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Pre - Hike This section of our Journal covers our last minute
preparations in the UK, and our three weeks organising gear and food in the
USA. 12 March Glasgow Standing at the door of a storage unit on an industrial estate,
I was acutely aware of the significance of the moment. We had folded and
packed our normal lives into cardboard boxes and bin bags, moved out of our
nice, rented flat, and locked all our belongings into a metal cubicle. On one
side of the door were the clothes and personal posessions of a Design
Executive and a BBC Correspondent. However, we now stood on the other side,
stripped to the essentials, ready to go hiking. Today, Liz is in London with her parents, dehydrating the last
of our food supplies and saying good bye to her extended, Polish
family. I'm still in Glasgow, working the last few days at BBC
Scotland. And counting the days. IÕve never had a leaving party before. I donÕt like a fuss and
intended to slip quietly away. My friends on the BBCÕs Newsnight Scotland
programme had other ideas and I am profoundly grateful. It was a very
civilised gathering - at least to start with. A delicious Friday lunch in a
smart Glasgow restaurant. It was the pub crawl after which took its toll. Was
there really a Saturday this weekend? I didnÕt notice it.... Thanks are in order. To Leo, Rob, Paul, Moyra and Jonathan for
excellent company during the lunch, and during the last couple of years. To
them and everyone else who signed my card and contributed to the books and
the gift voucher. To those who rang or otherwise apologised for not being
there. To Jane for the fabulous surprise bottle of bubbling hangover cure (it
didnÕt work, but I like this medicine). To those who contributed ideas,
suggestions and purportedly accurate strategies for surviving attacks by
bears, snakes, scorpions, puma, lynx, wolves and rednecks. And thanks
especially to my boss Craig for organising everything. I only hope heÕll be
as keen to welcome me back as he was to wish me farewell! 25 March Terminal 3, Heathrow Airport I'm not going to miss traffic! For a 10.05 flight we left the
house at 6.30, and Liz's folks live about as close to Heathrow as you can
get. But Monday morning traffic is hellish. Not so much getting to the
airport, but actually AT the airport. Check in with American Airlines
was remarkably painless, but clear evidence of enhanced security. And
presumably more behind the scenes. If the flight is as smooth.... Chicago airport, Gate H11 It's sometime in the evening in London, 2.19 pm here. Far be it
for me to praise an airline, but American Airlines were excellent. The new
777's are configured to give plenty of leg space in Economy (Coach) and on a
9 hour flight that makes all the difference in the world. Immigration were unpleasant as usual. For a moment I thought
they would send us back! However, the Customs and Agriculture inspectors were
quite relaxed about our home dried sauces since they were all vegetarian.
It's great to be back in the USA. Just one more flight to Denver. On Aircraft Damn and blast! I just looked at our Visas. We've only been
stamped for 6 months and we need 7 months to finish the trail. They run
out on 24th Sept, when weÕll be somewhere in Washington (hopefully). I will
have to track down immigration in Denver and try to sort this out. Boulder, Colorado It seems 6 months is the maximum permitted stay on any single
application. We'll need to apply in writing for an extension or get to Canada
before 24th September. Then we can come in again, as our Visa is valid for 10
yrs. We'll sort this nearer the time but we have the forms to extend our stay
if necessary. Let me describe a Car Rental Company scam which, fortunately,
failed to work on us due to pure luck. The customer (us) has ordered a
mid-size car. The company only has large cars left in the parking lot, so
customer going to be given one of those a large cars. But the company
doesnÕt tell the customer that. Instead, the man behind the desk says
to the customer "You can upgrade from the car youÕve booked to a nicer,
larger car for a specially reduced price. For just $150 more you can
have a Buick rather than a Toyota. Since this is Colorado, you will
need the extra power in the mountains.Ó It all sounds perfectly
plausible, good value even. But we are on a tight budget, so we said
no. We walked out to the parking area, and sure enough, the car which
was waiting for us was a big Buick. Is that good business practice or
sharp practice? 26 March Boulder, Colorado WeÕre staying with friends, Barry, Laura and Cory
Robertson. I know Barry through my writing for the UK hiking magazine
TGO-The Great Outdoors, as he is the European Marketing man for the equipment
company GoLite. I've tested a lot of their products to see how they
work in a European context. It was good to call into the office and meet all the people
behind the company; Coup and Kim the founders, Russ the designer, and the
small but efficient team who make it all work. It's easy to be cynical about
companies (especially car rental companies!) so itÕs refreshing to meet folk
who're genuinely committed to their business of designing and manufacturing
light and ultralight hiking equipment. We should encourage their
efforts. We'll be using quite a lot of their products which we think will
work for us on the PCT. Tonight after an excellent dinner, we drove to the Denver IMAX
to see the new Kilimanjaro film by David Brashears. Stunning cinematography,
and certainly a better narrative than his Everest film, but this format is
more about image than content. 27 March Santa Fe, New Mexico From one State to another. Breakfast with Barry and
daughter Cory, then goodbyes to the GoLite team and the start of a long drive
South. We called in to a Whole Food supermarket to buy some bits and pieces
for lunch. Liz & I shared driving. She is happy on the long
straight roiads but not too confident when she has to make turns.
