We climbed out of the notch with heavy packs after a quick town stop in Stratton. We had 5 days of food and snacks and with our increased calorie intake comes increased pack weight. I spent that evening looking at everything in my food bag to decide what to eat first. It had to be the heavier food of course. The only big hills between us and the finish are now the Bigelows. A range of several 4000 ft high peaks. Stratton had been a great stop for resupplying and we were able to get everything we wanted right there including our favorite stove fuel, but the weight!! How will we manage the 8 day section we have next??
One thing we wouldn't have to deal with is the mud! Right now Maine and a lot of New England is suffering from a drought. This is never a good thing but it means we don't have to wade through waist deep bogs everyday which can't be too bad? For us at this stage of the trail getting water is not too hard. Maine is a state of lakes and ponds so we have water everywhere. We do have a somewhat blocked water filter though. We filter all the water we drink. Out here you fall into one of two camps. To filter or not to filter. We are the filter lot. We have a very simple.filter. Fill a bag with water and it will drain via a filter. It's been great so far but with the ponds we need to let the water settle first. It looks clean but... So we now have a slower filter but still nice clean water! Maine is much like the rest of the Appalachian Trail and it's not too easy to remember highlights of the last few days but something Maine has a lot of is lakes. They call them ponds mostly... not sure why so I looked it up "If the water is deep enough that light does not penetrate to the bottom, and photosynthesis is limited to the top layer, the body of water is considered a lake. A pond is a body of water shallow enough to support rooted plants. Many times plants grow all the way across a shallow pond" OK I think they should be calling some of them lakes...one good thing is they are warm. We have been swimming every day! Our midday swims will usually be fully clothed, you don't know who is around the next corner and we will be completely dry in an hour. If we find ourselves in an out of the way place, it's a full on bath (minus the soap..) and we are then 'hiker clean' ready for the next day or afternoon. Of course we can't stop at every one and we have noticed that it's getting cooler too. Summer won't last for ever So, we are nearing the end of this great trip along the Appalachian Trail. It's been interesting to have a few people ask us why we have come all the way from New Zealand to just do this trip. Well I can remember a time when Christine was still to do her first overnight hiking trip! I can remember getting woken up one Saturday morning by Christine bashing on my door. We were flatting together in a big house with 8 others and I had promised to go walking with her in the morning...but only if I couldn't go fishing, and it was looking pretty good for the fishing really. Anyway it wouldn't be a story if I went fishing would it! That Saturday we went on a short walk, not more than an hour but I remember it well. Towards the end of the walk, we were climbing a slight hill and as we got to the top I could see a giant tree in front of me. A seriously large tree! It was a giant Kauri tree that had been saved from felling more than 100 years ago. OK she had my attention now! We went on several more walks, then overnight hiking trips then the big one. Lake Waikaremoana. 4 day 3 nights. This was going to sort out if she could handle the tough stuff or not. I am pretty sure you can see where we are going with this! The trips just got longer and harder until we are doing the hiking trip to end all hiking trips, the Appalachian trail! Haha I'm sure this will not be the last hiking trip... Tomorrow we will head out on our last 100 miles of this track. They call this bit oddly 'the 100 mile wilderness'. Unlike when we headed out from Stratton, we will have much lighter food bags. The hostel we are staying at will drop us half our food at mile 60 so it's no Foodtown, but it sort of tames the wilderness a bit eh. On the map I am not seeing too much above us either. No towns and only parks. The next 100 miles will send us to the base of the highest peak in Maine, Mt Katahdin in the Baxter State Park. Sadly we will have to do all this without wifi or mobile data because this trail ends in the middle of nowhere. We have stayed at a few hostels or lodges. The best had to be the Green Mountain House because they had the New Zealand flag flying during our stay, but the Pine Ellis Lodge is up there as well. It's almost as if they own a section of the AT and when you are walking on it you are in their home, Well, when we are staying at the lodge we are staying at their home and it's just like they said 'let's have some hikers stay' and threw open the doors. The lodge is in Andover, Maine. The town has a few shops and houses and that's about it. It's claim to fame is the satellite dish station on the edge of town that transmitted the very first live trans-Atlantic video broadcast from the USA. I have no idea why they chose that spot but it could be because it's in the middle of nowhere! I wonder what the broadcast was? Could have been something important like USA presidential election results or maybe something mundane like the moon landing?? If I could be bothered I am sure Google would tell me.
