Got my visa!

Sorry chaps, I've been a bit quiet of late. Been pretty busy cramming in the hours at work to add to the savings pot! Also been preparing for my visa interview... which I'm pleased to say I passed and my 6 month visa has been approved!

I got a sleeper train into London Paddington arriving at 5:30 this morning and had a wander around Hyde Park to kill some time before my appointment. When I got to the embassy there were abut 50-odd people queuing for various appointments. After standing around for half an hour or so I was let in and collected my appointment ticket.

Pretty soon I was called up to the first desk where my prints were taken and a couple of basic questions asked ('Have you ever been arrested?, How long will you be staying in the United States?). My passport was sent along to another desk where I went shortly after to have a chat with a US consular officer who asked me some more specific questions (What are you doing in the United States? Why? How long will the trip take? Where do you work now? What are your plans upon returning to the United Kingdom? How are you funding the trip?). I answered the questions concisely (no rambling!) and had a load of documents ready to back up my responses although they didn't seem too fussed about seeing anything apart from a cover letter from my boss.

And that was that! The whole actual interview process took maybe half an hour, and they said there and then my visa had been approved. Should hopefully get my passport back in the post in a few days time. Feeling pretty relieved, although in hind sight its really nothing to be worried about as long as you're honest in your responses. Just got to start looking into flights now...

Stove issues...

I had a nights wild camp in some woods close to where I live to get in a bit of practice with the gear. The hammock was set up quickly and easily, and I got a good solid nights sleep despite apparently having a down-pour of rain at some point during the night. The snakeskins meant I could pack it away in the morning without getting drenched. Cracking bit of kit!

I did however have some issues with the stove. It had been raining all day so the ground was damp, and being in a rush to get to the camping spot before dark (I went straight after work) totally forgot to take dry kindling. So, I only had some wood shavings and a few hexy blocks with me. Attempts to light it in the evening were a massive fail ad I resorted to using my girlfriends Coleman gas stove and piled up a load of wood under my hammock where it could dry out a bit over night. In the morning I used the wood shavings to get the fire going, and a couple of hexy blocks to get the heat up, before adding the partially dry tinder. After a bit of a battle I managed to get just enough out of it to boil a litre of water for a brew.

Lessons learnt: Carry a small amount of dry tinder to help get the stove going on those damp evenings. Prepare properly for trips! I'm out again this Thursday/ Friday; walking from Truro to St Mawes; weathers looking pretty soggy so it should be a good opportunity to test the stove again.

Visas...

Just paid for my visa and booked my interview at the US Embassy in London. Scary times indeed! I'm pretty confident I'll have no problems getting it granted; its just making the whole thing seem rather real! The interview is at the end of the month so by mid September I could potentially have flights booked.


For fellow non-American hikers...

The actual process of applying for the visa isn't quite as bad as it seems. You first fill out a DS-160 form which asks you for all your personal details, passport info, family info, what your purpose of visit is, security questions, e.t.c. You then select visa type (a B2 for me), upload a photo of yourself, submit the form, and print a copy. Next you create an account with your local embassy and pay the $130 fee plus £30 courier charge to get your passport back later on. At this point you can also book an interview date, for which I've only had to wait two weeks.

On the interview day you take along you passport, DS-160 page, and a couple of other bits that they tell you. You rock up to the embassy, have an in-person interview, and they say Yay or Nay. If all goes well you get your passport back a couple of weeks later with a shiny visa in it. Fingers crossed!

An interesting read...

Had this in the post this morning and already read a good deal of it. Its a very interesting read indeed. Appalachian Trials by 2011 thru-hiker Zach Davis fills a bit of a gap in Appalachian Trail guides and looks at the psychological and emotional challenges that come with attempting a thru-hike. I've researched and prepared my kit down to a T and am happy with my physical fitness, but the mental side of things has been occupying me recently; especially after my experience of days of relentless rain in Iceland! This book has definitely given me a lot to think about, but also a good bit of confidence.

