Trip Planning 101

Most of my trips happen on short notice and go to places that I know like the back of my hand.  Planning for those trips takes minutes, not hours or days.  Who's in?  Who's going to drive?  What time should we leave?  I toss some gear in a bag and off we go. 



Not so with the bigger trips.  These are the trips that happen only every few years and go someplace great.  For me, the planning of these trips is an outlet for the anticipation and excitement that's building, and a chance to re-think gear and methods that are normally just "my way of doing it."  I thought I'd share what goes through my head during this planning process.

Dates & Destinations

The first thing that normally gets determined with my group of backpacking friends is dates and destinations.  I'd be lying if I said we didn't always have a few trips stewing in the pot, just waiting for the stars to align so we can go.  The ideas for these trips typically happen around campfires, fueled by booze and testosterone and a desire to spend more time doing what we love.  They get summarized down to a single activity in a particular destination: Backcountry canoeing in Canada.  Backpacking the 100 Mile Wilderness.  Climbing in Colorado.  Canyoneering in Utah.  Some are single words that say it all: Alaska.  Rainier.  Denali.  Some are just hazy dreams:  Patagonia. New Zealand.  Iceland.



This year it's climbing in Colorado.  It started with an email early in the year: "I think this is the year we do Colorado.  Probably something like Wednesday - Sunday.  When can everybody go?"  Like a vinegar truck that just crashed into the baking soda factory, this got things going quickly. 

Planning the destination is easy - there's no shortage of beautiful places.  Picking dates gets a little harder.  Do the seasons effect the ability to take the trip?  In this case, we wanted a summer or fall trip, because winter mountaineering is not in the cards for us.  Not too far into fall, because then we'll deal with the potential for snow storms.  Summer means afternoon thunderstorms and crowds.  For us, we settled on a weekend sometime in August or September, and then worked around everyone's work and personal schedule to find the right dates. 



Now that we have a place and a time, we can move to the next step, building the itinerary.

Itinerary

When I plan trips, the itinerary is a day-to-day plan for where we need to be, how far we need to go or how high we need to climb.  When we went backcountry canoeing it was a plan for which lakes we'd camp on and how we'd get from one lake to the next, taking into account distances, available daylight, portage difficulty, and the group's desire for time to do other activities (fishing), and so on.

On backpacking trips I generally have a plan for daily distance, places to camp (shelters and/or water sources), and stuff like that.  I'll build a couple of options on each day to give us some flexibility and deal with issues as they arise. 



Everything is based on the number of days that we have to be out there, skill and fitness level of the group, the amount of daylight that we'll have, and a general consensus on the desired difficulty level of the trip.  For my particular group of friends I generally assume 2-3 miles per hour under normal hiking conditions (normal, for us... only you know what your normal is).  How many hours is a function of the time of year and what else we might want to be able to do.  For example, a lot of times we like to get to camp early to mid-afternoon, set up, and then either explore the area without packs or do some fishing, scrambling, lounging, and so on.  In the winter lounging around doesn't make much sense, so we hike until we just have enough daylight left to gather some firewood and find a decent place to sleep.



Once I can calculate a reasonable day's distance based on the above, then it's time to start looking at the maps.

Mapping it Out

Once I have a rough feel for how far we'll want to go each day, and for how many days, I generally sit down and start pouring over maps, trip reports from others, blogs, and any other resources I can find.   What I'm trying to do is fit the constraints above into a manageable trip.  This might be picking specific trails or loops within an area, or it might be figuring out where to have a food cache.  Let's say we think we can go 10 miles a day for a particular trip, and the trip will be four days.  I'm looking for a loop trail that is about 35 miles, with good places to camp (on the map, at least) every 8-12 miles. 



I'll also look for bail-out points where we could reach a road, connect to a different trail that loops back earlier, or cut distance off.  More than once this contingency pre-planning has helped a group when someone sprained an ankle or fell ill.   I've even used it to cut trip distance dramatically (nearly in half) when we over-estimated the fitness level of the group and under-estimated the difficulty of the trail.  If you have to be back for work on Monday, then you have to be back for work on Monday.  After all, work is what pays for these trips, right?



Once the general route is determined, I generally share it with the group, seeking feedback and making sure I didn't miss anything.  I'll pass this info along, as well as some additional research regarding the environmental aspects of the trip.