When we went to the diner in Andover, we always seemed to meet the same chap. He was very talkative which is a relief because I would have had to answer my own questions otherwise. I learned a lot about him. He used to live on the coast and run some herring boats. His last one ended up in Washington state, right on the other side of the country. He then worked at the satellite station but now teaches people how to drive trucks. He also had a boat with a MerCruiser engine! I think he would see us heading to the diner from his house and follow us as he just sat and chatted, had his favorite ginger beer drink and would leave when we were finished. Still, nice to talk about boating and fishing and stuff. Thanks Stan Morse.. hehe Our first day out of Andover was a slow one. No energy maybe due to the 30+ degree day and the hills. Actually it may not be the hills that are the problem rather the notches. Notches are American for valleys. It seams we just get to the top of a good hill and we have to visit some notch! That first night we stayed at a notch with a hiker we had not met before. His name was Blues Brother. He told us about how he had seen service in the Iraq war. He didn't plan to join the army but 9/11 happened and as every man from every generation of his family going back as far as they can recall had served, he enlisted. He was able to get a special deal and only needed to enlist for 3 years. Just long enough to do his training and a 1 year tour of duty. He got a deal for free university education after he finished his tour and managed to stay alive. All he needs now is a wife that likes hiking... We have started to see a lot more squirrels around the trail. We see two types, red and grey. The ones we are seeing now are the red ones. They're pretty awesome! We think they are quite territorial as when we walk past they can sometimes put on quite a show with chirping and calling and tail wagging until we walk on past. Today I watched one for about 2 minutes. It started with chirping that got more animated and included foot stomping and tail wagging in time with the chirping. Then it did a series of long click/chirps while it stomped it's front legs. All this while looking right at me! It then went back to the chirping and ran around in circles a few times, but the circles were between 3 trees that were 1 metre apart! It was impressive and I wish I caught it on video. That same night at camp we could hear quite a few of them all around us, and again in the morning. They are great thieves and will steal anything edible from around the camp even if we hang it away from the bears, I should say especially if we hang it away from the bears... So we have now been to another town, Rangeley. We went a day earlier than expected because we decided that we were worn out and deserved a day of doing nothing. It really helped that it was parade day here in Rangeley. It's another very small town of similar population to Andover, around 1000 people. The big difference is Rangeley is on some really pretty lakes so has a lot of tourists visit and therefore more shops and services. It's also a centre for the local logging industry. It has a few claims to fame, one being that it's half way between the equator and the North Pole (45 degree parallel) and the other is that the first log skidder was developed here in Rangeley. This year it's going to be famous for the smallest town that the 80's rock band Foreigner played. You know the band that played the hits Cold as ice, Are you old enough, Juke box hero... We were lucky to get accommodation in town at The Farmhouse Inn which is a famous hiker lodge in town. Pretty much everything was booked due to the concert. It was a lot of fun to sit in the back yard of the inn around a large fire pit chatting to other hikers and listening to the band playing some of the music I listened to in my youth. For the last week or two we have been hiking with some really great people. Most of them are hiking sections of the trail, so we can keep up with them!! It's been great to get to know a bunch of people like when we hiked in 2000. The night of the concert we all stayed up too late but had some great fun. We love the southerners! Fat Man Walking, Tractor, Neil and Blues Brother, we mean you. Thanks for the fun! We headed out of Rangeley refreshed and having spoken to Bean, a thru hiker that is a physical therapist for a car racing team, we are taking a bit more high calorie food. The nuts and fruit was not providing enough energy for us and this next section is one of the hardest. As I write this at the top of South Crocker, the 3rd of 4, 4000ft mountains we have to climb today we are glad for her advice. It's grueling stuff. BUT the light at the end of the tunnel is glowing really bright. Today we will officially become 2000 milers and we are now in the 100's of miles to go. We have 1 more mountain range to climb before a section they call 'The 100 mile wilderness'. It's mainly 'flat' and we hope to be able to do 15 mile days or better. Then it's just 1 mountain to climb and we will have finished the entire trail! For now, we head into Stratton to resupply and have some more fun! We left Hanover for the next leg of the trip. Back in 2000 when we realized we were not going to have enough cash to finish, we skipped forward to Hanover and walked the White Mountains section of the trail. We're glad we did as it's considered to be the most challenging part of the trail. So having completed Vermont we can now skip forward to where we got off the trail at the end of the Whites. We arranged a shuttle with a 'trail angel' who goes by Golden Waldo who met us in Hanover and took us right through to Wildcat Mountain, some 170 miles by road for not much more than it cost us to get a taxi 3 miles from the supermarket to our motel! When we finished the White Mountains in 2000 we got off the mountain by coming down a gondola at a ski resort. We'd planned to go back up the gondola this time (of course) but due to high winds, we had to walk up the hill... never mind, we needed the exercise!