Despitefrequent stops to fill water bottles we still made it down to Paul and
HeatherÕs house in just over 7 hours. We were welcomed to Santa Fe by a
fabulous sunset, and spent the evening chatting to Paul & Heather
until 8pm. Their daughters Anneka & Lily aren't sure about us just
yet, but based on past experience, Liz reckons that'll change. We're staying in a wonderful adobe style summer house built to
match main house. Unpacked for what seems llike the first time in ages. Our
trail permits and all the items we ordered have arrived, but there is still
lots to do. I'm not sure Paul & Heather know what we're expecting
of them! 8 April Santa Fe We'll soon be leaving lovely Santa Fe for the heat and dust of
the Pacific Crest Trail. Preparing food boxes is a hell of a chore.
We've stripped the supermarket of zip-lock bags and pasta. All in all it has
cost a small fortune, and we still have more to buy along the way. We don't
have a TV where we're staying but we heard all about the Queen Mum - I
watched the CNN report on her funeral while standing in line in the bank.
It's easy to see why much of America doesn't know what's going on out there. I was told a joke. The UN did a huge survey into "People's
opinion of food shortages in the rest of the world". It was a disaster.
The Eastern block countries didn't understand "opinion". African
countries didn't understand "food". European countries didn't
understand "shortage". And American had no idea where the
"rest of the world" was. We've only managed to get out hiking a couple of times, twice on
the local mountain, and once on an overnight hike into Bandelier National
Monument. We should have done more, but we have plenty of walking ahead of
us. Heather & Paul and Anneka and Lilly are incredibly
understanding. They allowed us to borrow their summer house and did not bat
an eyelid when we filled it with food boxes. They'll even take them to the
Post Office every week or so to mail out to us on the trail. Heroic
qualities. We are deeply in their debt. 17 April Carlsbad, California So here we are, the evening before we start our hike, and we're
at a roller hockey game for 12 year olds! Why? We're staying with Glen "home made" Van Peski, the
creator of the famous and much loved G4 rucksack (GVPgear.com). He and his
wife Francie have made us very welcome for two nights, and Grant, one of
their sons, was playing in the final of a big roller hockey match. And
his team won. Celebrations at Souplantation involved several visits to the
all-you-can-eat buffet, as we practised for pigging out on the trail. In the early hours of Thursday morning Glen & hiking buddy
Read will drive us to the border and will hike with us as far as Mt Laguna.
High on the to-to list is a "teach the Brits what poison oak looks
like" class. Yesterday, they went through our packs. Being true
ultra-light enthusiasts, they argued for item after item to be replaced with
something lighter, or even removed from our load altogether. We're down to
about 13lb base weight. Even though Glen has a thriving business making backpacks, we
don't have enough experience using the G4 to feel comfortable setting out on
the PCT with one. Much to everyone's amusement, we're using GoLite Gusts -
the product of his chief competitor! But in true, generous, Christian spirit, Glen and Francie are
(at this very moment) sewing pockets on the outside of our Gusts to help us
carry water - turning them into what we hope will be the ideal PCT packs for
us. "Correcting a GoLite oversight" Glen would probably call it! So we've food boxes being mailed from Santa Fe, New Mexico and
back-up equipment being mailed, as we need it, from here in Carlsbad
California. Two mission control centres. Let's hope we live up to it
and can perform as well as these folk whoÕre giving us every advantage. |
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