2022 Backpacking Plans

[Catdaddy]

Between bicycling and day/weekend hikes, I'm going to be conditioning myself for a couple of larger backpacking trips later in the year. If I can get the reservations, I want to hike the Wonderland Trail at the end of August, but if I don't win that lottery I will head over to the Olympics. In October I'm hoping to spend several days hiking in the northeastern part of Yosemite National Park. I think my chances of getting a permit are pretty good for that hike (coming in via Twin Lakes/Robinson Creek in the Hoover Wilderness). But if that doesn't pan out, I'll try for a permit to do a section of the PCT from Willamette Pass to McKenzie Pass.

So what are your plans for the year?

[drm]

I got lucky and managed to snag a reservation at the Granite Party Chalet in Glacier NP. It's a walk-in historic stone lodge. It's one of those things where the entire summer's dates go available all at once on January 10. You don't actually reserve there, but you submit a request. By the time I got mine submitted, it said I was request #959 - so I figured I wouldn't get it. But they emailed me a few days later and said I did. Whoopee!

I'm not sure if that counts as backpacking since I will be sleeping in-doors. But on the way home I am planning a backpack in the Bitterroots, which I have heard so much about over the years. I need to do my search on a specific route there, in case anybody has any suggestions. I have a Falcon hiking guide to dig into. Would like to find a site like this that focuses on that area (and which is not a FB page ).

[teachpdx]

Early June - Cape Scott Provincial Park… northernmost tip of Vancouver Island.

August - Tombstone Provincial Park… way up in the Yukon on the Dempster Highway.

Just two nights for each trip, they are each part of longer road trips this summer.

And then back to the Wallowas for a few nights in late July, probably the south side… aiming for Traverse Lake and vicinity.

If I am able to work some additional time off, I have a tentative plan to second-attempt a 9 day, 100 mile loop in the Thorofare region of Yellowstone. We bailed in September 2020 on day 1 due to excessive smoke.

[Charley]

I usually take 5-7 days to hike a section of the PCT with my buddy, who is section-hiking the Washington length of the trail.

I'm hoping to do the loop up and over Steens Mountain sometime. . . maybe the fall.

And I really want to get back to the Wallowas for peak-bagging.

[Aimless]

I'm still gathering info and sorting out my plans. If I want a change of pace this summer I will probably head down to explore Mt Thielsen, Sky Lakes, and Mountains Lakes wildernesses. There's a lot of country down there and plenty of trails I've never hiked. I might be able to free up two weeks in summer to bop around southern Oregon.

I'll probably construct an itinerary for that trip in the next couple of months, then wait to see if the stars align correctly for it to all work out. If not, I can put together other trips on short notice that would take me into already familiar territory where planning is much simpler.

[justpeachy]

Most summers we put in vacation requests for a week off work at the end of July, make backpacking plans, and then have to change those plans at the last minute due to wildfires in the area we want to be, or smoke from elsewhere choking the air where we want to be. I don't expect this summer to be any different, although we'd like to get back to Glacier NP one of these years!