There is an unrealistic expectation often associated with things like backpacking and/or traveling. as I’ve followed others journey’s and had my own, I’ve realized that often the best adventures are misunderstood to be only fun and joyful events.
They’re not.
That is to say, maybe they can be, but most of these experiences in my life have been full of: letdowns, patience-testing, annoyance, misinformation, uncomfortableness, pain, and a bunch of other things that people might try to hide.
My expectations are always high, and almost every time they are let down. The concept is almost always cooler than the activity. We do this with jobs too. We glorify certain jobs that people are in not understanding the work that it takes, not only to get there but to continue in it.
Travel is I think one of the most misunderstood activities. People see others who travel all the time and think that all they do is have fun and enjoy their life.
Travel ≠ Easy
Traveling takes a lot of work. You can either be the Hercules of planning or you can learn to roll with the punches. When you don’t plan, you may go someplace and find out that all of the fun things you thought you could do are reserved a week in advance. Goodbye to those plans.
If you want to plan in advance, you have to realize that the trip is going to feel a lot more like work. Getting from this place to this place without missing any of the plans you organized.
You can’t both be dead set on doing or seeing something and also completely relaxed about how to do it.
For example, when I went to Glacier National Park last summer, most of the best backcountry campsites are reserved 6-months in advance. How does that work? They open up for availability 6 months before the date you want to reserve, within minutes, they are all gone. It’s like concert tickets.
I missed the 6-month date, so I had to go to plan B. They have a certain amount of “first come first served” backcountry sites that are able to be reserved only by being at the park. The minute the office opens, people are in the door to reserve these sites. I got there at night and went and talked to the ranger to see what I could reserve for the next night. I knew I couldn’t get anything for the night I got there, but thought I could get something for the next night.
I was wrong.
Unless I wanted to backcountry hike in one of the less desirable/less scenic parts of the park, The only available campsites wouldn’t be open until two nights from when I got there, and even then, they couldn’t be reserved until the next morning when they saw who showed up and who didn’t.
I was so annoyed. I just wanted to go out and camp in the middle of nowhere and the middle of nowhere had already been reserved.
The next morning I showed up at the office an hour before they opened just to make sure I was first in line to get a site. After Ross (the park ranger) showed up and opened up the office, I worked out a path for us to take that would allow my group to see the most while not hiking 30 miles a day. We still ended up going over 16 miles the next day just to get to the nearest available site.
Was it worth it?
Absolutely.
Was it easy? Absolutely not.
This wasn’t even where I wanted to go in Glacier, but it was the only thing that was available to me. I had to be okay with that.
Traveling and backpacking is awesome and maybe my favorite activity outside of…well, it may be my favorite activity. But that doesn’t mean that it’s all butterflies and roses to make it happen.
Fun often = Hard work