Kayland Boots

Boots, ideally wanted summer hiking boots but since only a handful of manufactures make boots in size UK13 (USA14) my choice was limited. The last resort for getting a good fit pair of boots was Kayland, they make up to 13 and are well regarded in the hiking world. I wanted their Vertigo High boot, but no look finding a size 13 in the Ireland or the UK. So after reading some reviews I got the Kayland Contact 1000 three season boots, they arrived in the mail on Monday from England I purchased them online at OutdoorWorldLtd as I was unable to source them here.

After trying them on they fit great, just need to go on a mini hike now to break them in and soften them up a bit, but not much is needed. Louise has a pair of three season Scarpa boots which fit her great and are great for long hikes.

Now I just need to find some size 13 socks! I have found it difficult to get 12+ Bridgedale socks in stores here but should be able to buy online. For the long hikes we plan on doing we need two pairs of socks, a liner which wicks moisture away from your foot to stop blisters, and an outer layer to reduce friction to also stop blisters.

Nikon D40

A good camera is essential for the trip and after much hesitation I decided to go for the Nikon D40. It's the cheapest DSLR camera around and after trying it out for the past few days it's really cool and the photo quality is amazing and much better than my old CyberShot.

I am happy with the 18-55 lens that came with it, but in the future I may get the 55-200 or 18-200 Nikon len which would be well worth it.

GPS, maps, or both

Before Christmas I ordered all the maps for each National Park we will be visiting, the maps are great and include all the trails. Then I decided should I get GPS, or not. Price was a consideration but after much searching I found the Garmin GPSmap 60 at an eBay store and it does the job for a low price, 24 hour battery life and waterproof. This is great for peace of mind when hiking and will come in extremely handy.

Flights Booked

At last we booked our flights today, so the trip is all go. We used kayak.com to find the cheapest flights and found the website to be very good at this and worked out extremely cheap at less then €700 each for all four flights covering a total of 17,222 km (10,764 miles).

Expect more updates very soon over the next four months as we orgainse car rental, train travel and much more.

The Planning

We are currently still at the planning stages, although the trip time is quickly catching up with us.

Currently we are hammering out the dates so we can book the flights, currently the flight from Dublin -> Las Vegas and then Seattle -> Dublin cost about $850 each. not that cheap but considering the distance it's not bad working out at €680 each, but we plan on shopping around some more to see if we can get it cheaper.

The biggest problem we have come across is the car issue. Car is king in the USA and some of the national parks are only accessible via car with no public transport at all. So we are currently trying to find out how we can get to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park via bus or train, not as easy as one would hope. We plan on renting a car but some places it isn't practical as we would have to hike around the parks in a circle returning back to the car! Most of the time we want to hike across the parks to see as much as possible, the big ones Yosemite, Grand Teton and Yellowstone have public transport access so at least we won’t have to worry abut them.

Just ordered all the maps needed for the parks so will have an update soon, including some maps of the plan.

Loch Lomond

Myself and Lou went to Loch Lomond last week in Scotland to test out all our gear and do a bit of training for the USA. It was fantastic, all our gear lived up to there price and the scenery was beautiful, I have included a photo of the lake below. We did a seven mile hike and a four mile hike, just to stretch the legs, that will be the normal distance required each day in most national parks. Altitude is something we must train for soon so may be heading to Co. Kerry for a real challenge.

First night under the stars

We received our new MSR Mutha Hubba Tent in the mail on Wednesday so we decided to camp out Wednesday night to give it a test. It was extremely easy to set up and only took a few minutes.

As for space, I am 6ft 3" and there is more than enough room for me, I can even sit up without incident. Also the entire tent only weighs 7lb or 3.3kg perfect for hiking.