True. There are some large forests in the US that are bigger than the whole of Britain. I hope you know exactly where you're going if you do go through any.
All I have to do is keeping walking North. Eventually I'd hit Canada!
*My great adventure* - "I think it's a good idea...
- Thread starter Messiah Khan
- Start date
All I have to do is keeping walking North. Eventually I'd hit Canada!
Not my sorta thing but looks great
best of luck to you both and i hope you don't get too many blisters
Hopefully no blisters! As long as we look after our feet we should hopefully be ok. We will be using 2 pairs of socks; 1 for the daytime that will get wet and sweaty, and 1 pair that is only used for sleeping in that are kept dry all the time. That way I avoid thinks like trench foot. I will also be using things like Hydropel and Anti Monkey Butt powder to avoid chafing and hot spots. Then if hot spots do occur, plenty of Magnesium Oxide tape will be used to tape the feet up.
The more likely injuries will be stress injuries to knees and legs.
Wish you all the best! Sounds like something I would love to do - just not sure who I'd go with!
Flying out to San Diego on Friday 13th (according to your itinerary) sounds good
Hehe, yeah maybe not the best date to fly. My last day at work also happens to be another Friday 13th!
We are taking a smartphone, which is what is providing the gps tracking and updating of our blog. As for MP3 players, both me and my wife will be wanting music independently, so we need 2 players, ie our Sansa Clip+ which weight hardly anything. The batteries also last a lot longer than the smartphone would (and I want to conserve the phone batteries for blog updating).
As for cameras, we are both photographers, so a decent camera is our one luxury. I couldn't settle for using a camera phone. We both have Olympus Micro Four thirds cameras which are smallish but provide great quality, and will do video as well.
I wish I could take my full DSLR setup, but that weighs far too much!
I know the camera battery chargers don't actually use 240V, but there is no easy way that I know of to supply the charger (PS-BCS1) with the 8.4V DC that it requires without potentially damaging the batteries. If you have any suggestions, I am all ears!
After I posted this, I started wondering if it was actually possible to charge the camera batteries directly via DC rather than having to go from mains. Looks like I might have a solution;
You can buy 3rd party BLS-1 chargers that also take 12V DC in, in the form of a car charger. Simply, hook this up to a '6.5W Folding Solar charger MMP4' that outputs 12V at 433mA, which if my calculations are correct, would charge 1 camera battery in about 2.5 hours in the sun. Solar panel weighs 200g, and the charger maybe 100g. That might be a weight I can put up with! The solar charger also comes with a USB adapter, or the camera charger also includes a USB out.
Any reasons why this idea wouldn't work? If I could then in turn use a camera battery to charge my phone or mp3 player via usb, all my power problems would be solved. It would mean I could spend the daytime charging up all the camera batteries. Then at night time some of the batteries could be used to charge the rest of the kit.
Nope. We will be using a 'bounce box' to post various bits of kit, like spare shoes forward to resupply towns.
As a slight update to this thread, we now have our PCTA permits! This is the paperwork that allows us to pass through all the various national parks and wilderness areas. We are now waiting to hear back about our Canada entry form, then all the paperwork is complete!
As for equipment, our living room is now resembling something between an outdoor shop and Everest basecamp;
That is just some of the kit. We now also have a new rucksacks in the form of a F-Stop Satori EXP and Osprey Ariel. The custom made ones were great in terms of the features and build quality, but the weight transfer just wasn't right unfortunately. The new rucksacks will give us more confidence when handling heavy weights.
We have also treated ourselves to some luxuries. Firstly, I have decided to take a solar charger. I managed to find a 6.5W, fold-able solar panel that is the right size to fit on the front of the rucksack. This then delivers 12V DC to a camera battery charger that takes 12V DC in, while also supplying USB power out. According to my calculations, under full sun 1 camera battery can be charged in 2.5-3 hours. Hopefully this means that all our power needs are covered.
Our other luxury are down socks with silnylon overcovers. This means that we will have toasty feet at night, but lso be able to wear them around camp without them getting wet. I love down!
This is the paperwork that allows us to pass through all the various national parks and wilderness areas. We are now waiting to hear back about our Canada entry form, then all the paperwork is complete!As for equipment, our living room is now resembling something between an outdoor shop and Everest basecamp;
That is just some of the kit. We now also have a new rucksacks in the form of a F-Stop Satori EXP and Osprey Ariel. The custom made ones were great in terms of the features and build quality, but the weight transfer just wasn't right unfortunately. The new rucksacks will give us more confidence when handling heavy weights.
