The first few days

The first few days

As Glenn put it, we should change the name of this trip to the Everything Hurts hike... The night before we set out on 9th Sep, we went to town taking even more gear, which seemed essential only a few hours before, out of our packs to try to get them to the point where we could put them on…
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Not much out there

Looking out of the 19-seater Great Lakes plane from Phoenix to Page last night, which roughly flew over the areas we're going to be walking, the lack of lights highlighted how much wilderness there is out there. Roll it on!
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Heavy stuff!

After frantic packing, repacking, re-repacking and enforced separation from my tripod and a lot of other camera paraphernalia, we finally reduced our backpacks to a weight which we thought wouldn't actually crush us on the first day. My pack without water now only weighs a whopping 40.8 pounds (18.5 kg), but we do have painkillers... and I'm really excited about…
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Arizona Trail, here we come!

The Arizona Trail (www.aztrail.org) is an 800-mile backcountry or wilderness trail crossing the state of Arizona from the Mexican border in the South to the border near Utah in the North, hauling itself over 8 passes above 9000 ft (3000 metres) and passing through only two towns.  Most people hike the trail in Spring in this direction (South-North), but as…
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HI, Sheri and Elliott

We'd like to say a big "HI" to Sheri and Elliott, from whom we rented a great little house just off South Congress in Austin, while we were hatching all these crazy plans. You guys are great people and a lot of fun.  Thank you for your great company, for introducing us to the delicious delicacies of Austin's amazing Barley…
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Up, Down ‘n All Around

We've decided to call our trip Up, Down 'n All Around because, lets face it, they're a bit all over the place... in more ways than one... Thanks to Shane at Evolution in Austin for designing the cool graphics, and to Thomas and Clare who always receive our crazy artwork ideas and my bad drawings with the seriousness they don't…
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The story to date…

Glenn and I had originally hoped to ride horses approx. 500 miles from Los Adaes in Western Louisiana to the border with Mexico, following the old Spanish missionary trail called El Camino Real de los Tejas.  However, after a couple of days' car-bound recce of the Louisiana/ North Texas section of the trail, our suspicions materialised and it became apparent…
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