Trip Planning in the Time Of ADHD
Overhead view of me trying to plan a backpacking trip. I'd like to tell you a true story. Recently I did my first thru hike. It was very short by thru hiking standards, and I only planned to be gone for 4 days (3 nights). The trail presented a lot of logistical challenges, and I ended up planning that sucker to within an inch of its life. Despite these completely overboard efforts, my stress level as I departed for the trailhead was probably measurable by a geiger counter. I was so stressed I felt like I would vomit. As we traveled and things continued to go wrong (road closures, f*cking up my wife's evening plans due to delays, loss of water that I'd packed, forgetting to download maps to the various parking lots, etc.) it just got worse and worse. I was trying to remember so many things, hold so much in my head, I felt like I was drowning. I spent the first three hours of my first ever thru hike absolutely convinced that I had left my purse literally on the hood of my ...
