Great news. Rocky Mountain PBS has agreed to broadcast the Lost Sea Expedition, the documentary about my Canada to Mexico wagon with mule Polly.
It’s fitting that an old school Public Television station would be the first to pick up the wagon voyage series. KRMA, Rocky Mountain PBS’s flagship station in Denver, Colorado, is the oldest public television station in the Rocky Mountains.
The broadcast area overlaps the Colorado part of our 2,500 mile journey down the Great Plains.
We’ll keep you posted of when the series will air. Right now, though, since Public Television doesn’t pay for content, we need to raise funds to complete the series. We could sure use your help.
Friday, 7p: Join me for a Mule Days Movie night. We’ll be taking a look at some footage of the “Lost Sea Expedition” series.
Sat 11: Meet mule Polly and tour the solar powered Lost Sea Expedition wagon she pulled from Canada to Mexico.
Sat/Sun: “How to Leg Picket” demo and discussion. In case you’re wondering, this is for mules. Humans welcome.
Hey there Long Ears. Save the date: May 4 -7. That’s Leatherwood Mule Days in Ferguson, NC.
Join us. Rub a mule’s ears. Dance under the stars. If you’re feeling really limber, pretzel yourself up and crawl in to the Lost Sea Expedition mule wagon. Yes, mule Polly, who pulled that wagon 2,500 miles from Canada to Mexico for the Lost Sea Expedition series on Rocky Mountain PBS will be there. Plenty of other folks, too – mule riders, horse lovers and ordinary people.
In layman’s terms, Leatherwood is located at the base of the mountains that are home to Boone and Blowing Rock, NC. That means incredible green valleys like Montana and cool nights like New England. All right here in western North Carolina. Plenty of room to park your camper or horse trailer. There’s primitive camping, too, for the rest of us. That’s where we’ll be camping.
So dial these directions in to your mule wagon or GPS and visit with us!
The Lost Sea Expedition is the first documentary filmed from a solar powered mule wagon. Over the next few posts, I want to share some of the tech that allowed me to film the 4-part documentary using pretty much only the power of the sun. Today, let’s look at the solar panels that breathed the spark of life in to my recording equipment.
I sharpened the scissors. I caught mule Polly. Then I trimmed her mane and tail and took a swipe at her toes.
Man, she’s as spiffed up as mule can be for Leatherwood Mule Days. I’m already thinking Coon Jump, pasture camping and starlight dancing.
I hope you can join us and here’s how you can do it.
Original link: http://www.thelongridersguild.com/news.htm
Saint Augustine is supposed to have said, “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only a page.”
Few people have heeded Saint Augustine’s advice with as much devotion as American Long Rider Bernie Harberts, for he has read the world and delivered a tale such as few have done.
After sailing around the world alone, Bernie rode “ocean to ocean” across the United States. Then he set out on a remarkable journey in search of the “lost sea” that once covered America’s Great Plains. What he found was a nation awash with contradictory beliefs, a people longing for emotional stability, and an environment facing catastrophic changes.
Plenty of people make trips which result in the creation of DDD, ‘dreary daily diaries,’ written by people who travel far but have say little of value to say afterwards. Bernie Harberts isn’t one of those and the documentary film he made is worthy of attention for a wide variety of reasons.
It’s certainly true that the film relates how Bernie travelled 2,500 miles alone in a tiny wagon from Neptune, Saskatchewan to Fort Hancock, Texas. But this story is about a lot more than a man, a mule and a wagon.
Hollywood typically depicts the “Old West” as being populated by buffalo and long horn cattle. Yet Bernie met various people, including a paleontologist, a rancher and a Native American who showed him dinosaur fossils they had discovered in different states where the Lost Sea had once been.
On a superficial level it’s easy to sit back, watch the pretty landscape, enjoy seeing the antics of Polly the mule, wonder at the colourful people Bernie meets and take in the sights second hand.
What sets this story apart from the vast majority of equestrian travel tales is its maturity. This is a documentary film that is different because there are important emotional, social, cultural, religious, political and spiritual threads interwoven into the tale.
The American states Bernie travelled through have traditionally been associated with hardy pioneers, resilient ranchers and enduring farmers. Yet Bernie discovered that large portions of the interior of the USA are becoming increasingly depopulated.
He filmed a house buried by tumbleweeds. He witnessed small towns dying. He spoke to lonely survivors. And he documented how the country’s most vital water supply, the Ogallala Aquifer, is being emptied by aggressive industrial-sized agricultural practices that are draining away the nation’s underground water at an alarming rate.
The editor of a small Kansas newspaper asked Bernie, “Will the water run out before the population runs out?”
The landscape may still be magnificent but what this film also shows is the shocking de-population of the interior of America.
During an in-depth Question & Answer interview with the Guild, Bernie discussed his journey, the film he made single-handed, and the unexpected discoveries he made along the way.
What is revealed is the story of a man who represents the ideals that once defined America around the world: principles not profits, integrity not ego, truth not deception, personal courage not ethical cowardice.
Bernie Harberts may be an American Long Rider but his story has a global message and this documentary presents an authentic view of the country – culturally, spiritually and environmentally.
Recently, mule had her portrait painted by animal artist Julia Carpenter – aka The Bestiaryst. Julia did a great job capturing Polly’s expression, especially her eyes. It’s like Polly is saying, “hey, haven’t I pulled this wagon far enough? Wouldn’t this be a good time for a bite of grain?”
My friend Julia started the community art project BeastField.com. The gig is simple. Folks send in a photo of a beloved dead pet and a 6 word description.
Hey, welcome to the Lost Sea Expedition web site! The Lost Sea Expedition is a TV series about a 14-month mule voyage I took across America. If you haven’t already seen it, then check out the Official Series Trailer!
Great news this week. The Lost Sea Expedition series has been accepted by IDA, the International Documentary Association. This lets us accept tax-deductible donations for the TV series. Here’s how that works.
It’s funny how folks can turn invisible. Take a big project, say building a house, a career or a TV series. Once the ridge cap is nailed down, the big promotion won or the TV series aired, well, it’s like all the folks that pulled together aren’t seen anymore. We don’t want that to happen with the Lost Sea Expedition TV series. Drop by the newly-added Series Credits page to get an idea of all the folks, communities and organizations that have pitched in to get us where we are. Or browse the the names of all the folks who made a donation to the series.