We have also treated ourselves to some luxuries. Firstly, I have decided to take a solar charger. I managed to find a 6.5W, fold-able solar panel that is the right size to fit on the front of the rucksack. This then delivers 12V DC to a camera battery charger that takes 12V DC in, while also supplying USB power out. According to my calculations, under full sun 1 camera battery can be charged in 2.5-3 hours. Hopefully this means that all our power needs are covered.
Our other luxury are down socks with silnylon overcovers. This means that we will have toasty feet at night, but lso be able to wear them around camp without them getting wet. I love down!
Link to the socks please?
https://goosefeetgear.com/products/1-down-socks
https://goosefeetgear.com/products/2-waterproof-over-booties
Yeah, baby!
Think I have just been stung with import duties on them now though!F-Stop now have an EU warehouse, so it comes from Holland I think.
I went with the F-Stop as I already have an F-Stop Loka (in Black), and I love it! It is one of the best thought out and made rucksacks I have ever owned, never mind it being a camera bag. I also know that I find it comfy etc, so I thought I would just go for it's bigger brother, the Satori EXP (in 'Grey Mist').
It is about the right size, although I may be pushing it for size a little bit on some of the longer resupply sections, but Sarah may have to take some fo the bulky stuff, while I take the heavier food etc. It isn't actually that heavy at all considering the size and features. It comes in at 1.8Kg, which is actually lighter than a lot of Osprey/Deuter/Lowe Alpine sacks etc. It also has the back panel access, making everything easy to get to. And finally it has the really nice gatekeeper strap system for attaching sleeping mats and tent.
Seriously, if you are considering a F-Stop bag, then just get one! You won't be disappointed. I would never go back to a Lowepro camera again. They are expensive, but as I say they are also the best bags I have ever used.
Good luck on your adventure ,hope you have a great time.
Just noticed it looks like you have 8 pairs of walking boots , do you need that many?
It's actually 12 pairs!
That's 6 pairs each, and yup, we will probably get through at least 4-5 of those. Trail running shoes are much lighter and better for your feet, but they do also wear out much easier than a heavy boot.Thanks for that lengthy post, but don't worry the safety gear is well considered. The times we will need either crampons or iceaxes on the PCT will be minimal (especially if the snow level stays super low this year as it is so far). There are just a couple of tricky passes where an iceaxe isn't essential, but does give that extra level of insurance. This is why I want with the alu Camp Corsa Nanotec, as it will spend 99% of the time on the rucksack.
As for crampons, if you look at the top left of the photo, there are 2 boxes of microspikes. Full crampons are overkill for what we need (And wouldn't fit our shoes) but the microspikes may come in handy for the said passes, as well as snowfield crossing in the mornings/evenings when the snow is harder.
If the snow stays as low as it is at the moment though, we might not need the iceaxe or crampons at all. It will mean much easier and faster passage through the Sierras, and hopefully lower river levels, but at the expense of drinking water levels in the drier stretches.
As long as we prepare for every eventuality, we should be ok.
Wow, that is a lot of kit
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandma_Gatewood
Sounds like a fantastic trip. Hope you post updates as you go.
Hehe. Yeah, we could go a bit more minimalist, but it is tricky to strike the right balance between going ultra light weight and minimalist, and being comfortable and safe. As we will pass through so many different environments and weather conditions we need clothing and equipment to cater for them all.
Updates will be available via my website;
www.afowler.co.uk/adventures/
That's our Canada entry permit sorted, which means that all the paper work has now been completed and approved. Have to say I am happy to see the back of it, as the combination of permits, flights and visas has been soul destroying! It seems a shame that a wander in the wilderness takes so much paperwork!
Most of the things left on the todo list now related to packing up this life, ie cancelling phone contracts etc. Last pair of footwear also arrived the other day, so now we pretty much have everything we need. I am planning on taking some photos/making blog entries about the kit choices we have made, so I'll post them up once done.
Anyway, only 63 days to go!
Yeah, I'll try and update it whenever we have phone reception/internet access. You can follow it on my website; www.afowler.co.uk/adventures or twitter; http://twitter.com/#!/bear_and_boy
Maybe not 18 million, but we have enough memory cards for an estimated 34560 raw photos.
AS TW Fox says, we haven't set off yet. We fly out on the 20th April, so not long now. I only have 1 full week at work left! We have been busy planning, sorting and training though. We went out today for a training hike with fully loaded packs. I added 10Kg of metal weights to mine to simulate 5 days worth of food. We now also have all the paperwork sorted and finalized. It's now mainly packing up our flat, ready for moving out next weekend.
