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CHAPTER 1

Trip Planning

BASIC TRIP PLANNING

Group Size and Ability

Activities

Location and Weather

Expect the Unexpected

Equipment

Food

Costs

Skill Development

TRIP PREPARATION CHECKLIST

Pre-Trip

During the Trip

On Your Return

ROUTE DIFFICULTY

Trip Difficulty Rating

PLANNING A ROUTE

Guidebooks

Travel Logistics

Choosing Campsites

Estimating Travel Times

Time Control Plan

LONG-DISTANCE TRIPS

Resupply Issues

BASIC TRIP PLANNING

Planning a trip requires more than simply deciding where to go and when. Whether it’s a weekend trip with friends, a formal outdoor program, or a major expedition, you need to evaluate your trip across a number of categories and develop a solid plan. One or two people may take on the role of planner, or the process of planning can be spread out among the entire group. After planning and running trips for thousands of people both around the United States and around the world, I can tell you that these are the elements you should keep in mind when planning any trip.

GROUP SIZE AND ABILITY

Whenever you’re planning a trip, you need to determine if the route should fit the group or the group fit the route. The group may have a range of experience levels, physical conditions, and goals, in which case, your goal should be to plan a trip that is appropriate for everyone. Other times, you may have a specific trip you want to do that may be challenging or require special skills. For this kind of trip, you need to select a group that has the right qualifications to participate. Here’s a checklist of questions to ask when planning a group trip:

 What kind of group is it? Is it an informal group of friends or a formal group like an outdoor education program? Are the participants friends, students, volunteers, or paying customers? Formal groups may have specific policies and protocols that must be followed.

 What are the goals of each group member? Are people required to attend? (This factor can have a significant impact on how committed or not the group is to the wilderness experience.) Does the group have collective goals?

 What is the experience level of each member? What is the average experience level?

 Are there people in the group with the necessary skills to lead and manage the group, or do you need to find other people to provide leadership? (See “Outdoor Leadership.”)

 How big is the group?

 What is the age range of group members?

 What is the physical condition of each member? What is the average physical condition of the group?

 Do people have particular health issues that could impact their participation?

Determine the level of experience, physical ability, etc., as much as possible before you set out. This will enable you to plan a smoother and more successful trip. More important, it will diminish the potential for dangerous situations. (See “Safety and Emergency Procedures.”) Keep the group’s parameters in mind as you evaluate the other categories, thinking in terms of both optimal challenge and safety. Be aware that you will often have a great range of experience levels and physical abilities, so plan the trip at a level that will be fun, educational, challenging, and safe for everyone. Think about the high end and the low end of the experience level and physical condition, and err in the direction of the low end. Gathering physical fitness and basic health information will help you determine different abilities and experience levels (for a sample form, see page).

Group Dynamics

 How are costs going to be handled—equipment, food, transportation, permits, etc.? If you have to buy gear, who keeps it after the trip? It’s really important to work these things out before the trip, otherwise serious tensions can arise later.

 How will leadership be handled during the trip? (See “Safety and Emergency Procedures,” and “Outdoor Leadership.”)

ACTIVITIES

When planning the activities for a particular trip, you need to consider the following:

 What activity(ies) do you want to do on your trip (backpacking, peak climbing, and/or glacier travel, for example)?

 What are the goals for the trip?

 What skills will people need? Do they already have the skills, or do they need to learn them?

 How do you integrate time for teaching skills with time for traveling?

Once you’ve evaluated the group members’ abilities, you can adapt your goals to an appropriate level. Plan activities that will be both appropriately challenging and safe. Be aware of how mileage, elevation change, and time for teaching and learning skills will affect your route (see “Estimating Travel Times,”). Start easily and increase the level of difficulty gradually so that everyone can be progressively challenged at appropriate levels, rather than placing someone in a situation that is beyond their abilities.

LOCATION AND WEATHER

Research Your Destination

 Investigate the availability of guidebooks and maps.

 Contact area rangers or land managers to get more information. Inquire about permits required, safety issues like hunting season, and seasonal hazards like wildfires.

 Talk with other people who have been to the area before. If possible, check their trip logs, which may have important information not found in guidebooks.

Trip Planning Questions

 How long is the trip? Can the trip be self-supporting in terms of equipment and food, or will you need to resupply? How will you handle the resupply—cache items ahead of time, hike out, or have someone hike in? (See “Resupply Issues,”.)

