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Trail Safe Trip Preparation
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On a hiking, biking, or climbing trip, we always augment our research with information found "on the ground." When we get to a new place, before we head out on the trail, we hit a couple of local shops and ask questions. For example: "Anything we should know about such-and-such trail? How's the weather? What are the demographics of the people we might encounter here or there?" We do anything we can to supplement what we already know (or think we know). Frequently, we stumble across local guidebooks that don't make it to national bookstores, or even www.Amazon.com, which we add to our collection.
Think Flexibly
That brings us to the final step for surviving within a chaos system—maintaining flexibility. The level of basic planning which I've engaged in actually gives me a greater ability to be flexible, because I have something on which to base my flexibility. A military saying goes something to the effect of, "No battle plan ever survives its first encounter with the enemy." No plan ever goes off without a hitch—ever. In fact, I expect that my plan will not survive intact, but so what? Remember the risk assessment—we know what are actual risks are, and we know the risks over which we have some control. Informed risk assessment gives us the flexibility and ability to do what we want to do how we want to do it. And what could provide more joyful spontaneity?
Details mentioned in this article were accurate at the time of publication
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