Week 11: On top of the world, looking over the edge

Fraser to Steamboat Springs July 8 – July 17th 156.4 miles (Or something )Day 65: Fraser Nero Continued Maire (who will now be known as ‘The Oracle’) dropped us and our packs off at the Headwaters Trail Alliance. A warm mellow hub, dedicated to maintaining the 1000 miles of local trail, poised to aid hikers […]

Week 10: The very edge of the bleeding edge

Leadville to Fraser June 30th – July 8th Miles 68 ish Day 58: Nero (nearly a zero) continued… After a perfect amount of walking up and down the main street we acquired the best pizza on trail so far. We retreated back to the hostel to hibernate while Baby Food took the hiker bike (provided […]

Week 9: The Bleeding Edge

Salida to Leadville June 22nd – June 30th 102 miles Day 50: Zero 8? Our pals hoped to make it in yesterday but didn’t. Pooch, Snakes and I went downtown for the day. This is the second town which is not a desolate pack of crap. Ridiculously, snow was forecast for today (day two of […]

Week 8: Trying not to die

Del Norte to Salida June 16th – June 21st 121 miles John Steinbeck said: Once a journey is designed, equipped, and put in process, a new factor enters and takes over. A trip, a safari, an exploration, is an entity, different from all other journeys. It has personality, temperament, individuality, uniqueness. A journey is a […]

Week 7: The Mystic Biscuit

Chama to Del Norte June 10 – June 15 97 miles Day 38: Low route / High route We didn’t die. Charming Chama looked amazing. Della, who could just about see above the wheel, swung us into the car park of the Y-Motel. It’s about a million years old. Apparently it was grimey but I […]

Week 6: Of Mountains and Bulls

Cuba to Chama June 2 – June 10 150 miles Warning: this is a long blog post as it includes 2 zero days, 7 hiking days and a lot of my endless waffle. You may require coffee (wine) and a more suitable seating arrangement. . After filling my fat dumpy self with salad and beer, […]

Week 5: Hello, sun in my face

Grants to Cuba 109 miles May 26th to May 31st Our arrival into Grants was pretty mixed. It’s Memorial weekend so another entirely desolate town was made more so by closed stores and not a living soul about. We rejoiced at Subway for breakfast on the highway, then still had 5 miles more into the […]

Week 4: When things fall apart

A friend of mine grows his very own brambles They twist all around him until he can’t move Beautiful, quivering, chivalrous shambles What is my friend trying to prove? The booze turns a tall gentle boy to a terrible totem And the kids gather ’round trying to see what’s inside I think when he’s drinking […]

Week 3: The Gila

Silver City to Pie Town 174 miles May 12th – May 20th I restrained from consuming all of Wonder Woman’s limited Marmite supply at breakfast. One last snuggle with the cats (we’ve both now named one each, Poirot and Columbus, ‘Lumbus’ for short). Our amazing hosts dropped us back to the trailhead via the grocery […]

Week 2: Oh yeah, bears

Lordsburg to Silver City 78 miles May 7th – 11th Our remaining time in Lordsburg was glorious. We resupplied for the next stretch. Shelley is becoming remarkably efficient at a resupply. While I spend a good while being distracted by things I don’t want or need but look nice. I think I might have to […]

Week 1: The Bootheel

Mexico to Lordsberg May 2nd to May 6th 85 miles I seem to have misplaced the memories in my brain which reminded me how hot the desert was. But that’s OK as I have very fresh ones now. On average the section from the monument back to Lordsburg (85.5 miles) takes 5 days. Here we […]

The Continental Divide: Getting To The Border

Leaving home when key elements in your life are perfect is pretty tough. But to have so many wonderous humans cheering us along made it all the easier. Except leaving my cat. Though he’s not actually a perfect element in my life, he’s a little shit. I chose to watch ‘Arctic’ on the plane, which […]

One week until meltdown

In one weeks time we will finally find out if this was all just one terrible mistake…. After a scorching stonker of a week in North Wales as my last paid employment for a whole year, we’ve moved out, tied up all our dangly loose ends, SORN’d vehicles, found our passports and are now faced […]

Continental Divide Gear list

Having hiked the Pacific Crest Trail in 2013 with a pretty mediocre understanding of ultralight hiking, I managed to get my British, fairly lumpy heavy weight kit down to a mid-weight – ish. Though I thought I had done a fairly good job of lightening the load (as I knew no different) I remained continuously […]

Why Walk The Continental Divide

We got engaged in 2018. HOORAH! To confirm we may actually like to spend a fair bit more time together, how ever long our lives may last; we thought we’d walk a really, really long way. Roughly 3,100 miles. From Mexico to Canada. If we managed to survive, bland food, continuous pain, grizzly bears, pooping […]

ONE MONTH OUT

It’s less than four weeks until I knock the Pacific Crest Trail off the top spot of the ‘greatest things I’ve done’ list. That, or its four weeks until I melt myself and die in a barren New Mexican wasteland. Or get eaten by something, washed away in an avalanche or raging torrent….. All probably […]

How to plan for The Continental Divide

Forget the views, forget the challenge and the memories, the human interaction and the life changing experience; one of the most joyful parts of deciding to hike a long distance trail, is the endless hours of nerdy, dedicated, time consuming, life evaporating, hour filling planning. With little to no experience, a year is a decent […]

Kayaking The Stockholm Archipelago

From Land To Sea; Another Of My Favourites! I’ve wanted to visit Sweden for some time now, and what better opportunity to take than kayaking the archipelago off Stockholm shores. It is the second largest archipelago in the Baltic Sea. It extends eastwards from Stockholm for 37 miles. Many poets, artists and authors have all […]

El Camino de Santiago

Walking the Camino de Santiago: Reflections and suggestions. The Camino de Santiago is a walk or a hike or a pilgrimage, of varying lengths and varying degrees of difficulty depending on your approach. It crosses northern Spain, or Portugal, or France, or anywhere you like really. It begins from wherever you choose to start, and […]

Having Walked the Pacific Crest Trail

Reflections of a grand adventure There was nothing wrong with me. I didn’t walk 2,668.8 miles to cure myself, to become anything, or to fix anything. I did it because I wanted to. I was lucky enough to just want an adventure. Part of me would have liked to have had something to fix, or […]

How To Walk The Pacific Crest Trail

The Through-Hiker Ritual Before, during and after my hike of the Pacific Crest Trail, my partner and I met many people who “would love to do something like that but, really I couldn’t”. Following that statement we were given a reason why: “my job, my family, my dog, my knees, my age”, etc. For every reason listed, […]

Why Walk The Pacific Crest Trail

The Call Of The Wild: The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) is a 2,661 mile hiking trail, starting in Mexico and ending in Canada. To continuously hike the whole trail in one long attempt is called through-hiking. I through-hiked the whole trail this year, starting in April as the deserts warmed before the greatest heat, and […]