I used to be crazy in that way.  Not anymore.  Through the years I have accumulated a wife (who also works FT), three daughters, a dog, a cat, and a house (not necessarily all in that order).  I no longer have the time to be that far ahead of the curve.

I now specialize in an entirely different sort of madness.  It comes in the last hours before a trip when I try to do an impossibly long list of tasks in an impossibly short amount of time.

I am looking forward to the day when I will again have the free time to indulge myself more fully in spring winter fever.

We're OK.

I used to do that BIG TIME for a lot of years starting just after new years. Loved every minute of it too but these days, like Snow_Dog, I've accumulated similar obstacles and I always think it interesting that this site is one of those obstacles yet the big advantage of planning and reworking/thinking things is it keeps those synapses open and functioning. Visiting QJ everyday is a lot neater, gear clutter wise. It serves a similar pre-visualization type purpose. It's like studying a blueprint before you build to catch all the mistakes and what-ifs you can.

Now days I enter serious packing mode two days before leaving. There's a day-and-a-half eaten by seeking out and packing the exact brand and volume of whatever food items and this is another one of those things where whether it's a solo or group a solo or a group trip, it sucks the same amount of time as does leaving a marked up map for my emergency contact.

My biggest hurdle is still, as always, that I use a large portion of my trip stuff in everyday life so I'm always a highly motivated hunter gatherer before I leave.

For example, at the moment, my knee pads are currently under my elbows and the hanging ropes are in the garage loft. I wrapped and left them up there after taking the snow blower down last fall and they will find their way back into the food pack when that sucker finally goes back in the loft for paddling season.

As for maps, I have the Fisher E-15 general overview map on the wall in my downstairs bathroom next to the throne. Every morning's constitutional includes a review of routes past and future!

And my wife gave me an REI gift card for Valentine's Day, so of course, gear had to be reviewed for necessary replacements/additions!

DentonDoc wrote on Feb 18^th, 2010 at 4:45am:


I like DD's idea. I've tried many different ways to sling the line, but the way he mentions seems in my home trials to work well.
The slit for ridge pole is ingenious, but I found another use for it.
If you need a little extra heft, you can put a suitable size rock or handful of sand in hollow ball.

prouboy,
I believe Mad-Mat had a good thought regarding your throw rope
I know I changed my set-up after reading about it. You mentioned parachute cord. If its military spec, your looking at about 600 lb breaking strength. Sooner or later, your ball/bag is going to wrap itself around a branch/limb, that you can' t pull loose from. You won't be able to break para-cord, so you'll have to cut it, and hope the ball/sack falls free
 The solution is to use a lighter weight/shorter, piece of throw rope on ball/sack, sort of like a leader, maybe 40-50 lb breaking strength?  Strong enough to pull you primary rope thru, but if it hangs up, you should be able to break it off.
Still might lose ball/sack but at least you won't leave a long unsightly piece of synthetic rope flapping in the breeze for many seasons to come

Prouboy,

I did a test portage 5 times around my house to determine if my single portage solo system was going to work.  I even had the food pack loaded up from oil, fish breading, frozen food, to handiwipes.  Wife thinks I'm nuts.  I think she is.