

Ask HN: Hiking 48 States in 3 Months for Parkinson's – what would you document? - cstanley

Quick backstory: 
This summer I will be traveling to every state in the US on behalf of the Michael J. Fox foundation to help raise $1mm for Parkinson&#x27;s research.<p>My college friend, Sam Fox, is really the one pioneering this fundraising effort (2 years ago he ran from Canada to Mexico on the Pacific Crest Trail to raise money and awareness for Parkinson&#x27;s). Every state we visit we have one goal, to hike&#x2F;climb to the highest peak (between peaks we will be driving&#x2F;biking). From 14,505ft at California&#x27;s Mt. Whitney to 345ft at Florida&#x27;s Britton Hill, we will be hiking alongside anyone who would like to join us and support our fundraising effort for Parkinson&#x27;s research. If you&#x27;re interested, you can read more about it here: http:&#x2F;&#x2F;goo.gl&#x2F;pJlgTp.<p>What would you document? 
Besides a blog or video of the daily&#x2F;weekly events (which will be done regardless), I&#x27;ve been stuck on what additionally I can do to document this experience. Have an idea of &#x27;Same but Different&#x27; i.e. documenting the same object in every different location, and observing how it changes (taking a picture of a gas station in every state) - but am not fully convinced this will yield interesting results. Another idea I&#x27;m considering is to interview an individual I meet in every state.<p>Maybe I&#x27;m thinking about it wrong? Should I be more open to different types of experiences, rather than looking for ones specifically? I do believe that discovery&#x2F;creations&#x2F;insight do not happen serendipitously, which is why I&#x27;d like to have prepared some methodology to how I capture my experiences in each state.<p>What would you do?<p>Ideas, feedback, advice... anything would be helpful!<p>Thanks!
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jefflinwood
Hi,

I saw Sam Fox at his talk at SXSW 2013, and I'm a highpointer myself (been to
about 17 of the high points of the 50 states), and I'm not sure what would
really make it that interesting. It's a pretty obscure little hobby, and
there's not much to see at a lot of the highpoints.

I think you should probably be open to various experiences along the way -
rather than try and force something to happen. At most of the highpoints,
there really aren't any people around, and there's not really a lot of drama
involved in getting to the flat ones like Florida and Delaware :)

Happy to help out in any way I can.

~~~
cstanley
Thanks Jeff - Yeah, 'forcing' something to happen is definitely not the right
way to go about documenting an experience like this. So perhaps a nice in-
between method, such as leveraging research methods that design researchers
use, like ethnography's, to search for meaning after the fact.

