To Do in 2021

LarryBoy

Hiker Trash
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It's a BCP tradition unlike any other - the To-Do thread for the coming year. Let's hear about your plans for the 2021! One of the very best parts of BCP is the inspiration to get outdoors and make great use of our time. What are all you BCPers up to this coming year?

Previous years:

2014: https://backcountrypost.com/threads/to-do-in-2014.2671/
2015: https://backcountrypost.com/threads/to-do-in-2015.3896/
2016: https://backcountrypost.com/threads/to-do-in-2016.5420/
2017: https://backcountrypost.com/threads/to-do-in-2017.6450/
2018: https://backcountrypost.com/threads/to-do-in-2018.7301/
2019: https://backcountrypost.com/threads/to-do-in-2019.8240/
2020: https://backcountrypost.com/threads/to-do-in-2020.9026/
 
Hoping to make it to our grand Yellowstone adventure that was postponed from this year. We'll see how it plays out.

And We do have plans for the southern part of AZ and NM this spring---again, if it pans out.

Otherwise, playing it by ear in these uncertain times,
 
I don't have a super-specific plan for the year. I've got these on the short list, however a lot is subject to change.

1. CDT Argentine Spine/Grays & Torreys route
2. Ruby Mtns (I've had it on my list for about five years now and never got around to it)
3. Middle Grand Gulch
4. Allsop/Priord Lakes
5. Trachyte Creek
6. GET or PCT section (maybe)
7. Wheeler Peak (NV)
8. At least 1 randomly-selected coordinate pair somewhere in Utah.
9. The UHT east of Leidy. I know it's not reported to be particularly thrilling, but I do want to see it for myself.

I'd also like to log at least 50 bag nights in 2021.
 
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I didn't even make an initial post in the 2020 thread, but then I knocked out several of my highest-priority items this year. I've been feelin' my age and trying to visit the places that intrigue me the most. Here's my list for 2021.

  • A bunch of stuff near the head of Horseshoe Canyon
  • Lower Price River backpack
  • Suluar Mesa trails in the Book Cliffs (off Gray Canyon and Tusher Canyon)
  • Maybe a Skyline Drive trip from Tucker to I-70
  • Beef Basin and surrounds
  • More stuff in lower Nine Mile Canyon
  • More Arches backcountry
  • Chimney Canyon super secret sneak route
  • The Gulch (again)
  • Spanish Fork Peak
  • Santaquin Peak
  • Maybe some stuff near Desolation Canyon (accessed from above)
 
Lots of good stuff here. I had a pretty solid 2020 with six backpacks, since 100% of my work travel got canceled after February. I haven't made any real plans for 2021 yet but my wish list contains:
  • Rubies backpack
  • retry Spring / Nates / Cottonwood loop in the Swell, since previous attempt in March 2020 didn't go that well
  • No Mans Canyon area around the DD
  • Cliff Point and environs in southern Capitol Reef
  • some more Mussentuchit exploring
  • some Needles car camping, Lavender and Lost Canyons
  • Uintas, never get up there enough even though it's easy and close
  • backpack into the Maze using North Trail
  • another Sids Mountain backpack
  • walk Happy Canyon from top to bottom
 
Now as for 2021 ... Am Retiring. My last day of work it looks like will be March 19th. Then at the end of the month of March will be moving out of the place that have been staying. After this It will be living in wild and remote country or traveling by my bike, bike touring, in wild and remote country here in the Rocky Mountain West as long as I am able. There is still sooooo much wild and remote country left here in the American West.

Do plan on either backpacking and living in the remaining deep wilds like the Absarokas or bike touring and living in the remote and wild areas here in the American West. This will be either with Covid or without Covid. Do think how much our society has completely lost it and the 'Real World' is the remaining wild and natural world that is out there. In my opinion, our modern day society is a complete mess. I personally have for years have lived a very simple life with no vehicle, no freaking cellphone, no ownership of any real estate property, etc. For years have trusted the Grizzlies and Wolves more then most people, and for sure any freaking fork tongued politician or CEO! And personally do strongly believe that all of the world's indigenous peoples had it right like the Mountain Shoshones in old Wyoming, the Australian Aborigines, or the Bushmen that roamed the Kalahari in Africa, etc.

