In the summer of 2013 Casey Gannon and Colin Arisman thru-hiked the Pacific Crest Trail with cameras in hand. "Only The Essential" is the story of their 5 month, 2668 mile journey on foot from Mexico to Canada across the wilderness of California, Oregon, and Washington. Growing up in a culture increasingly disconnected from the outdoors, we have felt the pull of wild places our entire lives. The natural world shaped us as we grew up in Vermont and this experience left us with a deep feeling of responsibility to share the "power of the wilderness" and the necessity of conservation. Only The Essential reflects the power of connecting to nature and the profound beauty of immersing ourselves in the subtler wisdom of the wild. The title Only The Essential comes from a Henry David Thoreau quote that speaks to the inspiration for our film. "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to confront only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." —Henry David Thoreau Our goal was to capture the brutal, yet breathtaking, ebb and flow of thru-hiking (a term for hiking a long distance trail from end to end). The film serves as a window to experience the Pacific Crest Trail and witness the value of simplifying life to a point where “only the essential” remains.