So, although we considered we had walked the Whites, technically we still had a few days to go to leave the park that is called White Mountains National Park, and then of course the 'mountains' don't magically just disappear. We have another 12 days of hiking after then until the mountains turn into large hills, then things will settle down to just hard as opposed to near impossible. Still, the views and the general scenery in this area is really incredible. It reminds me a lot of Fiordland National Park, except over here they have roads going to the top of the highest peaks... (Seeing this makes me want to protect the New Zealand wilderness from unnecessary roads.) The other thing they have in the Whites are lodges. They are run as non-profit businesses staffed by young people catering to older people who don't mind spending $130 a night to stay in a bunk room and eat food cooked in dirty kitchens by the same young people. As a rule, the AT hikers hate them. In this section of trail you must stay at designated shelters and camping is not permitted in most areas. This means that all the way through the Whites, the AT hikers 'stealth' camp in out of the way places and secret spots. Leading up to the Whites, everyone you meet asks you about the stealth spots you may know so they can avoid the horrendous expense charged by the club. The club is The Appalachian Mountain Club, AMC for short. We all call them the Appalachian Money Club... They do offer on first come first serve, a work for stay arrangement and seeing as the last lodge was the first one we came to on our new section, we thought we would give it a go. I should add at this point that they only offer this to thru hikers, not section hikers like us. So we were in luck! No other hikers had been through and we lied and said we were thru hikers, and we had somewhere to sleep and all the leftovers we could eat! Still would have preferred to camp but didn't want to go the extra miles to the next stealth spot. The chef was up at 5:15 to start breakfast so it was an early start for us that day but we saved some money so it seemed worth it. Within a few days we were crossing the last state line for this trip. The Maine/New Hampshire line is much anticipated as it means less than 300 miles until the finish. It also means the start of the bogs. Like the rest of the trail, it still mostly goes over the tops of each mountain in our path but here in Maine some of the tops have large ponds or lakes and always mud. The day after crossing into Maine on the top of Mt Goose Eye I slipped off a boardwalk that was floating on a large pool of thick mud and the only thing that stopped me disappearing was my pack! I went in right up to my waist and still didn't reach the bottom... not too happy I have to say and I was covered in mud! No shower or washing for days too... The mountain tops here are really beautiful, which is good as we don't go to many valleys but one of the most talked about stretches of the entire trail runs for 1 mile through a valley called Mahoosuc Notch. It's like a big steep sided valley about 30 meters wide that is filled with giant car and truck sized boulders. The guide book we have calls it the most difficult and fun stretch on the entire trail. When we reached this section it was another 30 degree day with bright sunshine but a fog was rising from the ground in places and we felt the cold like someone had left the fridge door open. In places below the boulders snow and ice still sits from winter! Due the the steep sides the sun hasn't reached for long enough to melt it away. It was fun! The 1 mile took us nearly 2 hours and we managed to complete it without a fall. Our new packs are excellent and to say we love them would be an understatement. We have also changed some of the things we are carrying and have bought new clothes as well. Out here people know who you are by what you are wearing. We can tell from a distance who is ahead as they have the shorts and top combo of ... whoever it is, totally unique to everyone. Us AT hikers do not have many changes of clothing to wear so when we get soaking wet it can be difficult sometimes. This has happened to me on more than one occasion.. The soaking wet bit, and unlike Christine who carries some fleece paints to wear, I only had 1 pair of $1.99 black underpants I bought from K-Mart in Perth to put on while my hiking paints dry. That's right, wearing underpants hiking gives you a rash so it's 'Freeball Friday' everyday for me because I carry the absolute minimum of everything including clothing! In fact, if it's cold and wet, I will be wearing every item of clothing I have! So, we have had a few fun nights standing around at shelters while it's raining outside talking to people and I am wearing just my underwear! The only person to have said anything about it was Christine so I guess it was ok? I have now bought some lightweight Icebreaker leggings to wear.. still underpants of sorts but not obviously just underpants.. We have put together 'food drops' for Maine and mailed it to the places we are going to stay. We do this so we can be assured that we will be able to eat the food we like right through the trip. Great idea until we get behind or change the schedule. This happened from the first day! As we had to walk up Wildcat Mountain we ended up being half a day behind and missed staying at the first hostel. We didn't send food to that place but we had planned to buy a dinner and breakfast there. It wasn't until later that we realized we were short of food and then had to get to the next place a day earlier. All in all no problem as we can get back on the schedule by doing what's called a slack pack. That's where the hostel owner drops us off and collects us at roadends and we walk with just a day pack. Great for the hostel owner as we stay 2 nights and great for us as we can do more miles without full packs. So tomorrow we will head off on the next full section of the Maine trail. Maine has been great so far and it reminds us both a lot of New Zealand! This week we parted company with the Vermont Long Trail. It went left, we went right! I remember when we were on the trail in 2000 a lot of people spoke of the LT and some even walked the additional 160 miles to complete all of it as well as the Appalachian Trail thru hike they were doing. I don't remember thinking too deeply about it at the time, we hardly had enough time and money to do what we wanted to do on the AT, let alone the LT. Even this time I did wonder how much better the forest could get to make all these people want to walk it. Truth is, it's pretty much the same forest! The difference is the people walking the long trail. For AT thru hikers who have come all the way from Georgia, the long trail is a pleasant distraction for them. All of a sudden the trail is full off fresh faced hikers that look at them in awe and marvel at their achievements so far.