Some of the places plan to be with wandering in and living is in the Wyoming Absaroka and Yellowstone Country with here in NW Wyoming, the Southern Utah Canyon Country like the Escalante and the Kaiparowits Plateau Country, some of the Arizona wild country like the Mazatzal's and the Chiricahuas and more, the Greater Bob Marshall and Northern Montana Country, the Central Idaho wilds, and much much more. Plan to be in the Mountain High Country in the nice months of the year, with the desert lowlands and canyons in the winter. Then biking on the remote roads between the areas and still living in the wild and remote areas as much as possible. Every season will bring an innumerable number of choices and places to go to and enjoy. Plan to continue my passion of birding, use wild bushcraft ways and the wild edibles in living, being off the grid and being where it it is wild and remote. So probably will not be here much at all. But will be somewhere Wild Enjoying Life. And plan to pursue this path of living as long as I am physically able to do so away from it all. And it is all starting this spring come April .... Yea! Life Is Great!!!!

A couple of quotes along with This ...

From the movie the 'Mountain Man' ...
" Remember when we first saw the Tetons, one could travel a year in any direction with just your rifle, live good and easy, never say 'Sir' to anybody".

From an old Wyoming sign ...
"At The End of the Road Where The Trails And Life Begin".

Wishing Everyone the Best!
 
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Some of you may know of Russell Chatham, the landscape artist. I've never actually seen any of his work, but I did read his obit last year when he died. One of his friends in Livingston, where he had a gallery and had lived, said something to the effect that he always lived in the most beautiful places.

My new mantra for 2021 and onward is to live in the most beautiful places, whether it be for one day or much longer. Actually, I started this a few months ago and so far have spent a month in Utah's Bookcliffs, a month under the Tetons, and now two months in Moab (no tourists). Next stop? Not sure, but maybe at @b.stark's place, @Titans back yard, @Dreamer's, or on @Nick's patio - just for starters, as there are many more.
 
Covid wrecked my inaugural retirement hiking season, so I'll be trying to knock off some of the trips I missed in Montana (Beartooths), Colorado (Weminuche), Idaho (Sawtooths), Oregon (Wallowas), and Washington (Napeequa Valley). And some other stuff.
 
OoOOOOoOoo 2021 should be exciting and the first year I am taking control of my life. Woot woot!
  • Learn how to self arrest
  • Hike the Mokelumne Trail: Camanche - Pardee Section (29 miles) in one day with my full pack before March. Possibly an unrealistic goal for me right now, but gonna try!
  • Hike the PCT (I have goals within this goal haha)
  • See a cactus flower
  • Backpack in the Wind River Range
  • Choose a state to move to
 
Some of you may know of Russell Chatham, the landscape artist. I've never actually seen any of his work, but I did read his obit last year when he died. One of his friends in Livingston, where he had a gallery and had lived, said something to the effect that he always lived in the most beautiful places.

My new mantra for 2021 and onward is to live in the most beautiful places, whether it be for one day or much longer. Actually, I started this a few months ago and so far have spent a month in Utah's Bookcliffs, a month under the Tetons, and now two months in Moab (no tourists). Next stop? Not sure, but maybe at @b.stark's place, @Titans back yard, @Dreamer's, or on @Nick's patio - just for starters, as there are many more.
I do ....... Island park.....
 
OoOOOOoOoo 2021 should be exciting and the first year I am taking control of my life. Woot woot!
  • Learn how to self arrest
  • Hike the Mokelumne Trail: Camanche - Pardee Section (29 miles) in one day with my full pack before March. Possibly an unrealistic goal for me right now, but gonna try!
  • Hike the PCT (I have goals within this goal haha)
  • See a cactus flower
  • Backpack in the Wind River Range
  • Choose a state to move to
Out of curiosity, do you plan to make the PCT and Winds work in the same season? Or is that one-or-the-other or aspirational in nature?
 
Out of curiosity, do you plan to make the PCT and Winds work in the same season? Or is that one-or-the-other or aspirational in nature?
I was hoping that when I finish the PCT I can do a small bit of traveling. the Wind River Range is high on my bucket list and just doing a couple days there would be nice :) Plus, I want to check out other states and see where I want to move!
 