The packs are smallish but most of the kit is ultralight and ultra compact. Thru hikers joke that you can tell a weekend hiker by their huge rucksacks. We have packed and repacked the rucksacks over and over again to make sure everything has a place. So far it is all working well. For some of the longer sections I may need to lash a stuffsack with extra food to the outside of the pack, but this isn't a problem. Also most of the longer sections are where we have to have bear canisters, so the food will be stored in them, ontop of the rucksacks.
Big rucksacks are very rarely needed unless you have shedloads of heavy equipment. I think too many people don't take enough care in their kit selection personally. A 40L pack is generally big enough for most proper backpacking trips, we're not talking bronze DofE here.
Hey, don't diss the bronze DofE! I did that when I was at school!
To be fair it was pretty easy, as the 'expedition' was up Teesdale where I had been loads of times before, so know it like the back of my hand.But yeah, it is funny when you see a group of DofE kids with 100+ litre packs with pots and pans and all sorts of rubbish hanging off the back, knowing that they are out for a day or two at most.
The only time you would need 100+Litre packs is if you can't resupply for several weeks or months at a time. For example Ed Stafford carried up 80Kg of supplies as he crossed the Amazon over 2 years. He would walk for several months at a time, not knowing when he would next come across any civilization.
On the other end, you get ultra light backpacking, where you can get away with 20-30 litre packs weighing no more than 2-3kg before supplies. It involves a lot of compromises, and is a bit too extreme for me at the moment.
Microspikes will be sufficient for what we are doing. Also our shoes aren't stiff enough for proper steel crampons. We do admittedly need to get some iceaxe training in, but unfortunately we simply haven't had the snow this year to test them out. We are going to have to get some training in once we hit easy snow slopes on the trail. A helmet is total overkill and would just be dead weight for the whole journey.
Can't believe I missed this. It should be the adventure of a lifetime
One question though, what's in the three green cuben stuff sacks in the photos above? (top right of photo)
The top one is the Cuben Fibre Supermid with bug net perimeter and door and Cuben Fibre Groundsheet. The other two contain the Thermarest Z-Lite sleeping mats. We are keeping them in stuff sacks to stop them getting dirty when putting the packs down.
would it be quicker to walk canada to mexico, its downhill going south
But you would also have the sun in your eyes all the way down!
Much better to have it on my back where I can use it to charge batteries.If anyone is interested in what camera kit I am bringing, I am posting a big blog post about it on Wednesday. For now I have put up a blog post about the camera attachment system and waterproof cover;
http://www.afowler.co.uk/posts/717/
Aye, I know what you mean. The axes are ultra light though, and there are only a couple of places where one might be needed. the main place is the snow chute leading up to Foresters Pass;
By the way I lived in Norway for over 10 years. I lived further south in Langesund & Porsgrunn. Can hardly remember any Norwegian now though. We went back for a holiday last year and it was great. Went back to the south coast and up to Hardangervidda where we used to spend a lot of time.
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I went out there when I was 2, and came back when I was 12. We moved because of my dad's job for Hydro Polymers. It was a 1 years secondment, but 10 years later they were still there. It was a great place to be brought up, and I have very fond memories. Are you Norwegian, or did you move out there for work?
The helmet is no go I'm afraid. I have done a fair bit of ski touring myself (although not for a while. I really want to go skiing again!) and have some mountaineering experience in the alps, slovakia, norway etc. But for this expedition I am taking my equipment lists off the people who have done it before. The main way to success with a long distance hike like this is to keep the weight down. it is very different to mountaineering or a even a weekend tour. Having to travel 150 miles a week for 6 months with food for that whole time means that every gram needs to be accounted for, even if some corners have to be cut. Naturally there are some risks, but these need to be balanced against the fatigue caused by extra weight. The biggest risk out there isn't the snow (And this year is looking like it is going to be a low snow year in the Sierras) but river crossings. The glacial melt water will swell the rivers which can be very treacherous. Again, it is a risk but as long as we are sensible and take it slowly, we will be ok.
Big issue anyone?
Well today I wake up to my first day of being technically homeless! Yesterday we moved out of our flat of 3 1/2 years. Although the landlord was rubbish and we were surrounded by students, it was still sad to leave it as the view was great and the last few days in the sun on the quayside felt like we were on holiday and made us reflect at how lucky we have been living where we did.
But we now have just over 3 weeks of living with the parents. I have 3.5 days left at work and Sarah has 5.5 days left. Moving out yesterday though just made everything a lot more real!
