Teaser: John Wilkes Booth in the Woods

Rain and thunderstorms have cut my planned four and a half day reenactment of John Wilkes Booth’s time in the pine thicket to only three days and two nights.  Though I was not able to recreate the duration of Booth’s concealment, I believe that I got a great sense of Booth’s conditions and the mindset that overcame him during this time.  I’m currently going through the over 300 video clips that I shot during my excursion and I will be editing them together to create a documentary of the experience.

While a finished video is a ways off, I did want to share with you some still photos that I have of the camp out.  In addition to my video camera, I brought along a trail camera to take still shots.  Usually tied to trees and used by hunters to track their game, the trail camera I had took one picture per minute when activated by motion.  Sadly, there is no way to see the pictures as they are being taken so I just had to tie the camera to the tree and hope that the angle would capture me when activated.

Therefore, as a teaser to my pine thicket video, here are some of the pictures captured by the trail camera during my time in the woods.  Just ignore the time and date stamps at the bottom as I neglected to set this up before turning on the camera:

Thinking about my first hours in the woods as the sun sets.

Armed to the teeth as I go to bed for the first night.

Good morning sunshine

Passing the time writing in my Booth diary

Always on the look out for federal troops

Enjoying the bread my Thomas Jones brought me to eat

I was about to bed down for the second night and found a toad on my blanket. Here I’m coaxing him away with my crutch.

About to go to sleep for the second night.

My favorite picture of them all. This shows me right after trying my first drink of bourbon whiskey. I am not a fan.

I hope you enjoy the pictures.  There’s much more to come!