Just got off the Greyhound bus, our man Sam is taking us to the Crazy Cook monument on the Mexican boarder, we’ll be starting the walk tomorrow morning!
Monthly Archives: April 2008
Cookie’s weigh in
This is photo Day 0, from here on in it’s just going to get more and more hairy, much dirtier and probably less chubby cheeked too.
It’s tradition to do a pre-walk weigh in – This is my weight today, on the scales it says 185 pounds. In English that’s 13.2 stone, or 84 kg. It’s going to be interesting to see how much we loose during the walk… I’d be quite happy to get down to 12 stone ;)
Also it’s good to know how much is in your pack – This is the weight of my rucksack starting out, on the scales in says 35 pounds. In English that’s 2.5 stone, or 15.9 kg. we’ve got about 6 days worth of food packed in and our water full, so this is a fairy accurate ‘average’ weight of what we’ll be carrying right across America. Bit heavier than I was hoping though…
Paul’s weigh in
Firstly I’d like to say Hi to all you followers of Cookies blog as I will be Cookies partner in crime and you will be seeing and hearing a lot from me over the next 6 months. For those of you that do know me this picture is a bit freaky as its the first time in over 2 years that I’ve shaved off my beard. It will also be the last time I shave until I return to the UK and I’m looking forward to seeing how Grizzly Adam’s I can get without my girlfriend Claire complaining ;-)
My starting weight of 168lbs or 12 stone is the heaviest I have ever been and is the result of 6 weeks of stuffing my face with anything I can get my hands on and cutting back on all exercise. From experience this extra weight I have gained will not last very long and I am hoping that I finish the walk loosing only 1 stone.
Our rucksacks have 6 days of food in them and our water is full. At 34lbs or 15.4kgs it is heavier than we had both hoped as our base pack weight has been dramatically reduced after investing in new ultra lightweight gear. I’m sure as we go we will ditch anything that does not get used and some of the small luxuries we are carrying will get binned to save weight.
Last night in comfy California
So we got a bit pissed to celebrate! We head to New Mexico today, not sure if we’ll be able post any pictures from the start, by the looks of the network coverage maps we might only get reception twice in the whole state! So if you don’t hear from us after today, don’t panic, we’ll be slowly heading northwards.
Milkman Packaging
Out of all the stuff we bought today Milkman dried milk was by far the best packaging. Ok so the design is a bit ropey and the girls hair is cut out really bad and all pixelated, but I love the illustration, so much better than a photo. Haven’t tried the milk yet though.
New Watch
My mississ Nicky has gone back to England now :( As a keep sake and also because I knew I’d wreck it, I gave her my beautiful old Breitling Navitimer to hold on too (my most treasured possession).
It’s quite handy to know the time though, so today I got this Suunto Core watch. Not only does it tell the time, but also what altitude you are, predicts weather trends and has a storm alarm (will be handy in the heart of the Rockies) and a bloody compass! Surprised it’s taken me so long to get such a Swiss Army knife of the watch world, looking forward to putting it through the paces of the Continental Divide Trail.
I kind of wanted the obscenely chunky orange and black version, but they didn’t have it at the shop…
Margarita #3
In case of emergency gamble?
The fantastic folk at Poke gave me $400 cash to use in ’emergency’, as a leaving gift. Their only pre-request was that there was an amusing story to go with the spending of it. Since I’m at a casino, I have the terrible urge to drop it all in a single bet to see if I can double it…
I’ll see how lucky/hammered I feel tonight as to whether I go through with it or not. I’ll let you know tomorrow how it went!
Update: Our luck was terrible last night – the chips slowly dwindled down to our original $100 stake which is when we decided to call it quits and go home even… Didn’t dare do a big bet based on my current form. Nevermind, still plenty of time to get a good story out of that $400 yet!
Morongo Casino Spa
Currently me and Nicky are staying at this amazing resort, it’s just outside Palm Springs. So far we’ve both trebled our initial $100 stake, had a deep tissue massage and are now soaking up the rays by the pool :)
Wonderland of Rocks
This is me entering the Wonderland of Rocks in Joshua Tree National Park. We were following a series of boulder choked canyons on a traverse though this stunning natural feature. Started off easy, climbing under and over them in the canyon floor.
We saw our first snake (in no mood to stop and take picture) in this aptly named rattlesnake canyon, almost trod on the damn thing!
But things started getting interesting when we had to climb out of one canyon system to the next, very hard scrambling and a maze of rock boulders. Needless to say after about 8 hard hours and numerous side trips up gullies and ridges to try and find the way, we were hopelessly lost… Most people consider this a bad thing, but in my experience getting lost usually turns out to be the highlight of a trip! This was no exception, on our travels we’d found a cave/shelter which we spent the night in to recover and return the same way we came the following morning.
Turns out this was one of 3 ‘castles’ in the park and judging by the entries in the log book, usually frequented by folk getting stoned and taking acid! This raised our spirits, and so did the can of lager and sleeping mat we found :)
There was even some slimey green pools we could filter for drinking water nearby, which was surprisingly chilled for a desert! We only had a couple of beach towels to keep warm, but we got a good fire going and spent one of the most magical evenings I’ve had there. Sorry haven’t got any pictures, phone ran out of battery, Nicky will post some pics from her camera when she gets back.
At the crack of dawn the follow morning we made our way back out safe and sound.