mattj
blatant Nintendo fanboy
I know there's a thread in Firebot, but there is a serious discussion to be had.
Did you have any plans for last year? How did those go? Did you achieve your goals? What did you do to achieve them?
Do you have any plans for this new year? What are they? Why? How will you go about achieving them? What steps are you taking right now to assure you'll meet your goal? How would you rate your chances of achieving your goal? How soon do you think you'll achieve it?
At the very end of 2012 I bought a starter raft and tried floating with my daughter. She loved it so much that I quickly made plans to float the entire Meramec River, from the huge spring where it starts all 229 miles to where it dumps into the Mississippi River. Using googlemaps and online guides, I broke the entire river into 1, or 2, or 3 day float trips. Every warm weekend, starting in February 2013 , we tackled 1 section at a time. In early November we floated the final section. We'd done it! I am incredibly proud of my 6 year old daughter (5 when we started!) for roughing it with Dad the whole time. Sleeping outdoors, hiking and setting up and taking down camp. I'll never forget those trips for the rest of my life.
This year I'm planning to float 3 smaller, clearer, prettier, more remote rivers with my daughter. All rivers start out so beautiful and clear, but after so many miles any river gets full of sediment and the landscape gets flat and urbanized and just boring. So this year we're going to focus on 3 smaller rivers in our state (Missouri) that are all entirely national parks and protected conservation land. We'll float the Jack's Fork River, the Current River, and the 11 Point River.
Also, instead of breaking it up and spreading it out over the whole year, I think we'll do it in 3 trips. Two 45 mile floats and an 80-100 mile float. We both love to be outdoors, camping and floating and fishing and swimming and just exploring every cave and spring and beach. But floating one huge river was just too much.
What I'll do to prepare is to get on googlemaps again and check any guides and blogs from people who have been there to figure out where the best put in, camping, and take out spots will be. I'll then have to figure out what time of year I'll be shooting for for each trip. The Current River has enough springs to be floated any time of the year, but the 11 Point and Jack's Fork are smaller and I'll probably have to do both of them early in the spring as soon as it warms up. Thankfully, they're both merely 3 day trips so any weekend that I can get a Friday and Monday off will do. As for gear, I should have all of that ready. I bought a new canoe, a very nice one that's very stable. I've got the seats set up in it and have made sure all my camping gear will fit. So preparation wise, all I've got to do is luck into a good weekend (weather wise) to get 2 vacation days off, and map out each put in and take out point. I'll also take the time to memorize every bend and obstacle right before we leave.
There's a 100% chance that we'll achieve these goals this year. I have no doubt. We tackled a much larger river last year with worse gear. The only challenge will be the length of the trips. We've only been on one 3 day float before and we've got two 3 day floats and probably a 5 or 6 day float planned for this year. My daughter did fine on every single float last year, so I'm sure she'll do fine on these too.
So that's my goal, to float the Jack's Fork, 11 Point, and Current River (at least the protected conservation areas) by the end of the year. What about you?
Did you have any plans for last year? How did those go? Did you achieve your goals? What did you do to achieve them?
Do you have any plans for this new year? What are they? Why? How will you go about achieving them? What steps are you taking right now to assure you'll meet your goal? How would you rate your chances of achieving your goal? How soon do you think you'll achieve it?
At the very end of 2012 I bought a starter raft and tried floating with my daughter. She loved it so much that I quickly made plans to float the entire Meramec River, from the huge spring where it starts all 229 miles to where it dumps into the Mississippi River. Using googlemaps and online guides, I broke the entire river into 1, or 2, or 3 day float trips. Every warm weekend, starting in February 2013 , we tackled 1 section at a time. In early November we floated the final section. We'd done it! I am incredibly proud of my 6 year old daughter (5 when we started!) for roughing it with Dad the whole time. Sleeping outdoors, hiking and setting up and taking down camp. I'll never forget those trips for the rest of my life.
This year I'm planning to float 3 smaller, clearer, prettier, more remote rivers with my daughter. All rivers start out so beautiful and clear, but after so many miles any river gets full of sediment and the landscape gets flat and urbanized and just boring. So this year we're going to focus on 3 smaller rivers in our state (Missouri) that are all entirely national parks and protected conservation land. We'll float the Jack's Fork River, the Current River, and the 11 Point River.
Also, instead of breaking it up and spreading it out over the whole year, I think we'll do it in 3 trips. Two 45 mile floats and an 80-100 mile float. We both love to be outdoors, camping and floating and fishing and swimming and just exploring every cave and spring and beach. But floating one huge river was just too much.
What I'll do to prepare is to get on googlemaps again and check any guides and blogs from people who have been there to figure out where the best put in, camping, and take out spots will be. I'll then have to figure out what time of year I'll be shooting for for each trip. The Current River has enough springs to be floated any time of the year, but the 11 Point and Jack's Fork are smaller and I'll probably have to do both of them early in the spring as soon as it warms up. Thankfully, they're both merely 3 day trips so any weekend that I can get a Friday and Monday off will do. As for gear, I should have all of that ready. I bought a new canoe, a very nice one that's very stable. I've got the seats set up in it and have made sure all my camping gear will fit. So preparation wise, all I've got to do is luck into a good weekend (weather wise) to get 2 vacation days off, and map out each put in and take out point. I'll also take the time to memorize every bend and obstacle right before we leave.
There's a 100% chance that we'll achieve these goals this year. I have no doubt. We tackled a much larger river last year with worse gear. The only challenge will be the length of the trips. We've only been on one 3 day float before and we've got two 3 day floats and probably a 5 or 6 day float planned for this year. My daughter did fine on every single float last year, so I'm sure she'll do fine on these too.
So that's my goal, to float the Jack's Fork, 11 Point, and Current River (at least the protected conservation areas) by the end of the year. What about you?
