Date: 2003-02-07
To: Planning
Miles today: 0.0

At the time of writing I am more or less at the end of the planning for my forthcoming trip. Although I won't be starting the hike until mid April I am leaving Aberdeen next week and after that there won't be too much time to get round to any more significant planning.I have found planning the trip both good and bad - the early stages were great, when you just let your mind race off in all different directions, looking into all the various possibilities but eventually that has to end and the nuts and bolts have to be put into place, items bought, dates firmed up and things booked and that part was all hassles and not much fun. However, I've done most of that now and am past caring about anything that I haven't got round to.Here is a brief rundown of the major planning issues I faced and how they went:The first issue I had was unique to my situation of being a 'Johnny Foreigner', in that I had to organise a visa that would hopefully let me stay in the US for 6 months continuously. I found this quite stressfull as after having decided that this hike was what I wanted to do my ability to go and do it still wasn't in my own hands and that, therefore, the dream could evaporate pretty quickly. I seemed to spend an age over the forms before I eventually sent them off in early December. Thankfully everything came back OK in about 10 days and although I still feel a little exposed (as entry requirements can change at the drop of a hat) I feel that I have done as much as I can and fingers crossed everything will work out fine.After that flights and itinery became the next big decision. I started thinking that a round the world flight wouldn't be that much more expensive than a flexible flight to the States and once I opened that can of worms, with thoughts of Australia and New Zealand I knew my mind was made up (it also had the additional benefit of meaning I would leave in mid February rather than April and the waiting to get going wouldn't be so bad). Again the nitty gritty was a hassle but now (with a week to go) I'm really exited about my trip which ended up as 2 weeks in Nepal, 2 weeks in Tasmania, 3 weeks on the East coast of Australia, a week in California and then off to Atlanta to start the hike.Next came the thing that seems to preoccupy so many hikers - the question of what gear to take and what compromises can be made that will be right for them. Fortunately I had most of the important gear and only had one or two important items to get (new boots, a headtorch and a water filter), however, the choice of what clothes to take has been a pain. I was going to buy all this new technical clothing but in the end thought - how can I decided what I need when I don't really know what I'm going to be faced with (as well as being faced with the problem of needing different stuff for Nepal, Australia and the hike) - so now I'm just going to pack some of my old (probably unsuitable) stuff - I can always change it along the way if I need to.Planning for the hike itself has been very minimal - no detailed plan of mail drops or pre packing food or arranging to meet people. So far its amounted to about 2 things:Deciding to start in mid April - who knows if this is a good decision but my thinking was to try and minimise the possibility of any severe weather in the early stages (it seems to me that the cold and consequent lack of sleep in the early days forces quite a few people to quit - so I'm hoping to avoid that). This also means that I'll miss most of the crowds. However, I am still hoping to find myself around fellow hikers - I don't want to find myself all alone too much.As for planning an itinery it got no further that thinking that at about 14 miles a day it will take a little over 5 months. So beyond trying to keep up with that general schedule I'll just see where I end up and in the past I've found that 'the best laid schemes o' mice an' men' do indeed 'gang aft agley' so it seemed a waste of time and effort to do too much planning.Oh well, enough for now.Neil