344: Thru-hiking the Colorado Trail as a Landscape Photographer - a podcast by Matt Payne

I recently embarked on a 35-day journey to hike the entire Colorado Trail, starting in Denver and ending in my home town of Durango. I embarked on this journey as a full-time professional landscape photographer with the hopes of capturing some incredible images and to have a transformative experience. Since returning, I've been bombarded with amazing questions about my experience and I figured why not turn this into a podcast episode!?

Today's episode of the F-Stop Collaborate and Listen Podcast is a little bit different! We have Brie Stockwell hosting the show and I'm in the hot seat! We collected all of your burning questions about what it was like to thru-hike all 491-miles of the Colorado Trail (via the Collegiate West route of course) as a photographer.

On this week's episode, we discuss:

• What is the Colorado Trail and what is involved in thru-hiking it.


• Gear considerations for the Colorado Trail. Check out my Colorado Trail Gear Guide!


• Training and logistical preparation needed to do the Colorado Trail.


• Hygiene challenges including... pooping on the trail, laundry, and water filtration.


• Photography choices and balancing hiking with making photographs while doing a thru-hike.


• How I charged my photography gear while on the trail.


• Lots and lots of stories from the Colorado Trail.


• Discussions about philosophy and psychology relating to my experience on the Colorado Trail.


• And a lot more!

Other topics/links discussed on the podcast this week:

• Support the podcast on Patreon.


• Holy Hiker Backpacking Bidet.


• Gear Skeptic YouTube Videos on backpacking food and nutrition.


• My podcast conversation with Sean Tucker.


• Brie's podcasts, A Creative Affair, and Wild Women in Photography.


• Watch podcast episodes on YouTube, where we overlay photos with our conversation via video.

I love hearing from the podcast listeners! Reach out to me via Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter if you'd like to be on the podcast or if you have an idea of a topic we can talk about. We also have an Instagram page, a Facebook Page, and a Facebook Group - so don't be shy!

We also have a searchable transcript of every episode!

Thanks for stopping in, collaborating with us, and listening. See you next week.

P.S. you can also support the podcast by purchasing items through our B+H affiliate link.

Further episodes of F-Stop Collaborate and Listen

Further podcasts by Matt Payne

Website of Matt Payne