 How remote is the trip from “civilization” and help in case of an emergency?

 What are the trail conditions?

 Are there special places you want to see?

 Are there places you want to avoid like high-use areas?

 Are shelters available on a daily basis, or do you need to bring your own?

 Where is parking and trailhead access?

 What is the water availability and water quality on a daily basis?

 Are there safety issues—hunting season, off-road vehicles, etc.?

 Are there any special natural hazards—flash floods in desert canyons, wildfires, etc.? (See “How Accidents Happen,”.)

 What Leave No Trace practices will you need to implement to safeguard the environment? (See “Leave No Trace Hiking and Camping.”)

Regulations and Permits

Each location can have its own unique set of regulations and requirements. It is important to check these out in detail before you go. Here are some of the possible issues to research:

 Are permits needed, and how do you obtain them?

 How far in advance do you need to apply for a permit?

 Is there a cost for the permit?

 Are their any special regulations about rescue? (Some parks, like Denali in Alaska, may require that you pay for your own rescue.)

 Are there limitations to group size?

 Where is camping allowed and not allowed?

 Are there any restricted areas, hazardous zones, protected areas for endangered species, and such?

 Are fires allowed? If fires are allowed, will wood be available? Or will you need to bring a stove?

 Are there special regulations about Leave No Trace practices such as disposing of human waste?

Weather

 How many hours of daylight will there be? Check the Web at sites like the BBC (www.bbc.co.uk) or www.sunrisesunset.com for sunrise and sunset times and average high and low temperatures.

 How will the season determine the weather? Are storms or particular weather patterns likely? (See “Weather and Nature.”)

 How will weather affect trip activities? How might it affect the safety of the group?

 Will altitude changes during the trip have an impact on weather or temperature?

EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED

When planning a trip, remember that the ultimate goal is for people to have fun. Here are some tips to planning a trip that everyone can enjoy:

 Make a plan that can be modified during the trip. All sorts of factors—bad weather, changing trail conditions, broken equipment, ill-prepared participants, an injury—may require you to change your itinerary.

 Don’t plan long or difficult hikes on every day of the trip. Vary the mileage so that you have some days when you can get a later start or get to camp early.

 On longer trips, schedule a rest day every five to seven days.

 Make sure that people have some time during each day to kick back—to read, watch the sunset, write, etc.

 When hiking at high altitudes, people acclimatize at different rates. You may have to adjust your trip to give people time to properly acclimatize before going higher, especially if people are coming straight from sea level to a high altitude. (See “Altitude Illnesses,”.)

EQUIPMENT

Once you have determined your trip activities and location, you need to put together an equipment list. Sample equipment lists are provided in the Appendix, but remember that they should be used only as guidelines. Each trip and each person may have special requirements.

FOOD

It is important to have food that is both nourishing and edible. On longer trips, with specialized activities, or in different climates (e.g., cold-weather trips), it may be necessary to plan a menu that supplies a specific number of calories per day and stresses certain food groups over others. On any trip, it is essential to be aware of special dietary requirements for each trip member—food allergies, vegetarians, and kosher eaters—and plan a menu accordingly. Check this information on the Fitness and Health Information Form for each person on the trip (see page). For food, nutrition, and menu planning guidelines, See “Cooking and Nutrition.”

COSTS

Before going on a group trip, talk about how costs will be distributed. This includes food, fuel, travel expenses, and first aid supplies. You’d be surprised how friendships can get strained because people did not work out the finances beforehand.

SKILL DEVELOPMENT

Depending on the type of group you’re traveling with, people may have varying levels of experience. There are specific skills that people need before the trip, such as how to pack a pack, and some that need to be taught on the trip, such as how to set up camp or how to use a backpacking stove. There are so many different skills I use on a hiking trip that I find it hard to remember them all—many I just do automatically. Take the time to make a list of these skills so you don’t overlook anything (a sample Teaching Plan is included in the Appendix). If you are a trip leader, or if you’re just traveling with friends who are less experienced, plan time to cover the important subjects both ahead of time and on the trail.

For advanced-level trips, you may need to do a more formal skill assessment. For example, if you are going to be traveling across glaciers, does everyone have experience traveling on snow, handling an ice axe, and being roped up? Will people need to know special techniques like self-arrest or crevasse rescue? Sometimes this assessment is done by reviewing people’s previous trip experiences, or you may have the group go out on a supervised practice trip to review and test special skills.

