“Chasing the Sky”: New Documentary Features Doug + Melinda McCaw’s Colorado Trail Fast-Pack Fundraiser
Photo courtesy of Doug and Melinda McCaw
In July of 2020, Doug and Melinda McCaw set out to complete the entire 490-mile Colorado Trail (CT) as a fast-pack trail run. They successfully completed the trail in 18 days, and to make this impressive feat even more notable, the McCaws made it a fundraiser to help two local non-profits in their local community of Grand Junction, Kids Aid and Intermountain Adventist Academy. The McCaws have raised $21,000 to date.
The Colorado Trail starts in Waterton Canyon outside of Denver and ends in Durango. The trail crosses the Continental Divide multiple times. At its highest point the elevation is 13,271 feet. Over the course of the trail the elevation gain is about 87,000 feet. The McCaws averaged around 27 miles per day.
They partnered with InFilms and Design to create a documentary called Chasing the Sky. The film crew was with them throughout their training and for the full experience on the CT. We asked the McCaws about this experience to compile a Q&A for Spoke+Blossom readers. Bonus at the end: their favorite gear from the CT.
S+B: Can you please describe the overall experience of fast packing the Colorado Trail in just 18 days?
This was set up as a fully supported run, meaning we had support that met us at the beginning and end of most segments, and sometimes as we crossed roads within a segment. This allowed us to travel light, sleep well and eat amazing food throughout the journey. This did mean however that we were locked into making specific distances each day, independent of weather conditions. This meant that there were days that were bright and sunny, and afternoon showers/thunderstorms for which we carried the gear needed to traverse the trail along all of these conditions.
One item that we had not counted on that provided a challenge was that Melinda’s feet tend to swell when wet; this made the wetter days more challenging and it lasted several days past the rain. However, through the use of essential oils and compression socks we were able to reduce the swelling without pausing the journey.
The experience was incredible, from the high of the vistas, to the struggles of averaging 27 miles each day. This journey was a true mental and physical challenge, as we stretched to cover more mileage each day than we had on our long training runs. Some of the days lined up with previous mountain bike trips, and the idea of covering the same distance on foot that we would have covered on the mountain bike brought with it an interesting mental challenge. The trail is interesting, and we had several days during the trip that we found ourselves finishing after dark, and working to get started the next day, based on how early we had started or how difficult the terrain was that we needed to cover.
S+B: What made you decide to do this as a fundraiser, and how did you choose Kids Aid Backpack Program and Intermountain Adventist Academy as the recipients of the money raised?
We started with the idea of the trip and then we started to talk about what if … What if we did it as a fundraiser? What if we made a documentary?
It is truly amazing what can happen if you answer this question with “and” — this is how this started. Our daughter goes to Intermountain Adventist Academy (IAA) and it is one of our goals to see the program expanded to K-10. So, we started with the goal of raising money for IAA.
As we talked about “what if” and the documentary, as well as our general goals for this project, it became clear that we should add another charity. As we discussed this and thought about it our coach mentioned Kids Aid, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing for the needs of children, with a primary focus on supplying food to hungry kids. We were very impressed with their mission so after contacting them we decided that they would be an integral part of this fundraiser.
S+B: Are you creating the documentary yourselves? Please share a little about it and what viewers can look forward to:
For the documentary we partnered with InFilms and Design, who were with us throughout our training as well as the 18 days on the CT. This allowed us to have incredible drone footage, as well as high-quality camera work and editing of the film.
InFilms has been a wonderful partner and we could not be happier with the product that they have provided, as we feel that this will make for an incredible movie experience. Viewers can look forward to being along on the journey and seeing incredible vistas, understanding the challenges that we faced, while experiencing the lows and the highs of the journey. They can look forward to meeting our support crew that made this trip possible, as well as the logistical challenges of putting a trip like this together. We cover the journey from training to packing to running to finish in an effort to provide the viewer with an understanding of the journey.
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Chasing the Sky has two upcoming showings: 6 p.m. on October 14 at the Colorado Mesa University ballroom, and 6 p.m on October 27 at The Picture Show in Grand Junction. The team is currently working to get the film on Amazon, Netflix and Venmo On-Demand, as well submitting it to several film festivals to be considered.
Learn more about the film and fundraising project at helpelevatekids.com.
