we live in a pretty amazing place. a place with year-round outdoor adventures just waiting to be had. the problem is that we both work long hours and travel frequently for work, so we get outside far less than we’d like to. sometimes it feels like we are missing out on life in our town and the surrounding outdoors.

oftentimes, when we’re staring at our computer screens for hours on end, we daydream about the adventures we imagine for ourselves in just a few years, when we can retire early.

the yearlong staycation

we’ve both said that when we retire, we want to stay put for a year, or stay mostly put. we don’t know enough of the hiking and biking trails around us, or enough of the climbing routes, or the best places to paddle. we want to spend a lot of time soaking it all in, becoming real locals finally, and luxuriating in the ease with which we can get to all of these adventure spots. we’ll get stronger, fitter, more technically adept. we’ll catch up on sleep, learn to repair our car and cook everything from scratch. we’ll get outside every single day, unless it’s yucky out, and then we’ll curl up by the fire.

the van life

one of the things we’re saving up for is a camper van that we can travel in for extended periods, while we’re still young enough to live like dirtbags. we assume that when we’re older, we’ll want to camp more comfortably, and maybe at that point we’ll want a true rv, or we’ll just camp in cabins. but for now we dream of being able to stay out for weeks or months at a time, mostly off-grid, just taking our time getting to know places, getting lost in the woods, expanding our horizons. as long as we can have a real mattress to sleep on, we’re willing to be unwashed a lot of the time, and unplugged even more. we’ll camp, climb, bike and hike all across north america, and venture south into mexico and points south.

the southeast asian trek

we’ve both been to europe, and of course we love it. but we’ve never been to asia, the middle east, south america or australia. we figure we can cover south america as a part of the van life. but we want to get to all the rest, and southeast asia tops the list for what we want to do first. we’ll stay in hostels and air bnb rentals, and take our time, getting to know the people and the countries, the temples and the art. we’ll trek the himalayas, climb the smaller mountains, drink a lot of tea.

the great northern summers

we dream of spending a summer in alaska, enjoying those long days and short nights, the aurora borealis, the long hikes and climbs, the mammoth flowers and vegetables. and spending a summer paddling around canada, swatting giant mosquitos, dodging charging moose, staring at the campfire, and getting lost in the meditative rhythm of the paddle strokes.

what are the adventures you dream of?

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