Coast to Coast with Gee Jackson: Part 2

by Gee Jackson @geeadventurous.

In case you missed it, read part 1 here

I managed to make it out onto my local canal just once with that Compact as part of a kit trial before I set off for the beginning of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal on May 28th, 2022. I’ve never been able to get very excited about things up front and it’s always a relief to actually be there, doing what I said I was going to do. This was no different. With all my challenges I wanted them to be exactly that - a challenge. Based on what I knew had been done before and my own abilities, I assessed what I thought I was capable of doing for each challenge to set myself a goal in terms of time to completion. Considering how little experience I had stand up paddling, let alone for that distance on unknown terrain (I had never portaged more than one lock in a day before let alone the cacophony of locks and swing bridges that faced me on this trail), and that I was completing the challenge solo, I was pretty confident I could do it in 10 days. So, I set myself the goal of 7 days, just to give me something to push for.