Unplanned, but Not Unprepared

So my friend said to me, “Why don’t we pick a few canyons and just hike up ‘em and see what we find?”

I was trying to decide on which trip to take. My partner and kids were going to be away and I had the opportunity to do a trip of my own. I was hoping two of my friends that also love backpacking could come along as the one thing I knew is that I wanted some significant portion of it to be off trail in a place I’d never been before.

“No way. I’m worried that if we just wander around we’ll miss out on some of the best stuff just because we didn’t know about it.” I said, rejecting his ridiculous, at the time, idea flat out.

I was even taking a course, Planning Like a Pro, put on by Andrew Skurka and this wasn’t the time for free form trips, but I hated that idea anyway.

For the next three years I planned all my trips that way. Tons of research so I knew what to check out, what to avoid, sick campsites, clock or counter-clockwise, time of year, etc.

Maybe you’re expecting that my plans got laughed at and I had to make it up as I went a long. Nope. All of my trips went almost exactly as planned, and it paid off. We camped in so many epic campsites in places that look like different worlds…largely because I did so much research and planning.

I have another opportunity to plan a trip for this summer so I’ve been reflecting on what type of vibes I want this time. It reminded me of a nugget of wisdom my world-traveling-sister dropped on me a while back. We were talking about how she has missed a lot of flights and she said something like, “I know this sounds weird to say, but I think I liked the times that something went wrong the best. Somehow it always worked out and I ended up with a cool trip, and sometimes it turned out better than what was planned.”

I think I understood the idea back then, but there was no way I was going to act on it…but maybe now I should!

Learning of the Effort Paradox has helped me see why my friend and sister would suggest a trip with far less planning. The idea is that we want ease, but it’s effort that brings meaning, pride, and lasting satisfaction. Epic campsites are great, but the feelings of surprise and discovery are valuable in their own way.

I added up the trips I’ve been on since I lost weight and started backpacking again and the numbers surprised me. I’ve got 100+ days across 24 trips with over 800 miles hiked.

Maybe all of those trips weren’t just practice for planning, but practice for letting go.