As I’ve been looking over maps and guidebooks as I eagerly await for prime hiking season to begin in western Montana, I decided to channel some of that energy spent on pondering various trip options into creating a list of “Backpacking Inspirations” both for myself and to share with other local hikers. This idea came about for me when I was looking at a bookmark for the local bookstore which had a list of reading challenges, like “read a work translated into English; re-read an old favorite; read a book set in the future; read a book of poetry . . . ”
I’m usually not a “list person”, but I thought it would be a fun exercise to look at my local landscape (primarily the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness and the Bitterroot Mountains, but also other nearby areas like the Sapphire Mountains, Salmon River area down in Idaho, etc.) and think about the various elements/experiences that could be pursued to come up with a memorable trip and/or not fall in a rut of doing similar trips or throwing things together ad hoc (both of which I enjoy, by the way, but it’s always nice to mix things up).
So I came up with the following “inspirations” — I used that word instead of “challenges” because I thought it might be more motivating to people who don’t necessarily want to go outside to be challenged (that seems to happen all on its own, in my experience) but instead to just enjoy the landscape in a more intentional way. It’s of course by no means comprehensive, but I figured it’d be a fun place to start and I could add on to it over the years.
I’d be really curious to see what such lists might look like for other landscapes, such as the canyon country in Utah or the North Cascades or Great Smoky Mountains National Park/southern Appalachians. So please share similar lists if you’re inspired to do so : )
– Â Spend the night in a fire lookout.
– Hike in one canyon and out another canyon.
– Hike 50 miles in one trip.
– Camp at an off-trail lake.
– Spend the night in an area with larch when they are turning gold.
– Spend the night near a hot spring.
– Summit a peak during your backpacking trip.
– Camp near a meadow at peak wildflower time.
– Camp near a waterfall.
– Camp on a full moon.
– Camp on a new moon.
– Set up a basecamp and explore for a day before returning to camp.
– Do a trip with cross-country travel.
– Pack in fresh food and have a delicious three-course meal for dinner.
– Visit as many lakes as you can in one day during a backpacking trip.
– Do a bikepacking trip.
– Do a packrafting trip.
It’s fun for me to think about the trips I have planned which will check many of these off the list in one go, and which ones will probably need to be stand-alone-trips.
Hope this provides some fun inspiration and discussion, and happy hiking to everyone!
