[pct-l] On Planning

Fri Jan 2 14:23:04 CST 2009

I have been away from my mail for a few weeks and will attempt to catch up 
with threads of interest.

On Planning:

It has been our experience with snow travel that if we try to understand, 
anticipate, and prepare for (knowledge and skill training) the hazards and 
dangers ahead, then we usually have a more comfortable, safe, and fun time 
accomplishing what we set out to do (or not because we aborted or delayed 
the trip because we noticed a conditions change that was potentially fatal).

"It's not the destination, it's the journey" philosophy:

No matter where you go, it will be a journey full of choices and changes 
that you make in order to deal with the immediate circumstance. If it is 
your chosen form of planning to simply "wing-it" or "go with the flow" 
through life or your hike, in this case, then you have chosen that long-term 
(or distance) goals are less of an importance than enjoying whatever might 
come your way right now, no matter where that might take you. With this form 
of planning it is common to find yourself, one day, somewhere you regret and 
unable to get out because you weren't paying attention to how you got there.

An intermediate form of planning takes on both extremes on the subject but 
each in moderation. This fellow has a general plan that he wants to 
accomplish including a schedule, but this "schedule" is quite flexible, 
allowing him to take in deviations, but still choosing along the way not to 
straw too far from the general plan of what he wanted to accomplish or 
experience- which was the reason why he went out there in the first place.

Of course, we cannot leave out the dogmatic planner who cannot stray at all 
from what he anticipates and gets totally blown out of the water and leaves 
the trail when circumstances beyond his control change his plan.

As many have said over the years, you can plan for your adventure but be 
prepared to have to modify it when time, injury, or circumstance require.

The form of planning you ascribe to will contribute to the type of 
experiences that challenge you on-trail. Preparation only gives you tools 
that may help you get through those challenges easier. The challenges will 
still be there. It's up to you, at some point in your pre-trip decisions, to 
decide how much struggle you want to go through in experiencing them. HYOH.

Mtnned

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ellen Shopes" <igellen at comcast.net>
To: <pct-l at backcountry.net>
Sent: Sunday, December 28, 2008 4:22 PM
Subject: Re: [pct-l] Too much spare time - part 2

> OK, I'll put in my non-gender biased but age-biased opinion...In the time
> I've been at the Grand Canyon, there has been a consistent trend in who
> needs help (and this tends to hold true in other search and rescue 
> places).
> The most common victim is the younger guy who thinks he can just wing it,
> that bad things just don't happen to him.  I rarely had to assist older,
> retired hikers because they came prepared, knew what they were getting 
> into,
> and knew their own limits...in short, they planned!
> Ellen
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Brian Lewis" <brianle8 at gmail.com>
> To: <pct-l at backcountry.net>
> Sent: Saturday, December 27, 2008 6:44 PM
> Subject: Re: [pct-l] Too much spare time - part 2
>
>
>> Patti wrote:           "hmmm...seems to me that all the females are on my
>> side...
>>           WE ARE WOman!!?? LOL Maybe that's why we prefer to plan...."
>>
>>
>> Hi Patti.  I don't think it's so much gender based as personality type. 
>> I
>> planned a great deal and sort of agree with the Eisenhauer quote.
>> There's
>> an on-going tension, I think, between those that plan a lot and those 
>> that
>> don't plan much.  Some members of the latter group claim that planners
>> aren't good at adjusting to changes.   I used to think that was rubbish,
>> that being more prepared doesn't inherently make you unable to adjust, 
>> and
>> I
>> still sort of think that way.   I think their point is that the better 
>> you
>> are at planning, the more you come to expect that your plans will work
>> out,
>> and thus --- ironically --- the better a person is at planning, over time
>> the worse that person could be equipped emotionally and/or mentally to
>> adjust on-the-fly.
>>
>> The best thing, IMO, is the person that does the right amount of 
>> planning,
>> while still retaining flexibility.   A lot of planning things that I did
>> made little or no difference, but a lot of them did help.   I would say 
>> to
>> anyone inclined to plan more --- and who perhaps enjoys the planning
>> process
>> --- to go for it, plan as much as makes sense to you.   I scripted my
>> first
>> three trail days --- didn't even stick to that script, but I had made a
>> reservation at Mt. Laguna motel (nice to have when starting with the 
>> herd)
>> and I stuck with that.    I had a big spreadsheet printout on a wall in 
>> my
>> basement that my wife could consult to ensure she mailed me the right box
>> to
>> the right place at the right time.  I planned to swap out gear at the
>> start
>> and end of the Sierras, and that more or less worked out as planned.  I
>> had
>> a lot of data along with me (on my smartphone) that occasionally helped,
>> such as the zip code to a particular trail town or the phone number to a
>> particular motel, though Yogi's book handles most of that quite well.
>> Part of the benefit of planning was internalizing a lot of PCT-related
>> data
>> that was all new to me.  Part of it was confidence that I had prepared 
>> for
>> what I reasonably could, and could thus relax a bit more as a result.
>>
>> Assuming all the basics are in place, I think the biggest advantage that
>> advance planners have is the chance to do some meaningful shakedown trips
>> beforehand (perhaps 100 to 200 mile solo trips), to try out gear and
>> associated hiking style issues to have a better idea of what works best
>> for
>> them.  I did a number of shakedown trips in '07 in prep for '08, and they
>> helped me a lot.  In particular, I found and dealt with some foot issues
>> that might have sidelined me if I'd found them first on the thru-hike
>> itself, and I did some gear adjustments, verified that my bear can
>> carrying
>> plan would work, tried out different trail food options, etc.
>>
>> Best wishes for a happy planning process!
>>
>>
>> Brian Lewis / Gadget '08
>> http://postholer.com/brianle
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