ABOUT

yatri project is the creation of mckenzie barney

McKenzie’s voyages and creative work is driven by an insatiable curiosity to explore how we are all connected. When viewed from the non-linear labyrinth, McKenzie is a citizen of the world, roaming with no-fixed-address or vehicle, valuing experiences over material things. Woven into her ethos is a passion for exploration and the natural world. Her professional work has navigated multiple storytelling mediums of filmmaking, photography, writing, and public speaking. Parallel to her storytelling path has been her quest for further long-distance human-powered endeavors, leading her to thru hiking and bikepacking the length of continents. With Yatri Project, McKenzie aims to have a basecamp where adventures and stories can co-exist.

Where did this all begin?

This all started with an affinity for film production. In her earlier days, McKenzie studied production at the University of Florida while captaining the UF women's soccer team to multiple Southeastern Conference championships, earning Academic All-American honors and interning at Nike World Headquarters with the Global Entertainment Marketing team. Upon graduating, she competed in Outside Television’s Final Cut series in the Colorado backcountry, winning the film competition and planting the seed for her adventure filmmaking career to come. She then moved to Los Angeles to work in brand and film production for 72andSunny, the country’s top advertising agency at the time. On the weekends she took every opportunity to assist for film and photo shoots, and her breakthrough came when she was invited on a trip to Iceland in 2013 to shoot a Landrover sponsored surf expedition with world-renowned adventure photographers. While circumnavigating this far-off land and producing content for the client, McKenzie realized the possibility of becoming an adventure storyteller, ultimately joining her two passions in life: global travel and story.

McKenzie then decided to evolve her storytelling feats to a new platform, accepting a role to manage an experiential marketing team for a Sony campaign in California. But film production called her name again in the form of a Producer role with RGTV out of New York City. Here she produced and wrote nationally-syndicated television shows for Fox Sports Network and documentary series for Madison Square Garden Network, filming interviews with iconic figures such as Bill Clinton, Jon Bon Jovi, Mike Tyson, Laird Hamilton, Mia Hamm, and many more. It was in New York City that McKenzie caught wind of ‘thru-hiking’ and started to cook up an idea that would change her life forever.

After a few years in the film production industry, McKenzie and her two friends from UF re-connected to start their own production company: Comfort Theory. The timing proved impeccable, as McKenzie was hatching a plan to hike the world’s newest thru hike in New Zealand and wanted to film the hike. Within a year McKenzie rallied a ragtag group of likeminded filmmakers, photographers, designers and explorers, who shared the lure toward uncertainty and an inexperience for multiple months in the wilderness. She pitched and secured funding and sponsorship from 14 outdoor-industry leading brands and Outside Television as a media platform. On her first ever thru hike, McKenzie produced the documentary film and created photo, video and written content for brand sponsors. Five months and 1,800 miles later, she emerged at the bottom of New Zealand, her soul forever changed by a long hike in the wilderness.

As the Executive Producer and Co-Founder of Comfort Theory, McKenzie produced commercial, documentary, broadcast and digital content for clients. Comfort Theory pitched a series to Nat Geo WILD and National Geographic in which they documented unique animal behavior in the United States and Costa Rica. While producing the series in Costa Rica, McKenzie dove with Tiger Sharks in Cocos Island, explored remote jungles with jaguars and sea turtles and produced under the lights content and a broadcast special. After freelancing as a field producer on The River and the Wall documentary, she felt the call of global adventures once again.

Bit by the long distance hiking bug, McKenzie voyaged on a solo hike for a month along Chile’s remote Greater Patagonian Trail, and then joined her kiwi partner on a Pacific Crest Trail thru hike for four months from Mexico to Canada. After the PCT McKenzie and her partner vanlifed around the US before traveling to Thailand and Indonesia. On a hunch that long distance biking may be the next transition, she flew into Ho Chi Minh, bought a bicycle, and cycled to Hanoi, solo-biking the length of Vietnam in 21 days.

She then traveled through Laos and Cambodia, worked on organic farms in Malaysia and Australia, traveled around and surfed Sri Lanka, studied yoga India, hiked Nepal’s Everest Base Camp, Langtang Valley and Annapurna treks. She continued thru-hiking expeditions with her partner on the 500-mile Colorado Trail, lived in Oaxaca, Mexico, and set her sights for the next big adventure: long distance cycling down the length of continents.

In 2022, McKenzie solo-cycled Europe from Istanbul to Amsterdam in 6 weeks through Turkey, Bulgaria, Northern Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Germany, and the Netherlands. After Europe, McKenzie met her partner in Cairo to embark on an 11,000-kilometer, 5-month cycling voyage down the length of the African continent through Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa.

After Africa, McKenzie continued to “Cycle the World” through New Zealand, across Australia, and up South America. After three years, five continents, 28 countries and 18,000 miles, she officially completed her goal to cycle the world in Bogota, Colombia.

Upon returning from her mostly solo bicycle expedition, McKenzie began editing a film of her journey. She is now touring her 35-minute film, Cycling The World around the US in Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania and Colorado. Her events include an Inspirational Talk, Film Screening, Audience Q&A session, and raffle with sponsors and media partner The Radavist. Her film will be released in 2024, followed by a book she aims to publish by the end of 2024.

follow mckenzie’s latest adventures: