The 40K to Far Away Challenge is coming up soon! Just over two weeks from now (October 2), Nick, Stephen and I will take off in separate directions from Washington DC to go as far as we can with 40,000 points and $400.
I’m still trying to nail down the final pieces of my plan. Where will I sleep at this location? What will I do at that location? How can I save a few more dollars?
Those things are important, but two things have weighed heavier on my mind: 1) Can I really carry it all with me? I need to pack super light because I won’t be bringing a suitcase. Can I cram everything I need into my little backpack? And, 2) We want our followers to enjoy the contest. What can we do to make it feel like you are there with us? The answer, I think, is to post pictures, video, and written observations as we go in as close to real time as possible. What platforms should we post to? Should we record video in portrait or landscape? Will we have enough time and internet bandwidth?
Practicing my way to Denali
As luck would have it, my good friend Stefan Krasowski won the Denali Road Lottery (which One Mile at a Time wrote about several years ago). You can’t usually self-drive the park, but on Tuesday Stefan can. And I’m going with him! If you’re interested in details, check out the official road lottery page here.
Not only is this a once in a lifetime opportunity, but it’s also an ideal chance for me to try out my packing plan, and to get used to sharing my trip live via social media.
Packing light
The practice trip will be about 3 days long, but my 40K to Far Away adventure will last 8 days. For this practice, I plan to bring along everything that I plan to bring on my longer trip. The goal is to see if it all works. Did I forget anything important? Are there any items safe to leave at home?
If you’re interested in seeing my packing plans, check out this video:
Posting as I go
My current plan for “live sharing” this trip is as follows:
- Post lots of photos. I’ll use a social media tool to push the photos to multiple platforms: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter.
- Post very short videos to Instagram as “stories”. I learned through trial and error that Instagram stories have to be recorded in portrait rather than landscape or else they look terrible. I have my Instagram account configured to automatically publish these stories to the Frequent Miler Facebook page (the page, not the group).
- Record longer form video in landscape. Landscape oriented videos are better for sharing on the blog and on Youtube. Whenever I have a chance, I’ll post these to both our Facebook page and our Youtube Channel (www.youtube.com/c/Thefrequentmiler)
- I’ll share some, but not all, of the photos and videos from the Facebook page to the Frequent Miler Insiders Group. If you’re a member of both, feel free to share the things you like too!
On the 40K trip we will additionally post updates as blog posts. For this practice round I haven’t decided yet whether I’ll do the same.
Gaps in internet access
I’m guessing that the three of us will often be out of range of internet for long chunks of time during our 40K to Far Away adventures. The same will undoubtedly be true in Alaska during my practice round. As a result, we’ll have to record a lot off-line and post once we have the ability to.
Additionally I’m going to test out an auto-schedule feature in Hootsuite. This should space out our postings even if we post a number of things in rapid succession.
Follow us
The best way to follow along “live” on either trip is via Instagram. Please follow me here and look for my face to appear near the top of your screen, like this:
When you see my smiling head at the top, click my head to view my story. I believe you have to click the volume rocker on your phone to hear the story. Stories disappear after 24 hours.
If you don’t like Instagram, make sure to like the Frequent Miler page on Facebook. Then, on Facebook, you should (theoretically) see Frequent Miler in a circle at the top when there’s a story to view. Following Frequent Miler on Twitter will work too, but you won’t see our Stories there so it will likely lack some of that feeling of coming along with us that we’re hoping to achieve.
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[…] couple of weeks ago I posted about my 40K to Far Away practice run. I was going to Denali National Park with Rapid Travel Chai and I used it to test out my packing […]
[…] Greg’s #40KFarAway practice: Driving Denali […]
Link to the butt pillow? My DH would love one!
With you doing all the social media sharing sounds like I’ll be doing the driving and seeing the wildlife. See you tomorrow!
My husband and I just got back from Alaska a couple of weeks ago. We spent 3 nights in Denali – one outside the gates and two at a lodge at Mile 92 inside the park. The only wi fi you will have is at the Visitors’ Center at Mile 1 – not even in the parking lot of the Visitors’ Center. Denali National Park and Preserve is stunning. We saw a lot of wildlife, especially between Mile 60’ish and Mile 92 where the Park Service buses don’t usually go.
How far in are you going? It took our bus 6.5 hours to drive each way with bathroom stops at the rest areas and stops to photograph animals.
Have a great time. I hope it doesn’t snow and they let you far into the park.
Thanks Dee. We went all the way to the end. I think we took about 12 hours round trip, including a 5 mile hike. You were right.. no internet at all.
You mention three of you. Who else is going?
I was referring to the 40k to far away challenge that all three writers (Nick, Stephen, and I) are doing.
I always sleep in a rental car.
Ever have trouble finding a legal place to park overnight?
no. [i have been living in my car over my last 3 years — there is legal but there is also nobody cares]