Did a 22 mile loop near Bend with no plan and it was my best trip yet

Last month I mapped out every water source and campsite for a 3 day loop in the Three Sisters Wilderness, printed the sheet, and stressed over it for a week. Then my buddy forgot his copy so we just walked and read the terrain, and we ended up finding a better camp by a creek we never saw on any map. Do you all plan your routes down to the mile or just wing it once you're out there?

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hernandez.ben14d ago

My planning spreadsheet has gotten so extra that it has its own backup spreadsheet, which is a sentence I am not proud to type out. Last season I spent two nights before a trip color coding water sources, then left the whole folder on my kitchen table and hiked the whole thing off a gas station map. The funniest part is the unplanned version went fine, and the one time I followed my perfect plan to the letter I still got rained on for 14 hours straight. These days I do a light version, I mark the big stuff like water and bail out points, then let the day decide the rest. Reading terrain as you go is a real skill and it sounds like you two already have it. Worst case you walk a couple extra miles, which beats staring at a printed sheet while a creek you never marked is sitting right there.

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