When planning doesn’t pay

Growing up, my parents took my brother and me on quite a few trips.

Much to the horror of others, we never truly planned any of the trips. We always had a destination and a few things we wanted to see along the way in mind, but we didn’t have a set itinerary for where we would stay each night or exactly how long we would be gone.

Usually, our landmarks were picked a day or two before we left, but sometimes, we chose the entire destination while sitting in the Pamida parking lot.

I recently went on a camping and backpacking trip to Isle Royale, with my boyfriend, Brett, with plans to trek across the island. I did not have the luxury of winging it. And let me tell you, not having to plan a vacation, but still getting a vacation, is definitely a luxury.

The camping trip involved a ferry ride, where you had to book the trip back the same time as when you book the outgoing trip. The dates the ferry ran ended up adding a few days to the trip.

Since the camping was all backcountry, literally everything else we would need for the 12 days we were gone, also had to be planned and packed. The ferry also had a weight limit for our backpacks. I bought extra weight for the outgoing trip, because food is heavy, especially with the longer trip.

Brett didn’t have his things packed terribly efficiently, so I ended up buying extra weight for the way back, as well, even though we weren’t sure we would need it.

The beginning of the trip went well. We found the hotel easily enough, though it was late by the time we got there. We got to the ferry in time and the waters were smooth. We even managed to do a day hike out to a point to look at the water, after landing in Rock Harbor. It was absolutely beautiful.

The next day is when things started to go awry. It rained a lot over night, and we sat and watched it rain into the morn- ing, mostly because we didn’t want to walk in the rain. Once it stopped, we set out for our next campsite, with plans to stop at a different campsite half way there for lunch.

However, the morning rains made rocks along the shoreline slippery and Brett fell twice before we got to the lunch stop, which hurt his knee enough that carrying a backpack was no longer an easy task. Our break turned into an overnight venture, three miles from where we started.

The next day, some nice people with a canoe offered to take Brett’s pack back to Rock Harbor, while we walked back on a different path. Then, we moved our return ferry up a full week.

Two weeks of plans were then totally obsolete. I got in some more day hikes before our ferry ride back and all that showed me, was that I need to make a return trip to Isle Royale to see more. Brett had a book along to entertain himself while I was gone (remember the inefficient packing?).

Brett was sad he ruined my vacation. I was more sad for the months of planning that went into the trip that never happened. We didn’t starve though, so all is well.

Luckily, we were able to salvage the vacation with some on-the-fly activities. It sure was a lot more relaxing when we weren’t trying to plan our every move or keep up with an itinerary.