Unintentionally, I've let 2017's adventures marinate for more than two months. Why? Because the beginning of 2018 has been so dang adventurous there just hasn't been time to pick out my favorite pictures and trips. Tough life, huh? So even though it's the middle of March here's our traditional adventure summary for last year.
What did we do?
We adventured in nine different states and visited 22 National Park units. We climbed volcanoes. We introduced new friends and family to the outdoors. We were swarmed by butterflies and awed by history. We pretty much did it all.
I adventured for 107 days. That's just under twice a week. Seems about right. I had human family (sorry Treen) with me for 46 of those adventures or about 42% of the time. That's an 11% decrease from 2016 and 10% down from 2015. That's a bad thing. 50% is my target. I'll definitely be working on that in 2018. (Treen was on 68 of my adventures. She missed out only when we were out of town or in a National Park.)
The kids and I had epic backpacking adventures on which I learned yet more lessons. This time it was that everyone has a meltdown and you need to be prepared to deal with it whether it's you or your kids. (You'd think I'd have figured this one out a long time ago, right?) I updated my Raising Backpackers post with this lesson and added a list of the gear we use on our backpacking trips tuned over the last decade.
What's happening in 2018? Given we're already two months in I can pretty accurately predict an epic bonefishing trip in the Republic of Kiribati and a crazy awesome winter camp with Henry in Mount Rainier. Beyond that, plane tickets pretty much guarantee adventures in Colorado and California. History suggests great backpacking trips, though injuries might limit at least one of those. Who knows... we might even see another crazy road trip or a tropical adventure to celebrate the 20th year of Moosefish. And plenty of hikes close to home regardless of the weather.
