Cleveland Way National Trail - AT Prep Part 1

Next week we're off to North Yorkshire for 7 days to backpack the Cleveland Way.  

Our first thru-hiking trial run in preparation for the AT next year - walking and camping, we'll be carrying everything we need on our backs for 7 days.

The Cleveland Way, the second oldest National Trail in England and Wales (The Penine Way was the first) was opened in 1969.   A 110 mile horseshoe shaped route around the North York Moors National Park, the largest open moorland in England, 80% of the trail is within the National Park.  
The trail starts in the market town of Helmsley and finishes at the seaside town of Filey.   
For the first 3 days we will pass through dramatic heather covered open moorland (hopefully we're going at the best time of year for flowering heather) until we reach Saltburn on the coast.  For the next 4 days we'll be walking along the dramatic North Yorkshire Heritage Coastline on top of rugged cliffs, passing through old fishing villages and seaside towns.

We're treating this hike as an opportunity to test some new lightweight gear, tweak the load carrying and spend 7 consecutive nights walking and camping, averaging 15 miles a day. 

Being keen and experienced hikers we have all the gear we need for backpacking but unfortunatley most of the kit we already have is too heavy for a long thruhike.  Most of it will need replacing for lightweight/ultralight gear before we start on our long adventure next year.  For The Cleveland Way we will have to make do with what we have, luckily with the weather still warm we won't need warm winter clothing and when we get to the coast, there are towns a plenty so we won't need to carry numerous days supplies of food meaning we can cut down on a fair amount of weight.
 
We have however invested in three new pieces of gear to trial on The Cleveland Way.  

We have a new ultralightweight tent, A Big Agnes Copper Spur UL2.  Not the lightest two person tent around, it weighs 1.5kg/55ounces with it's footprint, but we decided we'd rather carry an extra few ounces of weight for a little bit more comfort.  It has dual doors and steep vertical walls with plenty of internal space that will make long trips with a partner far more comfortable. Our previous tent option would have been a 3kg tent so we've halved our tent weight.

We're also testing out some new sleeping mats - Exped Synmat 7 Ultralight Airbed Short.  These weigh 430g/15ounces and pack down to the size of a half litre drinks bottle.  Exped say these synthetic fibre mats are lightweight and robust, their abrasion resistance is high and puncture resistance is low. They offer comfort and warmth at a minimal weight and packed size with 7 cm thickness and an excellent R-Value of 3.5.  These mats are more like airbeds than the self inflating thermarest style mats.  We will probably take some thin lightweight foam matting to go under the sleeping mats for further protection against puncture and abrasion and also to prevent them moving around whilst sleeping.  The foam matting will also double up as a foam seat pad for sitting on at camp or lunch stops etc.  Our old mats pack size was around 56x16cm and weighed 1kg, so again we managed to cut the weight down by more than half.  

Finally our last bit of new gear is an Anker Astro Slim3 portable external battery backup charger.  It supposedly has enough power for 3 or more charges of smartphones or any USB compatible device and weighs just 113g/4 ounces.  Hopefully it'll keep our iphone and GPS watch charged for the 7 days as our iphone will be our only camera and we like the GPS to record trip data.

We'll let you know how these new bits of gear fair afterwards.

We will hopefully be able to post blog updates of our hike on route and also on our Facebook page - good pratice for us posting on the move.

C & N xxx

Overlanders!

A little snippet of information we found amusing but very fitting!

On our South American Adventure we will mainly be travelling overland in specialised trucks to get off the beaten tourist trail.   
We will become known as 'Overlanders'. 
Dragoman's (the tour operator's) definition of an Overlander is as follows: 
Overlander (o-ver-lan-der): 
One who seeks adventure, knowledge and new experiences. 
A traveller who engages in exciting and adventurous pursuits. 


and One who has the following characteristics: 
Possesses an almost uncontrollable urge to travel.
Expects more from a holiday than just a suntan.
Open minded, with a great sense of humour.
Considers a hot bath every day a luxury, not a necessity.
Enjoys the company of others (even those who don’t bath every day).
Loves to wander off the beaten track.
Respects and embraces other cultures.
Doesn’t insist on a pocket sprung mattress to get a good nights sleep.
Handy with a shovel if called upon.