We stopped at the state line, (Massachusetts to Vermont) right where the LT starts. Nothing special about the day, it was a Saturday though and it was also a long weekend. Then out of the green, a couple.. then another and another. All excited and getting photos at the start of the LT. And then it began. From then on the trail community swelled to at least 4 times the size it had been. For me, someone who likes to meet and chat with people, it was great! New people everywhere. For the next week we had lots of new friends, it was great. We did have a few days where we didn't go anywhere near the miles we had planned but it was loads of fun. The LT can be walked in winter with snow shoes. Hard out! It is the oldest long trail in the USA and was constructed by the Green Mountain club from 1910 to 1930. The AT follows the LT for around 100 miles and runs all the way to Canada. We are saving it for later.. As mentioned, the trail was a bit quiet after we left the LT, but not for long. We are now meeting south bound hikers that started at our destination. They are SOBO's and have decided to do the hard bit first! A lot of them will walk right by us with the standard greeting of just 'enjoy your hike' that's it! Some will chat but only a few. Most of them have started in the north to avoid the crowds in the south, some because of school and some because it's just harder. We met some kiwis! They started in the north just due to timing. They are www.twotravellingkiwis.com and are doing daily updates!! Don't ask us for that, we are too tired. We had a long afternoon break with them and some of their hiking friends at a country shop in the middle off nowhere. It was good to catch up with some kiwis even if they had been living in Perth for a while. To finish Vermont we walked through the second to last trail town, Norwich. This town is right on the Connecticut River and is a pretty nice place. We stayed at the Norwich Inn that was built in 1791. It's been renovated since then thankfully. Next stop was the last trail town and one you might have heard of. Hanover, New Hampshire. It's the home of Dartmouth college. It's an Ivy league college so the town is full of students. Have to say not your normal looking uni students. This college is one of the expensive ones and Audi Mercs and Volvo cars are everywhere in town. We are having a few days rest in town and decided to treat ourselves with something special, new backpacks!! The pack I have used to this point was one I bought in the USA in 2000 so it's had a pretty good long life,16 years! I was working out the hiking days it's had and counted up around 350. It's walked around 1000 miles of the Appalachian trail, the Bibbulmun track twice, it's walked half way across Tasmania and many many tracks in New Zealand including some of the most difficult, and it's even been involved in a full on helicopter rescue.. hehe. I have been looking at packs people are using and I've talked to a few people about their packs. I have to say some of the hikers I've spoken to would not have even been walking when I bought my old pack!! Showing my age. We are getting new ultra light packs that will last us another 16 years I hope! Look out for the pack in new the next blog post and photos. Vermont has to be one of the most beautiful places I have been. I guess if helps to find green spaces and forest beautiful because that's most of Vermont. I'm sure you wouldn't know the capital city of Vermont. In fact I'm betting you wouldn't have even heard of the state before this years USA presidential election race! Am I right? Yes, Vermont is where Bernie Sanders comes from. Talk to anyone from this state and they are all smiles when they mention him. He made there state famous not just in the USA but around the world. Love him or not, he's well known and now so is Vermont. I'm also betting it won't last for too long though. It looks like he won't be the next president, how long would someone in their 70s keep trying for that sort of job anyway?
So then Vermont will go back to just being a green state in the north east of the USA. How green? Well, a whopping 75% of the state is forest. Some of it is for logging but most of it is just for.. well just the birds and animals. Like almost all of America the forest is far from virgin. When the settlers arrived in the 1500's they started on the coast and felled every stick of wood right across the country, more than once. We often pass what looks like stone walls and wonder what a stone wall is doing in the middle of a forest. Fact is, it was once a field. When I say stone wall, I really mean collection of old rocks that are to straight to be natural, I did some research on the stone walls of New England and found that in the late 1700's each wall had to be certified by an accredited stone wall inspector or your neighbor couldn't hold you liable for damage to his crop from your stock or vice versa. To me as I walk through the forest and see this its like the land has had another life before and has some scars to prove it. Although they stopped farming the land we are walking in many many years ago, we seldom see trees that are more than 75 years old. I have to say, it's not obvious at all and if I hadn't researched it I would be none the wiser but for many years, trees were the main commodity throughout most of eastern USA. Vermont at one stage had almost completely deforested the entire state, up to 80% of the state was clear felled. Sadly like a lot of places around the world, the trees in the USA are not taking to globalization at all well. The