Very early on I decided against food parcels as I didn't want to be constrained to a time schedule. I haven't made an itinerary beyond knowing distances between food replenishments so I know how much to restock each time. I have no real idea of what my daily mileage might be; I could spend all year looking at maps and elevation profiles but at the end of the day, until I get on the ground I don't know how my mind and body will respond to this sudden new lifestyle and what unforeseen circumstances may arise. I plan on listening to my limbs, keeping it comfortable, and getting into a good routine as soon as possible. Trips in the past have been less than pleasant; my Pennine Way adventure was ultimately cut short because I was too intent on sticking to my schedule and tried pushing through injury and fatigue. 

Undoubtedly there will be pitfalls; I might carry too much food for one section or end up having to ration for another, or be slowed down by injuries or bad weather. But I'm hoping that these hiccups won't be detrimental to my trip and that I can learn from them as I go along. Appalachian Trials is giving me a bit of an insight into what to expect and how I might deal with it. Definitely worth a read!

The Gear...

I'm a self confessed gear nut and could quite easily go on and on about it. However, for the sake of everyone's sanity I'll mention it here only if I get something particularly exciting and keep it to a bare minimum. If there are any other geeks out there I'm going to add a separate page where we can discuss fabrics hydro-static head, breathability and moisture vapor transition rates, stove boil times and thermal efficiency to our hearts content!

I've got a new stove!

I've always used some sort of gas stove, my latest being a little MSR Micro Rocket. I fancied something a bit different for the trail; I considered liquid or multi-fuel stoves or staying with gas and going for a Jet Boil. In the end I've decided on something completely different and just bought a Wild Stoves Wild Woodgas Stove (a bit of a mouthful!). When working out my budget I figured out that gas canister at £3 will last me maybe 2 days. Lets say i'm on the trail for 130 days, that's almost £200 in gas. The woodgas stove is a little heavier and boils stuff slower, and relies on my ability to light a fire, but it saves me a whole lot of money and means I wont have to carry any bulky gas canisters or heavy liquid fuel; just a small amount of dry kindling to get it lit on damp days. And it has a lot of novelty value!

I've now tried it a couple of times, full review to follow on the gear page!


...and a new tent. Well, hammock.

After a good years debating on what type of shelter to go for, I finally decided that I was going to hammock it, and just bought a Hennessy Hammock Expedition Asym Velcro! I've never slept in a hammock before but always wanted to, and the AT provides the perfect opportunity. And, in answer to the the question that everyone asks; I will be able to rig up a sort of bivi/ basher set-up where there are no trees. The weight also drew me to it; a touch above 1kg including the stuff sack. For a tent at a similar weight I would probably be looking at something like the Force 10 Helium 100, which is twice the price and not nearly as cool!

I managed to take it for a quick overnight test run last week and and was very impressed. After half an hour of fidgeting I found the perfect angle to lie at (kind of diagonally-ish) where I can lie straight and have my head propped up slightly to avoid using a pillow. I was surprised by the amount of room there actually was in the hammock itself; I think i'll be modifying it slightly to have a little mesh divider at the foot end to store clothes when i'm sleeping in addition to the overhead storage pouch thing. Definitely glad I went for the Velcro option as well; loads easier to get in and out of than it looks, less to break, and easier to repair should the situation arise.Fun, exciting times indeed!

Toes all healed!

Toes Are all healed! Over the last year or so I've been having issues with ingrowing toenails. It started off as a bit of an inconvenience and made wearing climbing shoes and walking in boots a bit uncomfortable. They kept getting worse and weren't going to sort themselves out so a couple of months ago I had both big toenails permanently removed. I won't stick up any photos of that: they're pretty grim! They've healed really quick though and I can now climb and walk unhindered. It also means that there's no chance of getting blisters on my second toe as I've hand problems with in the past. I've heard that some ultra-runners have toenails removed for the same reason.

What have I been up to?

