I went to Wendover as the beginning of my journey because I went to camping last year which I followed Ridgeway and walked from Beacon Hill to Wendover. This time I wanna start from the place I left off last time. The recording gear for this trip was H5 kit and Sennheiser K6 Shotgun Microphone which is come with one porch. So all I have to take is the small H5 kit and this K6 (and of course the fluffy windshield and pistol grip for the shotgun mic). The reason why I use the shotgun mic is because last time when I went to camping, I found the H5 capsule XY mic were not directional enough to record birdsongs or some tiny sound without all the other surrounding sounds. The best things about the K6 was the design of changeable capsule systems. Although I don’t have other capsule, I can still break it down to a half which for me, are very connivence. The second half were click into the pistol grip and another half can put into the mic porch with fluffy on it.
In the first night, I found the soundscape of nighttime forests is interesting, and I have to put all the things out at night, so in the second night, I put all the recording gear next to my sleeping bag and all the things are plugged in, including the Roland Binaural mic as well. Surprisingly, this set up were very handy in the second night when I was woken up by baking deers. My head light were inside my sleeping bag which made me feel a bit more save. When I heard the barking at 2 am, I turn on my H5 instantly and try to use the shotgun mic to point into the barking direction. But they are very loud, I can hear the echo of the barking, therefore, I can record them clearly even haven’t pointed to them directly. The darkness at night also increase my other senses, and also increase my listening as well. I can rely on my vision since I can’t see anything, so inside the tent. I found I was more sensitive to sound at night and very tiny little sound, for example, a moving leaves on the ground or some bugs that hitting my tent, can woke me up. People always said how peaceful and meditational the nature is, which I am agreed with it a lot, but at the same, I can be very intimidating and scary at the same time. This night time experience was scary but interesting at the same time.