story of the American chestnut is a very sad one but one that sums it up. In the 1930s the entire Appalachian mountain range was covered in an estimated 4 billion giant chestnut trees. They were a source of pride, food timber and wonder to the people. So were zoo animals it turns out and to feed some exotic animals in a California zoo, feed was bought in from Asia that contained a blight. Within 40 years it had spread through the entire country and their are now no America chestnut trees at all. (In places, the root system still lives on and sends up shoots but they soon die) it's a good lesson and a reason that boarder security is so important in places like New Zealand and Australia. Some Vermont fun facts that might surprise you. Vermont has the least populated capital in the USA. Montpelier population is less than 8500 Billboards are not permitted in Vermont and sign advertising is strictly regulated. Montpellier is the only capital city in the USA to have no McDonald's restaurant. Vermont was the 1st state of the Union and the first state to abolish slavery. It's really like another country, it feels and looks so different to the rest of the USA! We walked to a busy highway crossing that led to our overnight stop in a town called Manchester Centre. We crossed the road and stuck out our thumbs for a hitch. The second car stopped for us! Great, but we hadn't had time to cool off so we were still literally dripping with sweat. We got into a nice new looking Subaru and headed off. Within 30 seconds of taking off, the driver put all 4 windows down. Yep, we must smell pretty bad! They dropped us right in town by the supermarket and we did our shopping. We were asked if we needed a lift anywhere while we were shopping and later at the post office a lady asked if we needed to go anywhere! We were told this is normal for Vermont. We stayed the night at a hiker hostel run by a guy that had such a good time when he hiked the trail that when he finished he went from town to town looking for a place that needed a hostel. It was really great at the Green Mountain House hostel. Included in the $35 each was laundry, a tub of Ben & Jerry's ice cream and a can of soft drink each, wifi, a bottle of Vermont Long Trail beer, breakfast and a shuttle back to the trail! What's more, the bed was excellent and I slept really well. Oh, and he had a New Zealand flag flying while we were there too (international guest are special..) We headed back out on the trail the next day to the first full day of rain we have had. Actually it's only the second full day of rain we have had to hike in since we left New Zealand so we have been pretty lucky really. Still, it wasn't too much fun and it rains for two days straight. That night we stayed our first night in a shelter since we started on the AT. It was a good change to be in the shelter .We shared with 3 of the people we had spent the night with at the hostel. One was a lady who's trail name is Show Cub. She has a dog called Ollie and they are hiking the Vermont Long Trail. We had been on the same day with her for a few days and her dog had gotten used to me and that evening we had a good snuggle together. That's Ollie and me, not Show Cub and me! It was good to have a pet to pat and made me miss my cat a bit... We have now walked more than 200 miles. We are heading into Rutland for a quick resupply and a night in a place with a shower tomorrow. I'm hungry because I didn't buy enough food so I am really looking forward to some food that was not dehydrated and rationed. We pass by a restaurant in the afternoon. It's on the top of a very high mojitos of course! What else would you build up there? Soon we will have finished Vermont. Shame, it's been great! Some people we met this week Boulder, Instigator, Bubbles, Ass Captain, Ben, Show Cub, Leprechaun, Jitterbug, Phoenix, Two Socks, Luau, Forrest, Hoosier, happy, BoDangles and many more we cannot remember The Appalachian Trail is a very social trail. We are meeting people all day every day. It's a lot of fun! As soon as we talk, people are interested in where we come from. It's surprising how many people know where New Zealand is compared to when we were here in 2000. Thanks to Peter Jackson for that!
Some of the people we have met so far. Adventure, Crasher, Rocky, Antsy, Rugby, Not Bob, Blue Feather, Daisy, Mr Fix It, Juice, Monster, Veggie Stu, Jon & Jen, Flash 52, Whisper and quite a few more who's names we cannot remember. When we walked 1500miles of the trail in 2000 we started in Georgia, the southern terminus and walked north. Due to the popularity of the trail now, quite a few people are doing what's called s 'flip flop' where they start somewhere in the middle and walk north to the northern terminus then head to the end and walk north to where they started, to finish. This year in a 3 week period around the end of March and start of April more than 3000 people started the trail in Georgia!! Imagine the campsites intended to cater for up to 10 tents trying to cope with 50 or more hikers. They all want water, a flat spot to camp and they all want to poop too! So, this year the flip flop was a popular and sensible option for many. It's been great for us too as we we are new on the trail along with a lot of other hikers. As we have already hiked 625 miles on the Bibbulmun Track, we really do have the jump on the new hikers with trail fitness too which is a really good feeling. We have however, been passed by some thru hikers that started in Georgia in mid March. These hikers are mostly 'ultra lite' hikers doing an