Since 2017, Camas High School (CHS) teacher Josef Hoffman has run a biking trail review YouTube channel.  His platform has gained a large following. estimating over four thousand subscribers.

“One day, I was watching the YouTube channel Regular Car Reviews and I realized I could do the same format for trails,” Hoffman said.

Throughout his YouTube career, Hoffman has achieved many personal accomplishments. Hoffman shared his most recent: a review of a new Cascade Locke trail system that works around the strict regulations in the area.   

“I would not have believed it was possible because of the regulations around the Gorge scenic area, yet they’re going to build a 27-mile stacked loop trail system in there,” Hoffman said. “It’s an amazing accomplishment, and that is solely because of engaged community members who didn’t give up.”

When it comes to personal milestones, Hoffman shared what was most rewarding to him in that category: financial compensation.

“Getting monetized in the first place and getting my Patreon set up [is the most impressive measure of the channel’s success],” Hoffman said. “Finding out people are willing to spend money on what I’m doing.” 

Hoffman also mentioned public recognition as a milestone. Often, Hoffman shared, other people recognize his YouTube persona before knowing him personally. 

“One of my biggest milestones was when I ran into Jeff Kendall Weed, who is a bigger YouTuber than me, who was telling me I was one of the only channels he watches,” Hoffman said. 

Hoffman takes a great deal of pride in making his content — each 10 minutes of video represents around 6-8 hours of work. He also follows a very structured script for the majority of his videos. 

“About 95% of the time, I’m following a script. There are times that I use it as a guide and go off script because I wrote the script, so I can do whatever I want,” Hoffman said.

When students in Hoffman’s ham radio club were asked about his YouTube channel, many were surprisingly unaware of his platform.

Arnav Choudhary, a junior at CHS, was intrigued by the recent discovery of Hoffman’s YouTube channel.

“I might check his channel out after this out of curiosity,” Choudhary said. “I like to go on hikes a lot, and mountain biking is in that exploration category.”

“I love hiking, I love mountain biking. They’re both definitely some of my interests,” CHS senior and ham radio club member David Li said. “I’ll definitely check it out.”