Bucket List Trips?

JMT – Complete

Wind River High Route – Complete

Alaska – Twice Complete

Southern Sierra High Route – This August

Sierra High Route

Phiffner Traverse

Parque Patagonia Trek

More adding daily…..

The one I’ve considered the longest, since reading “Coming into the Country” and hearing of my boss’s (at the backpacking shop) tales is a raft trip of the Yukon.  Not the whole thing, but in at Whitehorse, out at Circle, or in at Eagle/Circle and out at the Pipeline crossing.

One detail of this trip that struck me: it was long enough that they grew multiple crops of alfalfa sprouts and ate them along the way.

We don’t have a bucket list anymore.  We have a life list of things we’ve done, and we keep adding to it.

But we do have a Phuket list.  Those are things we’ve decided we’ll never do!

JMT – Complete

Every subsequent trip to the Sierra Nevada – never set foot on the JMT, because it’s full of thousands of people doing it for their bucket list, which fortunately leaves the rest of the Sierra Nevada virtually empty

But we do have a Phuket list ….

….  seems worthwhile to me.

• PCT – done but not as a thru-hike, want to do more long sections, not full thru
• Winds – done
• Glacier – done
• Kalalau – done
• Everest Trek – done
• Condor Trail
• Whitney
• Telescope Peak
• Lost Coast
• Arizona Trail
• Superior Trail
• North Country Trail
• Big Foot Trail

Diane –

A long time ago I was in a similar situation but was fortunate enough to have a lot of flexibility in terms of work days. Projects ebbed and flowed so I did too.  I could manage a week off about every other month, or at least a four day “weekend”, plus two weeks off about twice a year. Between “comp time” and “leave without pay” the pay check didn’t suffer to much.   A long drive and sleeping at the trailhead meant I saw a lot of the Sierra.

“Bucket List” trips are worthy goals, but the long-weekend adventures can go on all year long and be just as meaningful.

Bucket list is so long, and ever growing. My time will run out long before the list has been checked off, but I can’t complain; I’ve seen too many beautiful places already and feel very fortunate.

• Some sections of the PCT, some sections of the Arizona Trail
• Grand Canyon (may happen this fall?)
• Return to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, after many years absent and after many trips there as a child
• A few more hikes in Alaska still, Brooks Range, Crow Pass, some on the Kenai, ANWR before they drill it
• Cottonwood Trail in Kluane
• More of the northern Rockies
• Some sections of the CDT
• Banff
• 100 mile wilderness in Maine
• One camino, doesn’t really matter which, maybe the northern route
• Walks in northern Portugal

I have a list somewhere, but I can’t remember where I put it.

Karen: It’s a good time now, 183 days in advance, to reserve cabins along the Resurrection Trail on the Kenai Peninsula.  One’s load can be more UL when you leave the tent behind and you can count on drying out your clothes every night.

I really like the Grand Canyon as a winter break from Alaska.  2 weeks ago, I asked at the wilderness permit office, and they said after Christmas/New Years and until spring break, you can walk up and get a permit for anywhere, including the main trail corridor.  Unprompted, he said, it’s pretty cold so it’s only Alaskans and Canadians who come to backpack now.

It’s fun to show off by hiking in shorts and our sense of how to walk on snow lets (at least me) leave the traction devices that seemingly everyone else is wearing behind, and while nights of 10 to 30F on the Rim are a bit cold if you’re camping, but that means it’s 20-45F at night in the canyon itself.

My list

@Nick that’s a great non-bucket-list  list!  Looks like you have not taken your journey for granted.

Not sure it’s much of a “bucket list”, there’s so much that would be fun, but two daydreams I’ve been chewing on for some time:

-“The Great High Sierra Sit”: I want to go solo in one spot in the Sierra for 10-15 days and settle in.  I have a location in the Upper Kern Basin in mind.  Essentially a trip with plenty of time time sit and get a feel for an area, full of local “micro-exploring”. Looking to make this one happen this summer.

-I want to cycle from Los Angeles to New York via paved roads, but self-supported.  I’m really interested in exploring back roads, small towns, camping, and meeting folks along the way.  Tossing around the idea shooting for 40-50 days in the summer 2021.  Most importantly, I already have the time, money, and nod from my wife and family for a trip like this..the unknown is doing the requisite training and ultimately whether I’ll want to be away from family for that long.  They would likely meet me along the way in a few points though.  And I REALLY like the idea of rolling up to my sister’s door in Pittsburgh on a bike ride from LA.

I have difficulty with being only one person and having two things I like to do. I will almost combine them this weekend. It’ll be car camping, not backpacking, but maybe I will do a little day hike one morning along the lake. The rest of the time will be spent jamming old time music and drinking beers with my music friends. And recovering still from my accident. I doubt I’ll make it to any of my bucket list, especially now that my partner has retired and it’s harder to do stuff without him, and especially since it feels like I’ll never recover from my accident (my knee). But I can dream. That’s what a bucket list sort of is.

The “sit” is a very good idea, Wisner. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to SCUBA dive quite a bit as a teen. One day I suggested to my father that we sit on the bottom and see what happened. Tons of tiny fish came out and we became aware of small details that we missed when cruising around on a typical dive.

Of course we all spend at least a little bit of time sitting and looking around when hiking but I like the idea of setting up camp in the Sierra and staying for a few days. I’ll have to think about where I’d like to do that. Thank you.

@matthew K

“Ahem…” (stepping onto soapbox)…

(but seriously, this is a personal critique as much as anything else)

Too much time gets spent just blowing through these beautiful places. Doing miles and cramming in a lot of country is cool; I’ve spent a lot of time pursuing that. While a week or two in one place certainly isn’t enough to get a long term picture, I think it still would allow one to get a sense of the rhythm of a place. I’m not solely out there to physically push myself.

I think about this a bit these days: I wonder if high miles and crammed itineraries aren’t a form of manic restlessness that’s so damned common everywhere I look, sort of akin to the “monkey mind” that never ever stops bouncing around. Never being able to sit still.
Staying in one place is something I do quite a bit of in my local hills. But whenever I get to the Sierra it feels like such a treat that I want to keep moving and see a lot. But I think there’s a downside to always moving around.

Nick (a few posts up) has a good post about that on his blog. Something to the effect of “How many miles did you do?” There’s more to the outdoors…

I like the diving analogy; I freedive/spearfish. An experienced friend told me that if I wanted to see more fish, to stop swimming around and looking so hard for fish. It works.

Yep. I agree with everything you said above. Crammed itineraries and making miles as an athletic conquest is not my motivation either. That said, I do like traveling over distance though and my motivation is that I don’t know what will happen a day or three in the future. I feel like so much of our modern lives is predictable (or at least appears to be predictable) and longer distance trips by foot are not that. I find this effect to be even more true when hiking from point to point rather than a loop.

I feel like I should acknowledge the longest hike I’ve taken was three weeks and took place on a certain well-established trail in the Sierras. I’ve not been on any really long walks but still, it’s interesting to not know what is two days ahead of you. Uncertainty is interesting!