By Emily Scott
Business and Op-Ed Editor

“Hold on; let me go walk my dog. I hate being stuck inside while I’m on the phone.”

To Andy Laub –Neshaminy Class of 2005 – there is a lot more to this world than just the internet, social media and every other device that is constantly glued to us.

After graduating, Laub attended Emerson College in Boston for journalism. In his junior year at Emerson, Laub developed an interest in broadcasting. He became the news director at Emerson.

“Junior year is when I really discovered my interest for film. I had an internship my last semester with Discovery Channel,” Laub said.

This internship is exactly where Laub was intrigued by adventure television. Adventure television is the simple idea of capturing real journeys and stories that occur in the nature of this world.

Laub was involved in cross country at Neshaminy, where he says he found his love for the outdoors.

“I went on lots of trips in high school to the Delaware River. General recreation became a great passion of mine,” Laub said.

Laub was dissatisfied with these simple adventures and decided to set off on a hike of the Appalachian Trail to Maine.

“I had worked with Discovery Channel, National Geographic, Food Network, but it still wasn’t exactly what I wanted,” Laub said.

No one was interested in hiking the Appalachian, so he began the trek alone. By the third night of the trail, he was ready to turn around. His romantic ideas of the cold, snow and being alone failed him, which is when—by some crazy act of fate—he met Ian.

Ian was another solo hiker on the Appalachian Trail. “I am also hiking to Maine!” set their friendship up and they decided to spend the rest of their adventure together. Laub was completely unaware that this stranger would go on to become a partner of his on a very influential project.

For two adventure-enthusiasts, their experiences could only get more wild and dangerous from there on.

“The Pacific Crest Trail was next for us,” Laub said. The Pacific Crest Trail is a 2,650 mile trail from the Mexico border to Canada; an extremely difficult trail to venture on. The nature patterns and temperatures changed dramatically throughout the trip. It runs through deserts in southern California and travels the high crests of the Sierra and Cascade Mountains in California, Oregon and Washington.

“There is absolutely no preparation for this kind of adventure. You can’t really predict what you’re going to face,” Laub said.

Setting out on this unpredictable adventure, they could only become experts on provisioning. It was just Andy, Ian and a camera. This was the beginning of As It Happens TV, Laub’s adventure
television project.

The winter prior to Andy and Ian’s trip was the Sierras largest winter in 50 years, something that would serve to be an added danger to the duos adventure.

“We pretty much hiked without a trail because the snow covered it,” Laub said.

The river crossings on the trail were an additional, life-threatening danger. Due to the increased amount of snow, the rivers swelled making them almost impossible to cross.

“There were no bridges. We heard stories of people that were swept downstream. We were aware that we’d be risking our lives,” Laub said. These dangers were only small feats of the bigger picture in the adventure on the Pacific Crest Trail.

The most important aspect of survival on the trail was making it to local towns to shower, stock up on food, and receive any other supplies needed for the hike. The only way to reach the towns in a respectable amount of time was hitchhiking.

“There’s always been a stigma around hitchhiking, but you really get to meet such an eclectic group of people,” Laub said. From stock brokers to “Trail Angels” there was no expectation for the type of people they would run into. It was a trade-off; they’d share their stories for a ride to continue their journey.

This adventure-inspiring film was rejected by Discovery Channel while Andy was working for their development team.

“They said they couldn’t predict the story and I said that’s the point of it, that’s adventure,” Laub said.

After this life-changing journey, Laub is far from finished with adventure television. Next on his to-do list is the Continental Divide trail. It is one of the most significant trail systems in the world; stretching over 3,000 miles between Mexico and Canada. It is a much more treacherous trail than Pacific Crest due to a lack of signs and it is almost a given to get lost along the way.

These journeys that Laub embarks on serve a heart-warming purpose. “This is real adventure to inspire people to not forget about the world around us,” Laub said. As It Happens TV, a name that speaks for itself, is a work-in-progress that continues to grow with each journey that is captured. “If we can inspire others to connect with nature, there will be more people to protect it.”