Planning Part One

I call this Planning Part One not because I have a sequel already in mind. Nor do I have some extended idea that will require more than one post to flesh out. 

I do expect that there will be more than one of these simply because we are sliding into the pit of winter and one of the fantastic parts of this time of year is figuring out your plans for the upcoming year. 

Some of it is easy: for example my annual April backpacking trip, it is easy to plan and easy to post up on the Meetup site (copy, change dates, post) and the small change I did make to it -  well, I have 4 months to figure it out. I included a mystery day that really does not have any real plan behind it and a dozen or more people signed up for it. Hope I come through!

Other things are easy, I posted about a half dozen day hikes on DaytonHikers.org and any day now I will pull together the money to send to the Great Ohio Bicycle Adventure.  That along with dayhikes I have signed up for will get me rolling through about June. 

What is missing is the big adventure. I did not really partake of one this year, not compared to some of the posts you can read here. Poor planning, changing schedules, and a host of other little things conspired to keep me off the trail - not the least was a summer-changing injury that I may describe some day but for now trust me I was not moving well. 

I look forward to firing up the woodstove, grabbing maps and some copies of Backpacking magazine and working through the possibilities for 2015.  The AT? Somewhere else? Finger Lakes Trail is tempting but so is Michigan. A 10 day effort or a couple of long weekends?  Have to slip in at least one trip to Red River Gorge, just because.  The window is open to just about anything, and I promised myself I would get all of this arranged early on so I do not let 2015 slip away like this past year did.  There were opportunities for adventure that I could have taken, perhaps a motorcycle camping trip or a car camping exploration of sites worth seeing ... I let those get away too with busy weekends and chores and work.  Not this year! 

My adventures require planning because I have to work.  I have a generous but not unlimited vacation plan and it does require some thought to shoehorn in everything I want to do in a given year. Still I consider myself lucky to be able to do the things I do. 

So let the snow fall, I will tackle the winter in dribs and drabs with snow hikes and cold runs and too much time in the Rec Center. I will also pour some hot chocolate and sit by that fire and dream of what I can do.  Then all I have left is to make it a reality.