Anyone else get a case of "fear of missing out" when planning a trip?

There are usually several options, so you lean into one... but you also desperately want to check out another place, and yearn to get back to your favorite.

Currently leaning into a place for 2020 I've wanted to check out from day (1) back in 2014, but also feeling like I might miss out on some of other choices I've wanted to check out, or the old digs (Mudro EP). I think I'm still going to go for my #1 pick, but just wondering if anyone else ever feels this way.

The good news, is God willing, I'll have many more years to check out all the digs and explore the playground that is the BWCA.

It is great you are probably still young. So you should definitely go for trying new places. As you get older you can go back to your favorites. At 72 I can see time running out for me so I am real interested in new places I have been thinking about for some time.

All the time...I have always planned way too adventurous trips because of it. But have learned to enjoy the moment and not worry about what I might be missing—-gives me more planning for the future.

T

The struggle is real! As I read articles in the BWJ and post on this site there are all these awesome places that I would love to see. However, there are also places where we've had amazing trips, some a few times. At this point we only get 1 trip to the BW a year so it's always hard to decide. I've had the best luck laying out a few options to the boys and let them decide, whatever they want to do is what I'm fine with.

MN_Lindsey: "Anyone else get a case of "fear of missing out" when planning a trip?
."

Oh yes, I suffer from this all the time. Usually at this time of year I am starting to dream about future trips and I get all locked up trying to decide where to go. Blackhills? Iceland? Remote Quetico? I want to see it all.

The only FOMO I have is the worry that something is going to happen and I won't be able to go on my trip. Whether I am going someone I have been 10 times or somewhere I have never been I am always just as excited to go.

I always had a list of places I wanted to check out. I’ve made maps of places I wanted to explore that I never got to. But that’s ok... I got to see places and experience things that I thought I never would. Now that I can’t I have the satisfaction that I defied the odds while I could with memories and friends that mean a lot. One thing I wouldn’t do is not go because conditions weren’t the best. Just go prepared and enjoy what you can. If I have any regrets it’s not pushing myself sooner. You can say I’m paying for it now. But I have no regrets... I enjoy reading people like Lindsey’s posts with their desires to seek the unknown and go back to those special places. We’re the luckiest people in the world to have been able to travel the quiet places of the earth and experience our own adventures.

YES! This is totally me. Right now. I am the planner in our tripping trio. I love to do it. But I agonize about where to go.

We are beginning to plan for next year's week-long trip. I created a list of my top places... ended up being 9 different entry points with multiple trip options in each one. Some all brand new spaces. Some a mix of old favorites with new places along the route. Some in each area of the BW - Ely, Sawbill area, Gunflint Trail.

Both of my trip partners gave input, we narrowed it to three and then to one. I am beginning to do more research and planning for the trip we narrowed it to, which will include brand new territory and the possibility of places we have been to once.

And still I am unsure if we have chosen then 'right' trip. I know I'll let that go... Sooner rather than later so I can focus on the fun of planning the trip we chose.

We just picked on Monday night and I've been busy at work since then so I haven't had a chance to really move on yet...

I've got a bad habit of going back to the same lake, same campsite, same routine.

There is no better. Do what you want to do and you don't miss out on anything.

For the most part we opted for new territory. There were a few exceptions. When you live as far away as we do and only get one trip a year (or less) you have a slightly different perspective than people who come from the Twin Cities and can make multiple trips. At least I think so.

But if I could get up there to the canoe country, no matter the length of the trip, or even now for our cabin weeks, it was all good. I never experienced FOMO except for the year that Spartan1 was in the hospital with a blood infection and we had to cancel our trip altogether.

It's all good, however you want to do it.

MN_Lindsey: "Anyone else get a case of "fear of missing out" when planning a trip?

..."

Yes. Especially when road tripping. As a family, we have road tripped to National Parks from Atlantic Coast to Pacific Coast, Key West, FL to the Redwood forests of Northern California. Initially, it was painful to drive within a few miles of a historic site or site of significant natural beauty without including it in the adventure. (Try planning a week touring the Colrado plateau).

Eventually, you have to change perspective. Accept that any short trip gives you a flavor of that locale. A small taste might be enough to satisfy you and you will leave knowing that even though you didn't see everything, your experience left you richer. Conversely, a small taste might just whet your appetite and you will leave that locale knowing, you will return to explore.

It's a buffet: Sample as much as you like, Gorge yourself as much as you can.

There is a lot of things and place I would like to see and do.

But as I have gotten older I realize one can not do them all.

It is nicer and easier not to worry about the others.

Enjoy the things you can.

I've learned to get past this... only because it detracts from my experience (IE- I've struggled with it in the past and it negatively affects me). I use to have FOMO for the 5 star sites, and island camp sites, and the best fishing lakes, and the least crowded areas, and the exposed granite, and the best permits, and anything else I predetermined based on reviews and researching opinions. News- there are no bad sites in the BWCA or anywhere else (you could argue tent camping in an RV section sucks and I'd totally agree with you). There are no bad routes. You can't make a mistake picking a route or lake (taking into consideration time and experience). