As we get older and more responsibility our time in the
great outdoors starts to diminish and our big trips become more precious. That’s where planning and playing with your
toys becomes important.
It is important to
start your planning early, the earlier the better. This helps your trip in two ways.
First the more you think about what you are taking and read
about the problems others have had on similar trips the more you can work out
those gear problems ahead of time. I
like to read others’ trip reports not just for the information about a new,
cool place but also for what went wrong.
While I was still in a reconnaissance unit I would read narratives about
other units like Bravo Two Zero, not only as a good story but to also find out
what they did wrong so hopefully my team wouldn’t repeat their mistakes. The same holds true for adventures both far
and near. Reading books like More Deep Trouble, and Will to Live are great resources for what went wrong, if you’re willing to
listen.
Second playing with your toys keeps you familiar with them
and motivated. Recently I was worried
how we were going to waterproof our Therm-a-Rest for a summer paddling
trip. I got out a Therm-a-Rest, and a
couple of dry bags and tested several different configurations to find out
what is going to work. It keeps the trip
in my mind and keeps me motivated to stay in shape for it. A bonus is we won’t be stressing over that
portion of the trip while we are worrying about getting kid and dog stuff ready
for grandparents since this will be a kid free adventure. During spring break we will have a little
down time at our house and we plan on packing our boats to see if we have
enough dry bags and such. This will give
us a couple of months to buy any needed items, again to reduce the last minute
stress and money spending.
Trips are a vital part of my life, with some ‘fore thought
and planning you can make them go as smoothly as possible so they don’t turn
out to be like a saying I once heard.
“It’s only an adventure when you’re done, because it sucked while we
were doing it!”
