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There are lots of different planning philosophies and attitudes. Some people enjoy it - others hate it - and a lot of people are somewhere in between.
Jim is an engineer - he spent a lot of time planning his AT thruhike - with the realization that once he got out there the plan WOULD fall apart --- and that he wouldn't care. It did (fall apart) --- and he didn't (care).
We spent 3+ years actively planning our first CDT thruhike - with the same caveat. And we spent 3 months planning our PCT thruhike – with the same caveat. In each case the PLAN fell apart within an amazingly short time. In each case we finished the trail.
The PLAN is NOT reality – it’s only a representation (paper or otherwise) of what we think reality will be (or what we’d like it to be). And only an extremely good, extremely lucky and truly omniscient planner will put together a PLAN that comes together 100% on the CDT (or anyplace else).
If you’re omniscient, we need to talk to you – there are a few things we’d like to know, like the origin of the Universe and what came before the Big Bang and why supposedly intelligent people act so dumb and …………… a few million other such questions.
The purpose of planning is NOT to set up an iron-clad irrevocable PLAN that you HAVE TO adhere to in detail. We’ve seen people do that – and it’s invariably an unmitigated disaster.
The purpose of planning is 'familiarization' with the trail (or whatever else it is that you're planning) so when things go wrong (as they inevitably do), you'll have some idea about what resources, options, solutions, etc. are available to you. This is as true on the CDT as it is in building a Space Station.
To paraphrase Dwight Eisenhower - "Planning is absolutely vital, 'plans' are useless"
Planning is a survival tool, even on the trail. And like any other skill, the more you practice, the sharper your planning skills will be – and the better your chance of success will be, not only on the trail, but in anything you do.
Of course, there are those who decide to NOT plan. That can actually work for most of the AT, but it doesn't work well on some other trails. One pair of CDT thruhikers "couldn't afford" to buy the guidebooks - so they didn't know where the water sources were. They got through a large part of New Mexico by finding partially filled water bottles that people had discarded alongside the road - not a source we'd care to depend on. At one point they had no food or water for over 36 hours. Not our kind of hike - but you’ve gotta give them credit - they did finish.
There are also those who believe that “planning” mainly consists of “what gear do I take”. But you won’t get much about gear from us unless you ask specific questions. If “gear” was the ‘all-important’ subject in planning then that’s what we’d have been talking about here. But it’s not, so we didn’t. Bottom line is that if you’re not confident in and comfortable with your gear at this point, you need more experience before starting the CDT. This trail is no place to be ‘experimenting’, much less learning about your gear. It can be a long, long way to the next outfitter.
The CDT is a very different trail from the AT and the PCT. Because you'll be the one selecting your own version of your route, your mileages will be different from the mileages of a hiker who made other choices. You can't simply adopt someone else's mileages without knowing exactly what routes they chose, and then making a conscious decision to follow in their footsteps.
A hiker who does a lot of shortcuts and roadwalks may only hike 2300 miles in their journey from Mexico to Canada. A hiker who takes the longest possible route may hike 3100 miles or more. For scheduling and resupply purposes you need to consider which routes you'll likely be taking -- before you actually set foot on the trail. You can change your mind while you're out there, but if you assume that it's 90 miles in a section, and then discover that that's based on a shortcut that you don't intend to use, you could get awfully hungry. Or if you don't realize that there are three ways into Butte, you may be planning your mileage on a different entry point than the hiker whose schedule you are following.
For some of you - we're not telling you what you want to know (how to plan your hike) - are we? And we don't intend to do so. If it's YOUR hike - then YOU are the one who needs to do your planning - not us.
Created: Fri, 06 Jan 2004
Revised: 15 Nov 2009Copyright © 2004-2009 Spirit Eagle