VIDEO: Harriman State Park Overnight with 8 and 11 year old daughters

**njsurfer** · 07-29-2015, 19:50

Join along for an overnight adventure to Harriman State Park in NY. We hike from Tuxedo Station to the Dutch Doctor Shelter. Rather than drive to this adventure we used public transportation (rail) making this hike accessible to nearly anyone in the NJ/PA/NY tri-state area.

Jon

**billygoat** · 07-29-2015, 20:08

Nothing as awesome as time in the woods with the kids! Great vid.

**2ply** · 07-29-2015, 21:48

The girls looked like they had a great time. Nice adding the train trip to the adventure.

**Les Rust** · 07-30-2015, 04:32

Few things better than kids enjoying the outdoors. Looks like they had a great time with Dad. Thanks for brightening up my morning. Good on you! We'll look forward to more hiking adventures with Paige and Emily.

**Dead Man** · 07-30-2015, 05:17

Great video by a champion of a dad. Well done. Some pretty challenging terrain for those little ones at points. They performed like pros too.

Have to ask, some of your shots almost had a steady cam look to them. What sort of camera rig are you using?

**njsurfer** · 07-30-2015, 06:56

They sure enjoyed the hike and terrain. My 4 year old couldn't make this trip but im sure he would have loved it too. Believe it or not, an iPhone 5 with post process image stabilization. You loose some sharpness but I think it's worth it. Looking to upgrade to something with optical stabilization soon.

**TacoStyle** · 07-30-2015, 07:21

Great video of what looked like a fun trip.
What app did you use for image stabilization?

**njsurfer** · 07-30-2015, 07:45

I used the Image Stabilization feature in the YouTube editor. You cant pick and choose parts to stabilize with the YouTube editor though, its the whole video or nothing. Unfortunately, it has some unwanted side effects on titles (they arent supposed to be swinging around during the opening like that) and it causes the video to degrade and distort occasionally where strong contrast lines are in the video (the train station floor, for example). Adobe Elements has a stabilize feature that Im sure is more powerful. Looking to go that route when I have time to learn the program.

Jon

**Dead Man** · 07-30-2015, 09:15

Originally Posted by njsurfer

I used the Image Stabilization feature in the YouTube editor. You cant pick and choose parts to stabilize with the YouTube editor though, its the whole video or nothing. Unfortunately, it has some unwanted side effects on titles (they arent supposed to be swinging around during the opening like that) and it causes the video to degrade and distort occasionally where strong contrast lines are in the video (the train station floor, for example). Adobe Elements has a stabilize feature that Im sure is more powerful. Looking to go that route when I have time to learn the program.

Jon

That's really funny. I liked the titles dancing. I should have guessed the YouTube stabilization. I way over thought that bit of production.

**njsurfer** · 07-30-2015, 10:50

Id also like to note to anyone else considering hiking in Harriman, don't go without maps. There are so many trails that aren't signed with anything other than colored blazes (no names, no milage signs at junctions, etc). The volume of trails alone is enough to confuse you, there are over 300 miles of trails in a relatively small park. Then throw in unblazed, unmaintained, and just completely unmapped trails, and you could easily get lost without a map. Water, at least in the dry season, can be an issue too. I only came across one barely trickling brook for this entire hike. It was dirty enough that if I didn't have 100% confidence in my Sawyer I wouldn't have drank it, and certainly wouldn't have let my daughters. Most of the shelters do not have a water source near by either. There are numerous ponds and lakes though, and if your hike takes you there Id probably advising topping off at one of those.

Jon