It's been a busy year! I would have been sensible starting writing all this a bit earlier really as I've got a load of catching up to do! There's been lots of gear researching and buying, planning logistics, working and frantic saving. I've settled on a start date towards the end of March; leaving a little later means I should miss the worst of the weather and be able to do a bigger daily mileage and reduce the total time of the trip so i'll be able to afford it easier! Everything's on track; financially I'll be fine, I've got the majority of my gear sorted and am very happy with it. The last thing on my list that needs sorting is my visa; it'll be expensive, and a bit of a pain getting all of my documents together and going to the US embassy in London for the interview but  I plan on getting it done and dusted this side of Christmas.

Training...

I haven't been doing any specific fitness training as such although I run a bit, climb a lot, and have managed to get out on day or over-night trips on the coast path a couple of times. Overall I'm pretty happy with my general fitness; if anything forces me off the trail it won't be that. I've managed a couple of 'big' trips this year with my work colleague and good friend Joe:

In February I was up in Glen Coe on a winter skills course run by my employer. It was great fun and we got to do a few good summits in crappy weather! The week after I head over to the Cairngorms for a weeks camping and four day trek. We managed to climb 1245m high Cairngorm on the first day despite the 80mph winds, before retreating down-valley and spending the next few days wandering the forests and lochs. It was my first experience of hiking in the winter environment; it was cold, damp, and hard work walking through deep snow with a pack that weighed 20kg. It also felt surprisingly comfortable! Within a couple of days my body got used to bearing the weight and my feet remained completely blister free. My choice of gear was spot on; I never got too cold or hungry and I used everything in my pack and ate all the food I took. Overall, an incredible experience in a beautiful part of the world!


A few weeks ago I got back from a trip to Iceland to hike the Laugavegur and Fimmvörðuháls (good luck pronouncing that!) trails from Landmannalaugar to Skógar. It was eventful to say the least. We were hit by constant rain and high winds in Iceland's worst summer for 30 years. Parts of the plateau were shut off for a few days so we ultimately had to end our trip just short of Thórsmörk. It was kind of frustrating to travel so far to not complete what we had set out to do, nonetheless it was an awesome experience. I've never been in an environment so spectacular on such a large scale. Iceland has it all; stunning peaks, vast snow clad plateaus, alien volcanic spires and geothermal land forms, wide glacial valleys and black ash deserts... the list is endless. If you're going to do one trail in your life this should definitely be on the short-list!

For anyone who's interested a brief account of the trip can be found here: http://community.cotswoldoutdoor.com/stores/truro/blogs/2013/6/19/laugavegur-trail-iceland/


But that's it for adventures this year. I've now got to focus on getting the last of my saving done and get the last of my gear together so i'm all ready for the big one next year. Eight more pay-days to go! Wooo!

Where it began...

I've done my fair share of walking in the past, although nothing on a particularly grand scale. I've done little bits and pieces in Wales, Scotland, and just come back from Iceland. My longest single trip is the northern 130 miles of what was meant to be a thru-hike of the Pennine way. Since moving to Cornwall I've done good chunks of the coast path with my good friend Dan; these were some of the best days of my life!

My desire to hike the Appalachian Trail hit me quite suddenly one dreary afternoon in April 2011. I was mid way through my dissertation, feeling pretty stressed, and fantasizing about the thing I could do when this thing was finished! As it happened, I was reading a particular book by Bill Bryson. The idea got lodged in my brain and stuck.

Since then the Appalachian Trail has rarely left my thoughts; i'm constantly thinking trail logistics (What about my visa? How far can/ should I go each day? How long will it take?...), gear (should I take a hammock or tent? A shoe or a boot? What sort of stove?...), or browsing whiteblaze.net seeing what other aspirational hikers are doing in preparation and where the current hikers are. When I get a quiet moment at work my mind wanders and i'm briefly wandering the 'Long Green Tunnel' or standing on top of Mount Katahdin. So, to all my family and friends who have not only thus far put up with my relentless obsessing but actively supported it: Thank you!