Our Dream Adventure

OUR DREAM ADVENTURE...

In 2014/2015 we are taking some 'Time Out' and planning an adventure trip of a lifetime.

We will start with a six month thru hike of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail or 'AT' for short. A 2186 mile (3500km) trail running along the eastern United States of America.

Next we will be taking a break from daily hiking (there will be some hiking involved though!) and will be going on an amazing three month adventure holiday through South America.

Finally, back to thru hiking again. This time five to six months in New Zealand hiking the Te Araroa - New Zealand's Trail ('TA' for short). A 1865 mile (3000km) trail spanning the whole of New Zealand.

We have set up this Blog so that family, friends and anyone else who is interested, can follow our adventure which will include blogs about our planning and preparation stages as well as our whole amazing trip.

(So not to bore you with too much information, if you wish to read or learn more about what The Appalachian Trail and the Te Araroa Trail are all about see the 'Links' below the three maps in the left hand column.)

Christine & Nigel xxx



Wednesday, 16 April 2014

Day 55 Zero Day No 5 - Daleville

Today's miles 0.  AT miles 724.

Our fifth zero day today in Daleville on my birthday! Luckily the trail location just worked out perfect, we couldn't have planned that any better. 

A nice easy day, we had a continental breakfast, included at the Howard Johnson (hojo) Motel we're staying at. We then sorted out some winter gear we don't need anymore to post/bounce up the trail tomorrow.  We've probably managed to reduce our pack weight by 4-5lbs each.  Most hikers send gear items home, back and forth as they need it with the change of seasons.  Its not practical for us to post gear back and forth to the UK so we are 'bouncing' our gear up the trail.  Basically just posting unneeded items forward a few hundred miles at a time via the US postal service, then we can add or take back items as we need them and then keep bouncing our parcel on until we finish.

We also ordered some new boots for me online to pick up in Waynesboro when we get there.  A lighter weight pair, half the weight of my current winter leather boots which will hopefully help with my knee problem, especially with a lighter pack weight too. We also ordered the central and northern AT map books, Nigel has been enjoying following the detailed map sections everyday, we've not been able to find the books in the stores.

We did our necessary food resupply for the next five days and bought a couple of new platypus water bags from the outfitter shop, our old dirty water bags have developed small leaks, plus a pair of shorts for me.  Now we both have shorts the weather has gone cold again!  I also got a couple of knee supports to try out. We returned back to our motel for an afternoon nap.

Later Extra Miles joined us in our room with some Maple Jim Bean that he had left from last night that needed drinking. We then headed to a local BBQ restaurant for a meal with our hiker friends for my birthday which was lovely, really tasty BBQ ribs. There were ten of us in total, Nigel and I, Milk Monster, Wall E, Pillow, Extra Miles, Mountain Mime, Doctor Dave, Trish and Jesse. Sadly Iron Man had been feeling poorly all day so couldn't join us.  Afterwards we returned to our room, the Jim Bean needed finishing, Extra Miles, Milk Monster, Wall E, Mime and Doc all joined us and Extra Miles had kindly bought some Oreo ice creams for us all.  A very enjoyable birthday evening.

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