average of 20 miles a day, sometimes more! But like I said, it's a social trail and meeting people and spending time socializing along the way is what it's all about for most hikers including us. This week we crossed the state line from Massachusetts into Vermont. For the next 100 miles we will be walking on the joint trails of the Appalachian Trail and the Vermont Long Trail. The Vermont Long Trail (LT) runs the entire length of the state, around 260 miles. It's a very popular trail and the first night in Vermont was a big one at the campsite with around 15 new hikers on the trail hiking the same day as us. With all the LT hikers we had lots more people to talk to. That night we camped with around 36 hikers! All the hikers on the trail brings up the topic of toilets... In New England it snows and in places the ground freezes during winter so the sort of composting back country toilets we are used to in New Zealand won't work here as its too cold. They have a quite different system they call 'moldering privies'. We are taking some time to get used to them... The toilet sits quite high up and has several steps to get in or are built on a slope. The underneath area is screened off with planks and the waist quite simply builds up underneath and is broken down naturally by the bugs and elements. They are often built so the seat can be moved along sideways to a new spot to allow some time to decompose. They smell and worse, can often be sited in the centre of the camping area. Still, it's better that 30+ hikers a day are all going in the same place. In some parts of the southern Appalachians Trail they only have 'areas'. Today it's the 4th of July, Independence Day. The day America celebrates independence from British rule. It's quite cool to be in Bennington Vermont as it was a town that was central to the struggle with the British and some pivotal battles were fought very close to this town. Tonight we are expecting to see some great fireworks go off. The British EU exit has been big news here. It's been very interesting to read about it from an American perspective, after all the USA is a union of states like the EU is a union of countries. One thing for sure is that Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are going to have a vote to stay in the union. It could be 'Little England' all alone in big bad Europe. They will be able to celebrate their own Independence Day with cups of tea and jam scones? Or maybe warm beer with kippers and chips? Either way I am sure it will be a day to remember for them, or maybe not... I guess it helps to have just sold and bought a house just recently, but I now have a bad habit of wanting to know what places are worth when we pass a for sale sign. I mentioned it a bit in my blogs from Western Australia, mostly because in some towns just about every second house was for sale. Over there it was depressing, nothing was selling. The prices were not too far from what we are used to seeing in New Zealand with the exception of the new houses in the suburbs around Perth that were quite well priced. That is until I started to look around at the house prices in the places we have visited in the USA.
First stop was Las Vegas. Although we only really hung around an area in one part of Vegas, it was still a very nice average suburb . Had all the shops and places anyone would want. We could have bought a 3 bed 2.5 bath for between 250 to 350k USD. They all had a/c, double garage and separate formal dining. Wow, we thought... That's different to New Zealand. Next stop was New York. OK I know what your thinking... No way could anyone afford a place in New York right? Wrong... Even a 1 bed 1 bath condo in the upper west side 1 block from Central Park is more affordable than the north shore of Auckland. In Lower Manhattan you could find a 2 bedroom place in that range and if you were prepared to live in New Jersey, just a 15 minute commute from the financial district of New York City you could own a 4 bedroom 3 bathroom 'brownstone' for under 750kUSD. Then we get to small town USA... and they are not even really small towns. Were are talking New England, upstate New York and some very desirable places. You can even buy an 14 bedroom 9 bath manor with 5.5 acres for 590k (check it out here http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/101-Main-St_Dalton_MA_01226_M36919-32046 ) , or a normal house in the same town for 190k.. It really makes me want to say WAKE UP AUCKLAND your living in dream land and being fed bullshit. There is no way a 3 bed 1 bath fibrolite shithole on the south side of a hill in Glenfield is worth 750k. If you can get that for it it's saying something is broken with the market. It's either a bubble or a serious supply and demand issue. Either way it indicates poor management of the resource.. I love New Zealand. Seeing this I love New Zealand even more for providing us so much from so little. We have been able to use our home to provide not just shelter but a load of cash. It was never supposed to do that and I feel like we have achieved this at the expense of an entire generation of families after us. So wake up, take the cash! Live life and then live somewhere else, you will be glad you did. Within the first hour of walking we reached the first hill. The climb was around the height of the highest hill we had climbed during the entire 1000km trip in the Bibbulmun Track. Welcome to the Appalachian Trail. During the first week we have had climb after climb after climb like that one we had in the first hour and it will be that way till the end!