Well today I wake up to my first day of being technically homeless! Yesterday we moved out of our flat of 3 1/2 years. Although the landlord was rubbish and we were surrounded by students, it was still sad to leave it as the view was great and the last few days in the sun on the quayside felt like we were on holiday and made us reflect at how lucky we have been living where we did.
But we now have just over 3 weeks of living with the parents. I have 3.5 days left at work and Sarah has 5.5 days left. Moving out yesterday though just made everything a lot more real!
If you get attacked by a Mountain Lion, Don't worry, the bears will save you!!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://news.sky.com/home/strange-news/article/16198822
Godspeed on your epic journey ahead.
Hehe, like people would believe me if that happened!
Anyway, today's news is.... I now have no work for 7 months! I worked my last day of work and am not due back until the 5th of November! Get in! So now I have no home, and no job. Just time to finish sorting things out, and saying goodbye to people. This last few weeks is going fly fast me thinks!
I hope it doesn't settle too much. I'm hearing that the snow pack is low, so even if it snows now, it should melt away quicker than usual. South California could do with more water though. But overall I want a lower snow level than usual, especially in the high sierras.
Last night of normality! Tomorrow we get the train down to Manchester Airport, ready to fly out to USA on Friday. We have about 6 days in San Diego, getting over jet lag and finishing resupply preparations etc, then we start walking north on the 26th! If we are on schedule, we won't stop walking until the 11th October!
If anyone wants to follow the updates as we go along, the blog is;
http://www.afowler.co.uk/adventures/
or follow us on twitter;
http://twitter.com/#!/bear_and_boy
We will be trying to write regular updates as we go along. If anyone wants to copy any updates into this thread, then feel free as I will be unlikely to get the chance to update this thread myself until the end of the year.
Farewell ocuk, and I'll see you on the other side of the wilderness. I'll leave you with a nice quote from T.S. Elliot;
"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go"
If anyone wants to follow the updates as we go along, the blog is;
http://www.afowler.co.uk/adventures/
or follow us on twitter;
http://twitter.com/#!/bear_and_boy
We will be trying to write regular updates as we go along. If anyone wants to copy any updates into this thread, then feel free as I will be unlikely to get the chance to update this thread myself until the end of the year.
Farewell ocuk, and I'll see you on the other side of the wilderness. I'll leave you with a nice quote from T.S. Elliot;
"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go"
We have managed to make it to the 10% mark! We are resting up in big bear lake which is 266 miles on. So far the trail has been great but very physically and mentally challenging! We have managed a 24 mile day, but we are often having to hike 14 hours a day to make up the distance due to the difficulty of terrain and elevation gain. No major injurious to talk about other then a few blisters and bee stings. Loving life out here though. Have met some great people and life is good!
We have now passed the 1000 mile mark! We are currently resupplying in South lake Tahoe at mile 1094.So far the adventure has been amazing but physically and mentally harder then anything I have ever done before! This last section was the toughest on the whole so far. It was 8 days (so loads of food), it included a load of deep canyons and high mountain passes to cross, and worst of all it was mosquito hell!
We were now past the high Sierras and as we her into north California the mountains start to mellow out a bit, but the temperatures will also start to rise again. Sarah also nearly walked into a bear, when it was only 8ft off the trail! I'm still to even see a bear, so am super jealous!
Anyway, time to cram in even more calories as we have both lost loads of weight, despite eating anything we can get our hands on! Want to eat chocolate each day and still lose weight? Just walk 20 miles over mountains each day!
We were now past the high Sierras and as we her into north California the mountains start to mellow out a bit, but the temperatures will also start to rise again. Sarah also nearly walked into a bear, when it was only 8ft off the trail! I'm still to even see a bear, so am super jealous!
Anyway, time to cram in even more calories as we have both lost loads of weight, despite eating anything we can get our hands on! Want to eat chocolate each day and still lose weight? Just walk 20 miles over mountains each day!
I'm back! And I didn't get eaten by bears or fall off any mountains!
It was amazing, but also physically and mentally the toughest thing I have ever done! I lost 41lbs despite eating as much as I could physically carry. There are loads of photos and videos to follow, but it will take a little while to sort though them, especially as we are in the process of finding a new home etc.
It was amazing, but also physically and mentally the toughest thing I have ever done! I lost 41lbs despite eating as much as I could physically carry. There are loads of photos and videos to follow, but it will take a little while to sort though them, especially as we are in the process of finding a new home etc.