TRIP PREPARATION CHECKLIST

Use this checklist to help organize all the tasks that need to be accomplished before, during, and after your trip. If you are going on an extended expedition, expand the list and establish specific timelines for each task. For example, trips to remote areas might require you to apply months or even years in advance for a permit.

PRE-TRIP

This is a general list of things to accomplish before the trip, in a loose chronological order.

 Contact participants and arrange meetings to talk about the trip (activities, experience level, individual and group goals, etc.).

 Make lists of necessary personal equipment and group equipment, based on trip activities, location, and weather.

 Identify potential hazards: environmental, equipment, and human. (See “How Accidents Happen,”.)

 Have all participants fill out a Fitness and Health Information Form (page).

 If appropriate, have people turn in a trip résumé to gauge their experience.

 Evaluate the physical ability of each participant and develop a route appropriate for all members of the group.

 In planning the route, consider transportation time, hours of daylight, time needed to set up camp, teaching time, rest days needed, changes in elevation, and other factors.

 Make arrangements for any permits needed.

 Develop a menu based on personal preferences and special dietary needs.

 Assemble the group equipment and first aid kit.

 Purchase and repackage the food.

 Meet to distribute the group equipment and food for final packing.

 Put together a trip packet with cash, credit cards, vehicle keys, maps, emergency numbers, travel directions, and the like.

 Designate an emergency contact (someone who is not going on the trip) and give that person your Trip Logistics Plan and Trip Safety Plan, showing your planned starting and ending points, daily route, campsites, and return time, along with the appropriate emergency numbers and instructions about who to call if you are overdue.

 Contact area rangers for last-minute trail information.

 Check the weather.

DURING THE TRIP

 Keep track of all expenses on a Trip Expenses Form (page).

 Fill out your Trip Log (page) as you hike so you have detailed information on hiking times, campsite locations, and water availability for future trips.

 Document any close calls, accidents, or first aid treatments. These should be reviewed after the trip. (See “Safety and Emergency Procedures.”)

ON YOUR RETURN

 Notify your emergency contact person as soon as you return, and let him or her know you have returned safely.

 Return any borrowed personal or group equipment.

 Clean all gear. Water bottles and water containers should be treated with iodine or chlorine bleach solution if they have contained potentially contaminated water. (See “Water Purification,”.)

 Dispose of rubbish and properly dispose of human waste if you packed it out. (See “Leave No Trace Hiking and Camping.”)

 Dispose of any medical waste properly (see page).

 Settle up finances.

 It’s good to talk about the trip afterwards and see how well it met the goals you set out as a group and each individual’s goals. Are there things that you’d do differently next time? Identify and discuss any problems on the trip, including close calls or accidents. (See “Safety and Emergency Procedures,” and “Outdoor Leadership.”)

ROUTE DIFFICULTY

Whoever decides to plan the route should first determine the physical condition of the people going, which can be difficult. It’s best to rely on some form of objective measurement rather than counting on the “Yeah, I’m in great shape” reply. After reviewing thousands of health and fitness forms from college students I’m still amazed how often people either overestimate or underestimate their physical fitness level. Assessing physical fitness ranges from asking some basic questions about health and exercise activities to administering a required physical exam. Base your degree of assessment on the level of difficulty for the trip: If the trip is of low to moderate difficulty, staying relatively close to civilization, then you’ll have greater resources to fall back on in case of a problem. If the trip is more difficult or ventures into a remote location with limited access for evacuation or medical care, you need to do a much more thorough screening. In some cases, you may even require a specific conditioning regimen. Part of making sure that a person is going on the right trip is giving the individual as detailed information as possible about what the trip will entail. Having someone attempt a trip that is too physically demanding can lead to friction within the group as well as real safety issues.

TRIP DIFFICULTY RATING

Wouldn’t it be great if you could look in a guidebook and find out how easy or difficult a particular hike would be? Unfortunately there is no commonly used system for rating trail difficulty. Lots of other outdoor sports, like rock climbing and whitewater paddling, have systems for rating the difficulty of a climbing pitch or a whitewater river. These systems are very useful for matching your skill level with the difficulty of the trip.