We had caught a taxi from the train to the junction where we had gotten off the trail in 2000. While we were sorting out our packs we met our first hikers. A husband and wife with a teenage son that were doing a 50 day 'section hike'. They had been doing this for a few years now, moving slowly "around 1 mile an hour" said Whisper, the mother (or wife) They picked up we were kiwis straight away and announced that all Americans were arseholes... Strange conversation to be having with the first hikers we met and we hadn't even taken a step on the trail yet. What a great day we had. We were back on the trail that had changed our outlook on life 16 years ago. It was the first day of summer and the weather was excellent. No clouds and hot but a nice breeze to keep us cool. To put you in the frame, the Appalachian mountains run from Florida right up into Canada. (This trail starts in Georgia and stops in Maine.) The mountains are a result of uplift that has long since stopped and over the last few ice ages, the mountains have been warn down by glaciers and erosion so most of it is just rolling hills now. The trail is 1550 miles long and 98% is through forest and park lands. The trail is classed as a 'national scenic pathway' and receives federal funding for upkeep and new land purchases if required. It's very popular and over 1,000,000 people walk on some part of this trail each year with several thousand starting a 'thru hike' from end to end each year also. In 2000 we made it from Georgia to Connecticut, 1550 miles or 3/4 of the trail so only have a small section of around 600 miles to finish. So, what's the trail like? It's hard actually. From the time we started it has been hill after hill never ending. We climb right to the top and then right back down to the valley floor again only to be looking at another hill in front of you. It's hot too, middle of summer and did I mention the bugs?? They have 'skeeters' (that's mountain talk for mosquitoes) by the billions and they want your blood bad. We can walk about 2 miles per hour, they can fly at 1.85 miles per hour which is all good until we have to go up a darn hill (Can't do 2mph up hills...) they do however have other nice cute things along the trail. Squirrels and chipmunks are everywhere and are a constant distraction at the moment as they bound around near the trail. We have also seen plenty of frogs and toads, snakes, eagles,woodpeckers and a raccoon and we may have had a bear sniffing around the tent while we slept. Fireflies are pretty cool too. They really do glow like a flying LED light especially when you bother or trap them. The biggest change we have noticed though is the people.. lots and lots of people. About 3 x more people thru hike than from our year and at this time of year a lot of people are on vacation hiking a section of the trail. The class of 2016 thru hikers all look strong and light (and young...) as they zoom past us... maybe we looked like that 16 years ago? Although lots of people are now on the trail, we managed to avoid them when we practiced the mid summer tradition of nude hiking on the summer solstice... It's a'thing' so we had to do it OK!! So as we finish day 7, I am slowly starting to get used to the daily exhaustion and now have a little bit of energy left to write this blog.. I was considering a video blog cause I didn't have the energy to sit up and type on this little screen but here it is. The first week of our America adventure that will see us complete the Appalachian Trail. We are finally on the train out of NYC. It was 17 minutes late which is not too uncommon as we understand. NYC has been a polarizing experience. On one hand it is the centre of the western universe and on the other it's the complete end of the earth. We saw both ends.
We didn't actually stay in NYC but could just about see it from where we stayed. We had an Airbnb in the old neighborhood in New Jersey just across the Hudson River in a suburb called West New York. We met with the owners daughter, Patsy. Her mum had a knee operation and couldn't handle the stairs any more but was obviously not wanting to sell just yet. You could tell the house had been in the family for many years. It was a sort of cool place but dated. I did feel like I was in an American sitcom or movie set. I have seen so many of these 'brown stones' but never been in one until now. The neighborhood was a mix of Cuban Mexican and other Latino cultures. No one spoke English on the streets but I am sure they could. I was keen to chat to people but we must have looked too white as people didn't even make eye contact when we passed them on the street. It was a 15 minute bus ride into the port authority bus station in NYC and from there we could connect to the subway and the rest of the city. So much has changed in NYC from our last visit, but the subway is not one of those things. If I were to comparing the New York subway to others we have been on in Japan, Asia and Europe I would have to say it's pretty crappy... It might be because everything is tiled in white resembling a giant dirty public toilet or it could just be that it's pretty much covered in litter but I think the real reason is just because it's really old (and by default, shitty) Having said that it still works and gets you where you need to go somewhat on time. We rode the subway to near where we wanted to go to and did a bit of shopping here and there. We walked the length of Central Park on Sunday which was Father's Day here in the USA. It was busy with open air concerts and lots and lots of dads out with children everywhere. The park is nice and very well maintained but it looks like it is getting loved to death with a lot of areas roped off for regeneration. Over 8,500,000 people live in New York City. If only a small number of them used the park it would still be a big number. We also visited some of the nicer areas of the city and were able to see the 'beautiful people' walking around in the designer clothing. For the young ladies, yoga paints seam to be the clothing item of choice although I didn't notice a gym on every street corner... We tried to find a reason we would want to live in New York as we were wondering around. We get it that some people get sent there to work or go there as a stepping stone in work opportunities but really to go willingly seems a bit strange. Sure it has 'everything' and never sleeps, but at what cost. As we walked past the mansions bordering Central Park I couldn't help but feel they were more like prisons than houses. I looked at the real estate app to see the row of brown stone houses worth between 15 and 25 million dollars but right outside the front door was trash blowing along the street and a constant echo of cabs tooting horns. I think I could do better if I had the options these people obviously have. But, New York is New York. At one time it was a beautiful place and to a small group of still is. To most I am sure it is a means to an end. So, the train being late was just a New York minute really and we lived it like everyone around us. Gave me an opportunity to write this though! As we drove from the airport back to Alphas house the temperature gauge in the car showed 94 degrees. Oh you’re so lucky with the weather, we are told. Last week we had some really hot days! Welcome to the desert. The sky was perfectly clear but off in the horizon we could see the result of the dust in the air making the sky glow a nice orange colour. The airport is right next to the Vegas strip. Not the place you would think to build an airport but there it is, dividing the city and giving the perfect view for the millions of tourists that come to Vegas every year as they land. Most don’t get more than a few miles from the airport for the entire time they are here. It’s not the first time we have been here, and won’t be the last. We love to visit Alpha and Lawrence. This visit was to be more special than others as Lennoxx, their son turned 13 while we were in town so we got to share in the celebrations. The flight in was more than 25 hours and when we arrived we were running on adrenaline only. It kept us going for a while but we had to have a rest mid-day before we went out for a concert and dinner at the ‘local’ casino.
