, depicts the hosts as they endure multi-day backpacking trips along trails across the United States.
Breadth and Depth
Themes of simplicity and reduction are cornerstones in the show’s theming. The ‘plots’ of each trip are the plots of early humans: get from A to B, find a place to sleep, find sources of clean water, forage what’s edible or flammable. Most episodes begin with their excellent theme song. Most episodes conclude with a narration about our responsibility to nature or about freeing ourselves from the commotion of modern civilisation (in broad strokes). For a twist of Internet whimsy, epilogues feature a post-hike meal and elaborate Patreon shoutouts/movie references.
The problems overcome during each of their responsibly-planned trips are rarely high-stakes. While lacking the hooks of a swashbuckling epoch, episodes often spark joy in the little victories. The biggest flame I light per week is my gas stove, so I’m always impressed by the mesmerising fires the four can build with the wood they collect and the ferro rods in their backpacks. While the food they cook is often less sophisticated than anything I’ve made at home, I’m delighted by the pride they have in the camping meals and sausages they’ve shared after long days of walking. I get similar culture shock when they build tents or filter water into their bladders, revealing how little is required to satisfy the basic needs.
Watching the group point out cool streams, trees, and rock faces may seem trite upon first viewings. However, these visuals bookend arduous sections of trail and offer time for contemplation (while they pose dramatically, of course). These simply-shot vistas never serve a grander narrative than they can honestly offer. The implicit absence of light pollution, cars, and people is what makes backpacking worth the price of admission. These moments reveal that these ecosystems are worth preserving because they are much larger than ourselves.
While they’re capable of letting the hike speak for itself, the hosts push themselves to form compelling relationships to their environment wherever they go. Andrew is the group’s premier encyclopaedia, frequently stopping to educate on plants species’ medicinal properties and distinguishing visual characteristics. His mushroom exposition specifically is accompanied by close-ups that reveal their mind-bending beauty and surreal variety.
Small Stuff Sweated
Adventure Archives’ commitment to honest appreciation of the outdoors is laudable, but you can clearly see the love and care they put in to curate the viewing experience. Given the time spent carrying around expensive video equipment in the soggy outdoors and the amount of footage they edit down to two hours, even the crappy version of their videos is exhausting to create.
Beyond the commendable bare minimum, the team takes countless opportunities to sweat the small stuff. Close-ups of mushrooms and shots of the group huddled within frame during meal breaks take as much time as it does camera babysitting. While their episodes are peppered with these technically ‘manufactured’ moments, their light touch approach keeps you seamlessly immersed in both the hike and their rapport. You appreciate their meddling a you own pace.
Adventure Agency
Once immersed, you become something of an apprentice looking over their shoulders. Starting from a relative zero, you can pick up basics like how to hang your food away from bears, build a fire, or sleep in freezing temperatures. Depending on the trail, they’ll give pieces of technical advice on how to take advantage of the environment around you. Their lives are never ‘saved’ by their ability to distinguish between edible vs. poisonous mushrooms or forage sap-rich flammable twigs. However, their demystification of nature shows both how rich the wilderness is and how resourceful you can be be in return.
Watching the Adventure Archives team undertake the opulence and onus of backpacking has gradually endowed me with surprising agency. Backpacking still remains a terrible hobby to get into on a whim. Between knowing all the terms, buying all the gear, and making all the plans necessary to bring a trip together, I’m content to immerse myself in their treks from the comfort of my own home. However, the skills they’ve demonstrated help me recognise how approachable the hobby truly is. You’ll be ready to rough it, whether you’re taking an afternoon in the park or a multi-day hike in a national park.
Dry Something
As I rethink my relationship to my natural environment, the Adventure Archives team gives us access to nature’s simplicity and reduction. Their production shows upstanding prowess, but it keeps their journeys’ simple joys in focus without stealing the spotlight. Along the way, they give us the agency to embrace the wilderness: not as something to be feared or overcome, but to maintain a conversation with.