I was hoping that when I finish the PCT I can do a small bit of traveling. the Wind River Range is high on my bucket list and just doing a couple days there would be nice :) Plus, I want to check out other states and see where I want to move!
Two days just gets you in there....barely
 
  • Take the entire family out backpacking at least once, and hopefully twice
  • Train my kids to do more of the backpacking chores (setting up tent, filtering water, digging catholes, etc.) so I don't have to do everything
  • Do at least five backpacking trips and two car-camping trips
  • Either do my first technical slot canyon, or do my first hike requiring crampons (would love to do both but that probably won't happen)
  • Learn a knot
  • Learn a bit of wilderness first aid (I'm totally clueless in this area)
  • Spend some time in the Eagles Nest Wilderness and/or Holy Cross Wilderness
  • Don't gain weight
  • Don't fall off my mountain bike (I failed this one each of the past few years)
  • Organize my gear; get to the point where it doesn't take me so long to get out the door
 
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I enjoy reading about your various plans. It's strange for me - normally at this point I'd have a detailed list for the upcoming year that I'm excited about. But not this year. I love planning trips but have realized that I only like to plan trips I actually can take. Once we get our pokes in the arm - hopefully sometime soon - we'll be more willing to get on a plane and have adventures in the grand West. Maybe Wind River Range that we had planned to hike last summer? Instead of spring break backpacking in Utah, we'll hope to visit our young adult sons whom we haven't seen in many months. Or go visit our aging parents on the East Coast. Etc. The only thing we've got a specific plan for now is a February x-country weekend we can drive to near Lake Michigan. That will be nice, but I'm a bit melancholy at the moment. I know we are so very fortunate to be healthy and not struggling day to day, and I will make myself focus on those positive thoughts instead...
 
  • Take the entire family out backpacking at least once, and hopefully twice
  • Train my kids to do more of the backpacking chores (setting up tent, filtering water, digging catholes, etc.) so I don't have to do everything
  • Do at least five backpacking trips and two car-camping trips
  • Either do my first technical slot canyon, or do my first hike requiring crampons (would love to do both but that probably won't happen)
  • Learn a knot
  • Learn a bit of wilderness first aid (I'm totally clueless in this area)
  • Spend some time in the Eagles Nest Wilderness and/or Holy Cross Wilderness
  • Don't gain weight
  • Don't fall off my mountain bike (I failed this one each of the past few years)
  • Organize my gear; get to the point where it doesn't take me so long to get out the door
Have you been to Holy Cross Wilderness previously? We were there a few summers ago and really enjoyed it. :)
 
At this moment, I do not have thought about it a lot.
But 2021 will be more of a transition year with more local stuff. I will start going to places again in 2022, I still do not trust that COVID thing to be over next year.

  • go to Yellowstone and hike more of the backcountry( there are still 650 miles left that I haven't hiked yet, I did 450 miles so far)
  • Hike to Pine Valley Mountains
  • hike at least 1,000 miles
  • go on a long weekend trip to Lake Powell
  • 1-2 local backpacking trips
  • go winter camping
  • go to the Tushar's

Everything else will be pretty spontaneous
 
Last edited:
Some of you may know of Russell Chatham, the landscape artist. I've never actually seen any of his work, but I did read his obit last year when he died. One of his friends in Livingston, where he had a gallery and had lived, said something to the effect that he always lived in the most beautiful places.

My new mantra for 2021 and onward is to live in the most beautiful places, whether it be for one day or much longer. Actually, I started this a few months ago and so far have spent a month in Utah's Bookcliffs, a month under the Tetons, and now two months in Moab (no tourists). Next stop? Not sure, but maybe at @b.stark's place, @Titans back yard, @Dreamer's, or on @Nick's patio - just for starters, as there are many more.

Be careful, I hear it's easy to waste a lot of time in Nebraska. Also if you're camping in my yard, you will eventually have to interact with me, which is a questionable experience.

Far as my to do.... backpacking of about any kind. I did none this year. My best bit of getting out was taking my bike to the Black Hills for a few days in October (which was a great time) but I did not get into any proper backcountry. I'd love to get deep into the Winds for a week, it's been too long since I got back in there off trail, where I belong. I'm also not making any solid plans for the year yet, but I do have tons of things on the list. One definite plan is to do a lot of biking in Central or western nebraska, I plotted out a lot of rides this year and then didn't do any (other than my usual local stuff).

Ideally I'd like to get back to Alaska, but I'm not counting on that.
 
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