Alpha has a beautiful house in Henderson, a sprawling suburb (city) to the east of the Vegas strip. Las Vegas has had hard times and good. It’s hard to know how it’s doing now but near everywhere we looked we could see new construction. That isn’t saying the places are selling though but often construction is an indicator of the economy. Just like Perth, Vegas has plenty of land for building, unlike Perth, Vegas has no public transport to speak of, no light rail and we didn’t see to many busses on the roads. The full time population of Las Vegas is only 580,000, from the 2015 figures. The same year, 42,000,000 people visited Vegas… wow. That’s a lot of food, water and power and services to provide. The roads are up to the usual USA standards and have been built for growth. The entire time we have been here we have not seen any major congestion or hold ups. We’ve been very lucky to have the use of Alphas Chevy SUV during our stay. It’s not the first time I have driven a left hand drive car but the first few minutes are always a little scary. Christine is great with this process and will give directions to me starting with ’keeping to the right, we need to turn left here…keeping right, looking left’ Thankfully they are not big on roundabouts here and the roads are wide and well-marked and often have a divider in the middle. We spent a few days getting used to the new time zone. We were waking up at 2 and 3 in the morning (local time) feeling hungry and wanting to sleep really bad in the middle of the day. We resisted having afternoon naps to try to speed up this process, but the big reminder of the new time zones is feeding times. We woke up at 3am on our second night feeling very hungry and couldn’t get back to sleep without having something to eat. Christine sent me down stars to get a midnight snack so without making too much noise, I sneaked to the fridge. Hmmm, not too much on offer. I ended up with a couple of sandwiches and some jerky which we happily had back in bed and went straight back to sleep. A nice snack! A few days later when Christine was making dinner for the family, she discovered the jerky we had was actually dog food, all be it gourmet dog food, but dog food non the less. We both agreed that it was still pretty good though and a first for us both. Other than dog food, the food here is amazing! I have counted 5 rather large supermarket chains here in Vegas. Not sure if they are national or just in Nevada but it’s a far cry from the 2 brands they have in New Zealand. This means competition and with that comes low prices and good quality. We have been able to buy all sorts of fresh fruit and veggies, but the thing that’s stands out is the price of meat. We bought some chicken, 3 large breasts (organic what’s more) for under $5US. I was looking at scotch fillet, around half a kg for around $5 as well. Eating out is very cheap too. We have eaten at Panda Express a couple of times, it’s a Chinese food chain that has much the same sort of Chinese food as we see in NZ. We can get a large meal full of veggies for $7 each. A far cry from Australia where we completely blew our budget due to the cost of food. We were often spending $50 AUD on a café lunch of 2 burgers and a soft drink each and although nice we felt like we were being ripped off somewhat. Here a larger, nicer lunch will not even be $25US. In fact we had a buffet dinner at a top quality casino on the strip for under $50USD and we could have sat and eaten all night if we had wanted… I guess that brings me to the cost of other things, hiking gear! We looked at a lot of gear in New Zealand and Australia and although tempted, we held off until we got here. We’re glad we did! I replaced my hiking boots for $110USD with exactly the same boots I bought in New Zealand for $260NZD. We bought a new tent for $560USD. The tent is not even offered in New Zealand but would be around $900NZD if it was. (Its $780AUD.) I could go on. I know New Zealand and Australia are some distance away but freight only adds a small amount to the price. Is it GST and other taxes? Who knows. The annoying thing is we can no longer buy a lot of these things on line. We get blocked to protest the local distributors in NZ. So we went to the local REI store and spent heaps of money on lots of cheap things and we are now good for another 15 years of hiking… Next stop is New York. Well, we are staying in New Jersey and to be more confusing a place called West New York in New Jersey. We are on a ‘red eye’ flight. First to Chicago then another ‘red eye to New York. 2 red eyes.... We are keeping up our tradition of not doing things by half’s. Thanks heaps to Alpha and Lawrence for the use of your house and car. You are amazing hosts and one day we hope to repay your hospitality somewhere nice! |
it's Our Epic Trip...David & Christine are from New Zealand and are embarking on a trip around the world the slow way, on foot and by personal vehicle. This could get interesting! Archives
June 2018
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