Hayduke training....

We were out yesterday on our local coast from Rosiemarkie to Cromarty on a 21 mile walk. This is a very sheltered area and tends to receive better weather than the mainland to the west. Lots to see including sea birds, geology of the great glen fault, fossils and footprints from the elusive otters around here. The terrain is varied too from sand, rock hopping, some cross-country, singletrack, single lane road and jeep track. We can't train for the temperatures of the Hayduke though, we had a cool 3-6 C yesterday, we are expecting temps up to 35 C out in the Grand Canyon!

Here's a quote from Edward Abbey, the Hayduke Trail is named after a character from his fictional book 'the Monkey Wrench Gang' - well worth a read!

"In the first place you can't see anything from a car; you've got to get out of the
goddamned contraption and walk, better yet crawl, on hands and knees, over the sandstone and through the thornbush and cactus. When traces of blood begin to mark your trail you'll see something, maybe." -Edward Abbey

We are off again! This time we are attempting a more remote and less "official" route called the Hayduke Trail after a fictional eco-terrorist in Edward Abbey's "The Monkey Wrench Gang". The trail links Arches, Canoyonlands, Bryce, Zion and Grand Canyon National Parks and very roughly follows the Colorado River. There are a lot of variants to choose from, not a lot of water and what we understand to be very challenging hiking conditions. Our tickets are booked, we leave Scotland on the 6th of April.

Youtube videos now on-line !

We have produced at great time and expense two short videos to music of our travels which may not worry Steven Spielberg much but hopefully relate some of the fun of our summer's walk....

Video 1 Nature Song and Video 2 Been Everywhere Man

Our photosite from our hike along the US divide is now up and running. Click the image below to go to the photos.......

Photo gallery for our 650 mile hike thru New Mexico now online

We have uploaded photos for the first US state we walked through - New Mexico. These can be seen here....

Our final 2 weeks in the US....

We rented ourselves a car for the last 2 weeks so that we could become 'normal' tourists for a while. First, we took the car down to visit the Martin family and managed a couple of short hikes with MaryJoy.

Canyonlands National Park Utah

We then travelled south and visited some nice desert areas in New Mexico, Utah, Arizona and southern Colororado.

Arches National Park, Moab Utah

This is Chaco canyon in New Mexico......

A lovely camp with the last rays hitting monument valley in Arizona.......

The San Juan river has cut through the sandstone to leave these wonderful river meanders- Goosenecks State Park Utah.

Slot canyon in Canyonlands National Park Utah

Some photos from the final furlong.....

The long straight road across Wyoming's Great Basin. We walked 23 miles in a straight line on this day.....













The sun and lack of shelter required some novel solutions. In this case lunch was under the tent propped up to allow the wind to flow around. Surprisingly- it worked!














We reach the 2000mile mark and celebrate with some artwork using local materials and powerbars!








Martina at our finishing point on September 26th- Battle Pass Wyoming. The next challenge was to make it to Denver , Colorado- it took four hitch hikes and two buses to get there. Ready for a rest.......!