Environmental Aspects

Environmental aspects to me are probably not what you might be thinking.  Leave-No-Trace is always there, so in the context of trip planning, this is things like weather and terrain that will impact how we pack and prepare for the trip.  I'll generally start by doing some research on the weather for the time of year we're planning.  This will include the average and extreme temperatures, likelihood and type of precipitation we might expect, and even the amount of moonlight that might be available for nighttime hiking, fishing, or other activities. 



There are lots of sources for historical weather patterns, and researching it is probably beyond the scope of this post.  I'll only mention that it's also important to consider the current year's trends in addition to previous history.  Is it a dry year with drought conditions or are we getting early snow at elevation?  Has it been unseasonably hot or cold?  Was it a really wet spring (i.e. should expect more bugs)?



Terrain is also important, particularly in places with a different ecosystem than what we're used to.  Will we be camping above tree line?  Probably best to leave the hammock at home and plan to tent.  Will it be muddy, boggy, or sandy?  This will effect my footwear choices, as well as shelter and likely places to camp.  Are there ready sources of fresh water, or do we need to plan to carry more than normal?  Is there likely to be an environmentally friendly place to poop, or do we need to plan to pack it out?  Are campfires and cooking flames permitted (and reasonable) given the current weather conditions?



Other "environmental aspects," in my terms, might include things related to extracurricular activities.  If we're planning to fish, I might research some local flies to tie before we go.  If we're planning to do a little rock climbing, what kind of kit should we bring?  If we're planning short hiking days and long days in backcountry camps, we might throw in a Frisbee or a deck of cards to help fill the time.

All of this information gets aggregated and added to the trip plan.  Now we're almost done.  It's time to decide on group and individual gear lists.

Gear Lists

There are entire blogs, books, and encyclopedias written covering gear lists.  We all have our own preferences and styles, and we also have a limited stable of equipment from which to draw.  I've found that the best thing to do here is to decide on group gear (shelter, cooking, water treatment, etc.), figure out who has the most appropriate piece for the trip in question, and delegate those things accordingly.  Then individual gear lists can be made, taking into account the itinerary, the route, and all of the environmental aspects. 



Personally, I maintain a detailed database of every piece of kit that I own, with sizes, weights, and all sorts of other info - it's probably beyond crazy.  I plan my pack's contents in excruciating detail, and I can tell you my base pack weight within a few ounces before it's packed.



Generally we'll then sort (or re-sort) gear at the trailhead or another convenient location before setting out, ensuring that everyone has an appropriate share of group equipment and nobody is missing anything critical.  Things like maps with the route marked and a compass should be in every backpack (or at least, every backpack on the back of people who know how to use them).  I also like to make sure that everyone has a personal first aid kit, sometimes supplemented with a slightly more robust kit that can be shared among the group. 



The only thing left is to make sure we are well-fed during the trip, so it's on to menu planning.

Menu Planning

I also include food in my gear lists.  Oftentimes with my particular group of friends we do meals on our own, meaning that we don't really plan group cooking.  Many others do, and I think it makes a lot of sense as long as everyone can come to a consensus on what the menu should be.  I plan my meals like I plan my gear, weighing each meal and also calculating the caloric content.  This has two benefits - first, I can see what foods are the most calorie dense by dividing calories by weight - the higher the number, the better.  Second, I can make sure that I'm replacing enough calories each day to have plenty of energy for the trip.  I package and label each meal (Lunch #1, Breakfast #3, etc.) as well as snacks by day (Day 1, Day 2, etc.).  I also include on the label any special instructions (needs 1 cup of water, boil for 15 minutes, etc.), the calorie content, and any potential allergens.  The latter two in case I need to share a meal with someone else.



Along with food comes cooking it.  Elevation, terrain, weather, and other factors mentioned above will help determine the best type of stove to bring.  Depending on how and what I'm cooking, I'll also need to consider how much fuel to bring.  This is another one of those topics that could be a whole book all on its own.  Considerations include the number of hot meals planned, elevation, and limitations on fuel types if we're flying to our destination.  Of course, weight and convenience also matter here as well.

Wrapping it up

Once the meal plan is set, we generally have a pretty good plan for the trip.  There may be other details to work out, such as transportation to and from the destination, places to camp or sleep on the way in or out of the backcountry if we'll be arriving or departing too late to hit the trail, and stuff like that. 



All of this is consolidated in a variety of spreadsheets and emails that get passed around like a cheap bottle of booze, but in the end we all have a pretty good idea of what the trip will look like, and any lingering questions are normally answered before we ever lace up our boots.

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