I think we'll fit in nicely!   

 

6 Month Countdown!

6 Month Countdown!

In 6 months time we will be boarding a plane to Atlanta, Georgia, USA and starting a 14/15 month journey  - an 'Adventure of a Lifetime'.

Not just any old journey or adventure.... 

.... a 4000+ mile walking adventure!

What a fantastic way to explore and learn about different countries of the world.

We have set up this blog to tell our story so our family and friends and anyone else who's interested can follow our journey.

Our first 6 months will be spent walking (thru hiking) in the USA. 

From Atlanta we will head 80 miles north to Amicalola Falls  - the starting point for an 8½ mile 'Approach Trail' to 'The Appalachian National Scenic Trail', Appalachian Trail or simply AT for short.  It will be here on 28 February 2014 our first big walking adventure begins.     

The AT is a 2186 mile (3500km) trail starting from Springer Mountain, Georgia.  Heading north it passes through 14 American states: Georgia; North Carolina; Tennessee; Virginia; West Virginia; Maryland; Pennsylvania; New Jersey; New York; Connecticut; Massachusetts; Vermont; New Hampshire and finishes on top of Mount Katahdin in Maine.  We envisage it taking us 5 - 5½ months to complete.  We will only have 6 months in the USA due to visa limits, but if we finish early we would like to spend a bit of time afterwards resting our legs and doing a bit of canoeing in Maine instead.

No mean feat - a physical and mental challenge, definitely a full on adventure, a routine to be treated more like a job - can't really call it a holiday - walking for 5 months, day after day, carrying everything we need on our backs. More on that in a later blog.

AT completed -  we will then fly to South America.  Starting in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, we will set off on an amazing 3 month South American Adventure holiday!

Yes, definitely a holiday this time, for us anyway - probably not what most people would class as a holiday! 

We will travel overland through Brazil from Rio through Amazonia to Cusco, Peru, The land of the Incas, visit Machu Picchu and the Inca Trail then continue to Lima. From there we head north to Quito, Ecuador.  Of course we can't visit Ecuador without a trip to the Galapagos Islands too.  From Quito a flight to the southernmost city of the world, Ushuaia, Tierra Del Fuego, Argentina.  From here we head back north overland through Patagonia to Santiago, Chile.

After that amazing trip, hopefully our bodies (and minds!) will be rested, relaxed and recovered from the AT and ready for our next Long Walk! 

From Santiago we will fly to Auckland, New Zealand.

Here we plan to walk (thru hike) New Zealand's recently opened National Trail - The Te Araroa (TA for short).

A 1865 mile (3000km) trail spanning the whole of New Zealand from Cape Reinga in the north to Bluff in the South, travelling through 10 regions of New Zealand.  On North Island the trail goes through Northland; Auckland; Waikato/King Country; Manawatu/Whanganui and Wellington and on South Island the trail goes through Nelson; Marlborough; Canterbury; Otago and Southland.  Again no mean feat but we should be quite experienced thru hikers by then!

Slightly shorter than the AT, we envisage the TA taking us about 4½/5 months.  Depending on how much time and money we have left once finishing the hike, we may do a bit more exploring of New Zealand - Queenstown area, Fiordland for some kayaking or Stuart Island maybe?  There is a walk/tramp around Stewart Island that is supposed to be spectacular that that isn't included as part of the Te Araroa trail - if we still have some walking legs left by then!

Finally - fly back home!

This is our first blog post of many hopefully.  With only 6 months to go there is an awful lot of planning required for this trip.  We will be posting our thoughts about our planning and preparations for the trip, such things as gear required, visa issues, medical insurance issues, what about the house, bills and the dog etc. and of course once we're 'On Route' we will update you regularly with our progress.

C & N xxx