As the new year progresses through the chill of winter, my mind begins to wander towards spring, summer, and fall and all the opportunities for adventure. I start my plans and contact buddies. I look at volunteer opportunities with the Mountaineers and think of times I may want to hike alone. Ultimately, I gather the necessary items around me to start planning my epic adventures. In this article, I want to share the items and how I use them to plan out my adventures.
First let's gather the items, then I’ll explain how I use them separately and in conjunction with others.
Computer
Calendar (digital and print)
Hiking/adventure books
Maps
Bucket list (both mine and friends)
Notecards or notebooks
iPhone apps
One of the first things I do when the days are dark is to start writing a list of ideas of places I want to visit in the coming year. I also note if these are long road trips (2+ days), short trips (day trips), day hikes, backpacks, or long adventures. These are cursory ideas that contain no itineraries or objectives (except for pretty pictures). I may have certain objectives such as photographing the Milky Way and then choosing a destination for that, but in general I just write down places I would like to see. I quickly jot these down on notecards or in a notebook - one card or page per idea. This gives me space for more details later. You can decide to do this all on your computer, but I’m old-school and like to reserve pulling in the computer until I’m finalizing plans. Just remember this is preliminary planning.
Being old-school, I pull out my paper calendar. For whatever reason, my brain just works better looking at paper than my computer screen. Once I finalize my plans, I do add the trips to my online calendar complete with itinerary, but for the preliminary stuff, I use an old paper calendar. This is also when I pull out my books for hiking and backpacking. Information such as seasonality and distance/elevation help guide my planning. While looking at my idea list, I can flip through the pages and find an appropriate trail or best season for the hike then jot that down on both the idea list and, in pencil, on the calendar. A few dates are etched in stone - these are annual obligations to the volunteer groups I work with such as the beach cleanups and events with the Mountaineers.
With the books, calendar, and notes, I can start to fill out the year. I will note which destinations are with friends, with the Mountaineers, and those in solitude (usually road trips). Each type of trip takes different types of planning. For my solo plans, I can leave a lot of the details up to chance. I will create an itinerary and detailed plans, but can often wait until the week before departure to for much of that. When hiking with friends and the Mountaineers, I need the details farther in advance so I can share those with the other participants - it is never a good idea to keep your adventure buddies in the dark.
As I move past the general plans and have penned my dates into the calendar (pen is more permanent than pencil), I start working on what is needed to get the adventure started: reservations, permits, trip posting (Mountaineers). For this, I use everything - computer, maps, apps, & books.
First, I note where I need special permits for backpacking. Every National Park and many wilderness areas need you to apply for and carry a wilderness or backcountry permit. This allows you to camp in the backcountry away from the front country. Each reservation area has a date and time where you can apply for your permit and of course they are never the same. Mount Rainier NP will allow reservations 3 months in advance where Olympic NP opens up all reservations for the season on the same day. Next to each adventure I will note when I need to make a reservation. Some locations have a lottery system that end on a certain day then the agency will let you know if you won or not. Then I add a reminder in my calendar with the trip I’m reserving for. I will often make the calendar reminder before I have my itinerary set, but you will need your itinerary and backup on the day you make your reservation.
One word of note - if you miss making your reservation the day of, you can always try the next day. Reservations open on that day but stay open for the rest of the season. There is just a rush to get online and make reservations the day of so you might need to be flexible with your itinerary.
Now for the fun part - using my apps, maps, and books plus websites and ideas of friends, start the detailed planning. I make note of sunrise and sunset as well as moonrise and moonset and the phase of the moon and possibility of the galactic core for each trip. I note campsites with distances between and elevation gain. For each campsite, I note water sources, privies (if any) and food storage options. Driving distance to and from the trailhead will inform us about drive times and when we need to leave the city and when we can expect to start hiking and this will help us know which camp we can get to on the 1st night if doing a multi-day hike. Or will even tell us how to adjust our leave time from home. I list resources - maps, books, reservations, permits, who the trip is for (myself, friends, Mountaineers), backup locations.
Once I have this information, I begin to write out a short narrative of expectations of the hike. If you can add as much of the information gathered above, you can feel comfortable about how the hike will go in relation to mileages and elevation and what you might see. You’ll also be better able to plan for problems if they arise. Review your maps, find the exit points if trouble occurs. What are options for your planned outing? Add these to your narrative.
It’s almost time to hit the trails for the summer. Get your plans together so you can enjoy as much of the outdoors as possible.
Goodbye for now - I’ll see you on the next adventure.