The virus as made me do more backpacking, not less

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

Since the virus I have been on 7 backpacking trips and I intend to go on one last one for the season this evening. Most of them have been single-night trips. This has kept me reasonably sane while working from home sitting on my couch, the same couch I then sit on after dinner, the same couch I sometimes sleep on if I am having trouble sleeping. And with any luck I’ll do a longer trip this summer and maybe when fall comes around I will start doing single-night local trips again.

The virus as made me do more backpacking, not less. And doing more trips and more shorter trips has been a really pleasant surprise. A backpack trip need not be an epic bucket-list adventure to be a nice time. There’s also not as much worry about the planning if it’s short. You just grab your stuff and go. If you forgot something it’s only one night and not a big deal. And a trip that is not just short in time but short in distance can also be a nice thing to do. There are a lot of new things you can see, even on trails you have done many times before because by going out over night you see the evening, the night and the morning.

Some of my trips have been open-ended about where to go, which has also been a really fun way to do it. Just set off for one night without a plan and just see where I go. Wherever I can get to in one day I can certainly get back in one day.

I highly recommend doing more “low-quality” trips instead of trying to save it all for one big “high-quality” trip. They’re all high quality in their own way.

[Jerry Adams]

I’m doing the same as normal, but making sure I don’t stop anywhere.  Staying within 1/2 tank of gas.

I feel a tiny bit bad about violating governor Brown’s stay at home order, but I am avoiding any infections

Normally, I might go a little further requiring filling up with gas.  And stopping for food, like breakfast on the way home.

[jscott]

I’ve been surprised sometimes when I realize that some of the finest scenery of a trip was found in the first day of hiking. To put it another way, I would have been happy to hike three days in to find the same scenery as what I found in the first hours of some trips.

[Author]

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