El Plan*
*Subject to change.
Up front, I need to add a permanent disclaimer to anything we label as a “plan.” Why? Well, it’s currently day 2 and we are sitting at an established camp site in Santa Rosa because Lee realized the 4Runner’s suspension was in more dire need of replacing than we hoped. Our goal was to never pay for camping, and we’ve already failed at that. We also planned to be up in Lassen National Forest tonight, and considering we’re only an hour north of San Francisco, we also failed at that. The lesson? Keep our plans flexible and go with the flow.
With that, there are a few things we know with almost 100% confidence:
We will live out of the 4Runner for 5 weeks, and a camper starting in June
Our plan is to spend a ~year on the road
We’re going to travel through the western US, Canada, and Mexico, mostly staying west of the Rockies
Could we see a lot more than the western third of the US + a little Canada and Mexico with 12 whole months to travel? Absolutely. Are there other places we’d love to explore? Of course. We could comfortably tour the entire United States, probably with Alaska included, within 12 months. But the west has a lot of wilderness to explore, and we’ve been itching to see it for years. We care less about covering as much ground as possible than we do about maximizing our enjoyment of those places, and the last thing we want is to feel like we just scratched the surface of a location before we have to move on to the next destination. Plus, in case you haven’t noticed the price of gas recently, it ain’t cheap.
We’re still hashing out the details, and we’ll leave plenty of room for spontaneity, but some of the destinations I’m most excited for:
The Canadian Rockies
Idaho
Southern Utah / Northern Arizona
The Canadian Rockies and Idaho both have that enchanting property of the unknown. Lee and I went to southern Utah a few years ago and loved it, and he spent some time bike packing in northern Arizona; we were in both just long enough to realize that we heavily underestimated how much time we’d need to fully appreciate them. Plus, I have some killer insider tips thanks to my dear friend Kelsey, who literally started a whole magazine for travelers, Bucket. Issue #1 was on Southern Utah, and I cannot wait to return with her expertise in my pocket.
Right now, the thought of traveling for a year and truly being immersed in nature sounds idyllic, but I know myself, and I am positive that it won’t take long for me to start to feel antsy and unproductive. Lee’s MO is to get in as much mountain biking as possible, and though I’m trying to earn my bike legs, a year isn’t enough time to catch up to him. We’ll do plenty of hiking, backpacking, fishing, swimming, etc. of course, but it’s amazing how slowly time passes in the woods, so I’ll need something to fill the hours before/after those activities, not to mention rainy days and days when we just need/want to rest. For those, I’m soliciting ideas for ways to spend time that are enriching. Some of my initial thoughts:
Drawing and watercolors: my current creative outlets don’t pack down well, but drawing and watercolor are portable and will scratch my creative itch (I hope).
Photography: my DSLR started having issues a few years ago, and I haven’t touched my camera much since, especially with the quality of iPhone cameras. But I figured this would be a good time to reinvest in a quality camera, so I look forward to picking this hobby back up, and to improving my editing skills.
Writing: I enjoy writing, but as I wrote in my first post, I’m verbose and overanalyze things, both of which make for poor writing. I look forward to challenging myself to say more with fewer words (looking at the length of this post, I don’t think I’m off to a great start).
Reading: I read a lot as it is, and I’m very excited to have even more time for this. Please send me recommendations!
Bird watching: I like birds, ok?
Picking up new skills, and some I’ve deserted over the years: practicing French/Spanish come to mind (je suis rouillée/estoy oxidada), or maybe I’ll finally try to find that one musical bone in my body and ask Lee to teach me guitar. Or who knows, maybe I’ll try to learn how to dance, but I’m not sure being isolated in the woods will help me get better at that…
