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Pro tip: Stop planning every mile of your route before you leave
I was at a gear shop in Denver last weekend and heard some guy telling his friend he had every single campsite booked for a 200 mile section of the PCT. Like down to the exact water source each day. That sounded insane to me. I started backpacking 4 years ago and my best trips were when I left big gaps in my plan. You miss so much when you're stuck to a rigid schedule. Last summer in the Winds I changed course on day 4 because another hiker told me about a lake I'd never heard of. Best fishing I've ever had. Why do people think they need to lock everything down so tight? Has anyone else found that overplanning takes the fun out of it?
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perry.evan5d ago
Read a blog post from some guy who hiked the Arizona Trail that said the same thing. He called it "death by spreadsheet" and honestly that stuck with me. I had a trip in the Gila where I had every water cache marked on my map but skipped half of them because I found a creek that wasn't on any map I saw. The best stuff is the stuff you can't plan for.
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