It's about 2,660 miles (4,281 km), goes through 5 of the 6 eco-zones in The States (no tropical stuff), and reaches over 13,000 feet (it goes 10 meters over 4km above sea level, I know this because every damn travel insurance company only went up to 4km for standard cover). If you're interested in more info read the PCTA site or Wikipedia.
Despite thinking and planning this for so long, leading up to the hike we felt wildly under-prepared. It didn't help that we were denied or visa the first time, pushing our stress levels to even greater lengths and forcing us to semi-plan an alternate hike the length of Japan just in case we were denied the second time. Let me just put in here that those at the US Embassy could use a couple of lessons in international relations, common courtesy and polite behaviour. Never have we been treated so badly, we were expecting to at least be able to sit down and explain our situation. Definitely not the case, less than five minutes in a line at a booth being talked at by a lady who lacked any connection between her ears and her brain. It was like she didn't even want to hear what we had to say, she just wanted key phrases like plenty of cash, commitments at home, definitely not working and of course not a terrorist. She just wanted to hear what she wanted to hear, it almost felt like the truth was of no real consequence!
After that debacle we went in separately and re-worded our explanation to suit the two or three minutes we were allowed to explain our 6 months in The States. This time they were happy, I think the first time they believed we didn't have enough money and we might try to work or stay longer or something along those lines. So we stressed our commitments outside The States and that we would be staying with Family/Friends or camping. It still cost us 400 pounds all up. And of course just as I was about to leave the booth the guy added another little stress bomb; we could be denied at the point of entry or have our stay reduced by the Customs and Border Protection Officer. So we had to sweat and stammer with shaking knees a second time. We didn't actually 100% know we were going to do this until we walked out of LAX.
Then we had gear, insurance, credit/bank cards, GPS, personal locator beacon, knowledge/information, resupply, mileages and the 'simple' planning associated with travelling to a foreign country for 5-6 months to sort out. We also needed to work until really close to leaving to fund this sort of venture. Rebecca quit about 2 weeks before and I quit about a week before leaving. Lets just say there wasn't much sleep in that last week. Somehow we sorted almost everything we needed to before getting to The States, it wasn't perfect but it would suffice.
On top of this Rebecca was leaving her family and friends to move on to NZ with me, but with all the preparation we barely got to say a proper goodbye. We'll be back before long though. I need to try clotted cream tea and scones from Cornwall and go to Cheddar Gorge anyway. So we'll be back. Soon I hope. I also hope to see some of Rebecca's friends in NZ! They're always welcome on my couch (or should I say settee?).
But despite all this we found ourselves racing to the train station on the morning of the 30th of April, a hasty goodbye and thank you to Carol (thank you as well Jim! I feel horrible that I didn't catch you in the morning before you left for work!). It was at this point a little realisation of what we were about to attempt crept in, two parts excitement and one part apprehension. We then caught The Underground to Heathrow, which seemed so quiet and small for one of the largest airports in the world... ran to the gate after a meal at Giraffe (we uh, miscalculated our departure), Rebecca almost threw up on the plane from that little dash (that's how good the nachos were). The Air NZ crew showed the care and courtesy I wish we'd been shown at the US Embassy, then we settled in for 10 hours of rest and films/TV. Boy did we need it, as things started going wrong almost as soon as we landed in LA.
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