About

I’m an American/Australian living in Hornsby, Australia that enjoys hiking and traveling.

At a very young age it was my much older brother Ty who introduced me to the simple joy of walking in the woods at the back of our family farm in Michigan.  He was a unique individual who tended to look at everything in a different way than everyone else.  Some of his unique perspectives rubbed off on me. So I partially have him to thank (or to blame) for some of my peculiarities, such as walking remote trails alone for days at a time and enjoying every minute of it.  After leaving the farm and getting wrapped up in all of the issues of adult life I for many years lost touch with this simple enjoyment of “Walking Among the Tall Trees.”

It wasn’t until I moved to Alaska in 2006 that I reacquainted myself with hiking in the forest trails around the town of Palmer (Lazy Mountain and Matanuska Peak) and especially the trails in the Hatchers Pass area.  These were day-hikes with amazing mountain views that were among the best walks I’ve ever taken.  Since then I’ve always looked for and found excuses to get out and take a walk, no matter where I was living or what I was doing.

When I moved to Sydney in 2011 I was pleased to find an immense network of trails among the eucalyptus forests around Sydney that I could walk to my heart’s content.  There is a wonderful 250km trail that runs from Sydney CBD to Queens Wharf in Newcastle.  Over the year of 2012 I section-hiked this trail, mostly as day hikes once or twice a month, and slowly but surely worked my way up the coast from Sydney until on a rainy but exhilarating afternoon I arrived at Queens Wharf.  Since then I’ve also walked continuous trails from Sydney west almost to Katoomba and south down to Gerringong.  The longest uninterrupted thru-hike I took (prior to Te Araroa) was a 10 day hike of the Great Southwest Walk in Victoria.  This was a terrific walk that included bush, forest and beach trails and convinced me that I was ready to take on and enjoy even longer walks.

At some time in 2012 I read about the Te Araroa trail in New Zealand and became fascinated with the possibility of walking a continuous 3000km trail from the north tip of the North Island, to the south tip of the South Island.  In November 2014 I indulged that fascination and arrived at Cape Reinga with excitement and optimism for the the 5 month hike ahead of me.  (The details of that hike are already recorded in this blog.)  But the 2014-2015 hike didn’t quite turn out as planned, as I had leg injuries (shin splints/stress fractures) that sidelined me for 6-weeks.  So when I returned to the trail I took a more measured pace in my hiking and only completed a little over a third of the trail (about 1100km).

Going forward this blog will detail more of my walks, as well as my traveling experiences, photos, videos and the occasional ramblings of whatever comes to mind that I feel I must burden my followers with.

During my 2014-15 walk my blog was primarily a monologue.  In future posts I will make it a point for this to be a dialog with my followers.  So please feel free to make comments and ask questions and I will post your comments and answer your questions as much as I am able.

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Cheers!

KC