Round about December I'll start planning for our 3-week August trip.  The planning is getting pretty easy since we have more or less settled on WCPP as our general destination.  The dates are basically determined by the train schedule - I know we'll be leaving Toronto on a Tuesday evening and leaving from Red Lake Road well before dawn on a Friday so the total trip including travel ail be 26 days beginning on a Tuesday and ending on a Saturday. 

As to the actual route, I do consult with Harlan with what we're looking for and he offers some possibilities.  The great thing about WCPP is that there are so many lakes that adjustments to the route can easily be made on the fly but things like put-in and take-out need to be co-ordinated with Harlan.  And of course if we decide to fly-in or fly-out then that has to be planned as well.

I usually do a short spring trip and a short autumn trip that sandwiches the big one and after the autumn trip I go through all my gear as I put it away so that, for the most part, everything is ready to go in the spring.  New gear I might choose to buy or repairs that need to be done give me something to do in the dark days of winter.

As for campsites, I like to know if there are particularly good ones that we might want use as layovers but what Harlan or someone else thinks is a great site is not always what I'm looking for, so we get what info we can and then check things out as we go.  As for portages, it's a crap shoot at the best of times.  We go out in August when the water is usually lower so what might have been a nice little creek paddle (on the map) could easily turn into a major bog slog.  This past trip was a case in point.  I look at a 1000 M port on the map and think, "That might be tough."  Whereas I won't pay much attention to some little 70 M affair.  And you know how it goes (this past trip it seemed like in every case) the long ones are walks in the park and those little wee ones turn out to be murder.  As we're wading thigh deep in primordial goo through what was supposed to be a lovely, scenic creek paddle I often have evil thoughts about Harlan.  But truthfully, I don't expect Harlan to give me some kind of guarantee (although he's told me some pretty funny stories about folks that do!) If I wanted guarantees I'd go to Adventureland where all difficulties are obviated with fairy dust.