Pouring over the maps and the guide books

The more I read in the walking guides to the trail, the more I realise how amazing this journey is going to be. Here are some of the things that have stuck in my mind.

When we are walking the trail in New York State, you can actually see the skyscrapers of Manhatten in the distance. There is a railway station ON the trail - the train only stops on weekends and public holidays at this station - and you can catch a train right into the heart of New York at Grand Central Station. We could go in and catch a Broadway Show!

Mobile phones are able to work on a lot of the trail. One of the services available is Dial a Pizza. When the trail crosses a highway near a town, it is possible to ring up and have a pizza delivered. You can also ring hostels and motels who have special hiking packages where they will pick you up from the trail, take you back to the town, dirve you to the supermarket, the bushwalking outfitter, the laundromat, etc - you stay the night and they take you back to the trail the following morning. Great customer service.

In South West Virginia, a researcher studying deer in the forest in the early 1980s, stumbled across an old log cabin, abandoned in the forest, close to the Appalachian Trail. He was able to buy the cabin, and established a hostel for Appalachian hikers. He died in 1987 and then his wife continued to run it after his death until her death in the early 2000s, when their children took it over and now run it. I want to stay there, but Digby says according to our schedule we arrive there at 11.00am in the morning and can't waste the afternoon by not walking. We'll see......

The philanthropy is amazing, with many families donating large parcels of land to the national park organisations to enable the forest to be maintained. The ribbon of land which the trail follows becomes wider and wider with more acquisitions. In the 1930s south west Virginia mountains were completely denuded from logging, and the state bought the land and replanted forest using depression labour. These forests are now 80 years old and extend for miles and miles on both sides of the trail. The locals still hunt bear and deer in this forest and during the hunting season (Oct-Nov) hikers have to wear bright yellow safety jackets so they won't be mistaken as prey!

In the Shenandoah National Park, they estimate that the black bear population is now 1-2 bears per square mile. In the 1930s the bears were completely shot out of the area. Gradually since that time they have migrated back to the area from mountains in the west. We really might meet a bear.

Going for broke - fitting 2175 miles into 180 days

I have always been competitive and like to finish what projects I start - the thought of going to the US and walking 95% of the Appalachian trail and then flying home without finishing it, is not something that makes me happy. So initially we are going for it - it means longer average days and less rest days. Digby is working on a new schedule that has us reaching Mt Katahdin within our allotted time.

But who knows what will happen - six months is a long time.

The US Embassy gives us a 6 month visa

Any traveller from Australia to the US receives a 90 day entry visa on arrival, and to extend this visa you must leave the continent. We decided to apply for a longer stay visitor visa so that we could complete the walk without having to exit the continent and return.

The process is quite complicated - fill out a 20 page application on line, insert photo into online application, pay an application fee of $152 per person to the local post office and receive a receipt, book your appointment online for a face to face interview at the embassy. The choice was Sydney or Melbourne - we chose Melbourne so we could visit Mum and Dad at the same time and have a 'family gathering' - our last until our return.

The interview process took an hour and a half - think sheepyards and cattle dip. It was very streamlined - the body search, the luggage stored, the escort to the 6th floor, the checking of our passport, and then released into the holding pen with a number. Numbers were being called over the microphone and up on the electronic screen - a little like waiting in the delicatessen for your number to be called.

We got called up twice - the first time to collect our paperwork and make sure that everything was in order, and to take our fingerprints - I guessed that was why we had to have a face to face interview - fingerprints are a bit hard to verify when sent through the post. The second call was the actual interview - it lasted about 4 minutes. Do you own your own house? What do you do to earn a living? You are walking the Appalachian Trail? I can give you a 6 month visa, but no more for a B1B2 visitor visa.

So we have a problem - how do we squash a 7 month walk into a 6 month time frame? Just walk faster??? We are considering our options.

As I write this the postman has arrived in the driveway with our passports stamped with our visas. Our journey moves closer to kick off.