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 car in the parking lot in BFE nowhere Indiana. My heart rate was a steady 140bpm (thanks Fitbit), and it wasn't due to exertion on trail. I just wanted to lay down and cry. I don't know if I've ever felt quite so unprepared and in over my head as I did in that moment. It had nothing to do with being alone, or being in wilderness, or finding my way. It was all about the holes in my planning due to ADHD.

Backpacking with ADHD

The logistics of planning out a backpacking trip are difficult, and ADHD presents additional challenges. Things like time blindness, struggles with organization, and forgetfulness, are hallmarks of ADHD and make all of this more complicated. The importance of learning how to plan, your own skills and challenges with it, and how to adapt cannot be overstated. Effective trip planning can be the difference between a trip you will always remember, and a trip you will be paying for (in cash or damages) for years to come. Check out this amazingly self-reflective and humble analysis of one's own shortcomings in backpacking published recently by Eric Hanson here.

I'm a newbie at this, remember that. But sometimes a newbie perspective can be helpful. I have no experience to fall back on to cover for my brain's malfunctions. I just have to adapt. Here are some of the adaptations I've come up with. If you have suggestions, or modifications, or anything, please comment, cause I can use all the help I can get.

The "Packing list" you found online is insufficient

Another true story, I got my ADHD diagnosis when my PCP found out I used twelve different calendars to manage my life. TWELVE. 

I use a packing list, for sure, but I've discovered it has to be waaaaaaaay deeper than the one-pagers I was finding online. Here are some modifications that I am now employing (or at least testing out)

1. A "Default" list and a "This trip" list. I got this idea from the example list provided by Dan Becker in his "Couch to Confidence" backpacking course (which I highly recommend and will be doing a review of in the near future). The list has two checkboxes next to each item instead of one. The first is for "Include on this trip" and the second is for "packed." This is genius. I cannot overstate how genius this is. The man deserves an award and a pan of my brownies (my brownies are extremely good, even though I can't eat them cause keto). 
• Having a default list means you aren't recreating it every time you go to pack. You have a great starting point. You can always add things and remove things as you learn. Having the option "include" means that you can easily opt to not take something without having to redo the list (e.g., I left my little hammock behind on my last trip since I knew we would be hiking the whole time, so no time or need to have it for chilling at camp)
2. Sub-lists. I have a hygiene kit, a meds kit, a water purifier kit, a poop kit, a first aid kit, and a cooking kit. Are they all fully packed? Um, probably? (opens up one of them) Sure, looks like it? Yeah, not good enough. I have a second page of sub-lists where I detail everything that should be in each of these kits. That way my overall packing list isn't cluttered up with everything--I can just list "poop kit" on the main list. BUT I have a way to check and ensure that everything I need in each kit is present. Cause you know what's not fun? Forgetting your allergy meds on your 4 day trip. Ask me how I know.
3. Other lists that might be useful to you. I now employ an array of lists, not just the main list and sub-lists. For each trip, I have several notepad pages of last minute checklists. I staple them together in the order in which I will need them. I rip the top sheet off when it is done and cannot be undone. Here's what I'm using right now. Each list is titled pretty much exactly what it is for.
• What goes in the car: fully packed pack, purse, drinks/snacks for the road, downloaded maps to get to the trailhead/car stash (some of these places won't have signal) etc. Whatever needs to leave the house with you is on this list.
• What you need to stop for on your way: need to pick up some Excedrin? cash? a backup pair of socks? individual packets of mayo and mustard? Anything you need to accomplish after you walk out your door and before you've left town goes on this list.
• When you leave your car: whether you're stashing your car somewhere or someone is driving it back, you're about to lose contact with it, so whatever needs to happen with it better happen now. Put your car key in your pack. Take or safely stow your wallet/purse. Make sure no lights are left on in your car. LOCK THE DOORS. And so on.

Does this all seem excessive? Yeah, even to me. At least, it seems excessive until I remember how I felt believing that I'd left my purse on the hood of my car and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it. Backpacking prep is stressful, especially when you're new. Externalize some of the stress! Put it on paper, and check it off when you're done. 

Food

You know all of those pictures backpackers take of all their food laid out? Yeah, for me that's not just for the 'gram. This is the only way I have found so far to be able to keep my head straight while food planning. 

I do most of it on paper--I line out the standard breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack on a page for each day. BUT when I actually go to pack, I literally lay it all out, grouped by day. I then package it by day in ziplocks and label it which day it is (no that's not a big deal, it just saves my brain having to make another decision out on trail). I try to walk through the steps of making everything I'm including to ensure I have what I need, like a silicone bag for rehydrating homemade stuff, or a long-handled spoon, or condiments (brats without mustard = ::sadface::). 

I also have a separate bag in which I put misc stuff. I have a cool spice thingy with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and other spices I pick based on what I'm bringing. Adds 2oz weight, and 85lbs flavor. A baggie with heavy cream powder. Mini pot grabber. Extra lighter (in addition to the two that stay resident in the cooking kit). My electrolyte packets. Small handful of bonus snacks. Etc. And yes, of course it has its own checklist.

I do not go in deep on calories per ounce or calculations like that. This is mainly because I'm keto, so either the foods I'm bringing are already ridiculously calorie dense, or I'll be getting my calorie needs from my *ahem* ample stores. I'm just not worried about it.

Time blindness

This one is tricky, because there is planning, and then there's what the rest of the world does. I'm not as bad about time blindness as others in my life, but it is still a very real thing. So when I'm getting ready for a solo trip, I set some benchmark times that I want to have X things done by. I start from the ideal time I'd like to reach the trailhead and work backwards from there, sometimes by days. Doesn't mean I will hit that target, but it is a constraint on me and my inability to gauge what I have to do.

When you have ADHD. No matter what time it is.

Final thoughts

ADHD is a neurodivergency, not a disease. It's not a disaster, but it takes management. If you're one of the flavors of neurodivergent, think about what sorts of accommodations help you take your life from hard mode to normal, then think about how (if at all) that intersects with backpacking. If you have to have systems in your work to get things done, then develop some systems for how to plan your trips. Can't survive without checklists? You won't be able to survive without them backpacking either. 

To wrap up that true story at the beginning....

I had not in fact left my purse on the hood of my car, it was in the trunk where it belonged. I made it to my first campsite during daylight despite being over 2 hours delayed. I found water the next day that I could filter. I had not ruined my wife's evening, she made it home to hang out with our friends. And the trip as a whole ultimately was fine (well, "fine" but those are different posts). The state of my head in those hours showed me very clearly that using your standard out-of-the-box planning tools for backpacking were not going to be sufficient for me. Most of the 4ish hours I spent prepping and traveling to the trailhead are a blackout mess (hence me having no memory whatsoever about where my purse was). What I do remember still makes me feel sick to my stomach. 

Maybe I just had to learn these lessons the hard way. Maybe you do to? But just in case you can learn from other's experiences, I'm putting this out there to take some of the sharp edges off of your first (or 5th, or 85th) time out. I hope it helps.

Peace.