There are so many factors that can slow down or speed up a hiker that rating the difficulty of a trail is extremely subjective. Take the Appalachian Trail in Pennsylvania: In the southern part of the state, it is on a fairly flat ridge with good trails, then it moves northward and you enter the dreaded “rock zone,” where the trail requires constant rock-hopping for miles that slows down hikers significantly. I look at the following factors and rely on my own hiking experience as a gauge.

 Daily mileage

 Daily elevation changes—how many feet/meters you go up or down over the course of the day

 Steepness of ascent or descent

 Trail conditions (smooth, rocky, switchbacks, off trail, etc.)

 Amount of weight the person is carrying, as a percentage of their body weight. (See “The Backpack,”.)

 If you are over 8,000 feet (2,438 meters), consider the effect of reduced oxygen and acclimatization on hiking pace. (See “Altitude Illnesses,”.)

PLANNING A ROUTE

GUIDEBOOKS

I like to start with guidebooks when planning a trip. Since the maps that you would typically take on a trip are pretty specific (and buying lots of maps can get expensive), it’s best to focus on the general area that you are interested in first, and a good guidebook is indispensable. Most guidebooks will give you an overview of the area and some basic maps, so you can get an idea of where to go. A good guidebook will also have specific trails and trips described in detail with mileages, elevation changes, campsites, places to visit, etc. Since guidebooks are so regionally specific, there are lots of different publishers, and finding guidebooks outside your local area can be difficult. Whenever I travel I make it a habit to stop at local bookstores or outdoor shops to see what local-area guidebooks and maps they have. Here are a few of the larger publishers and sources of information you might check out:

 Bradt Travel Guides (www.bradt-travelguides.com)

 Cicerone (www.cicerone.co.uk)

 HarperCollins (www.collins.co.uk)

 Maps International (www.mapsinternational.co.uk)

 The Ramblers Association (www.ramblers.org.uk)

 Rough Guides (www.roughguides.com)

Once you’ve located a specific area, get some maps and start working out the details of your trip. (See “Maps and Map Reading,”.)

 See “Estimating Travel Times” to determine how long each day’s hike will take. For each day, establish a Time Control Plan that includes your hiking time along with other factors to calculate your total travel time for the day. During the day, monitor your Time Control Plan; you may have to modify the trip if you are not able to keep to your planned schedule.

 Use the Trip Logistics Plan (page) to help document your route and to give to your emergency contact person.

 As you plan your route, develop a daily evacuation plan and document it on your Trip Logistics Plan. For each day of the trip, know, in general, where you would go to get help in case of an emergency. Obviously, this information will change all the time, but you should know the area well enough to find nearby roads or towns or other resources in case of a problem.

TRAVEL LOGISTICS

 Where is your starting point? Where is your ending point? What type of road or other access is there to the trail?

 Is everyone traveling together to get to the trailhead or going separately?

 Is this a loop route, or an in-and-out route back to your original starting point (A to A), or a one-way route (A to B)? If A to B, do you need to get back to A to get to your car? Can you do your own shuttle? Or do you need to be picked up at B? Are there taxis or public transportation available?

Once you are out on your trip, keep an accurate daily trip log about where you went, what you saw, how long it took, and so on. This will be a great help in planning your next trip.

TRICKS OF THE TRAIL

Timing is Everything There are a lot of environmental factors that can impact your trip route. For example, in mountainous regions like the Rockies, afternoon thunderstorms are very common in the summer. If you are going to travel on exposed ridges or summits, you want to plan your day to leave very early and be back down off exposed areas by the early afternoon. Another mountain issue is snowmelt. The stream crossings in parts of the Alps, Iceland and Norway are legendary. During the summer, as the temperature rises during the day, there is greater snow and ice melt. What can be an easy low-water crossing in the early morning can become a dangerous or impassable current by the afternoon.

CHOOSING CAMPSITES

Trip planning is often done from campsite to campsite. You need to make sure that at the end of the day, you will have a place to set up your tent or tarpaulin that isn’t in the middle of a bog or perched on a steep rockslide. A lot of campsite selection can be done using guidebooks and maps. Select a site that allows your group to set up a good Leave No Trace campsite. (See “Leave No Trace Hiking and Camping.”) Unfortunately, sometimes you don’t have the information you need to determine a good campsite in advance, and you’ll have to locate a spot as you hike. More than once, I’ve looked at the map contours and thought, “That looks flat; there must be a good campsite there,” only to discover thick underbrush with no open spaces. Here are some general guidelines for campsite selection: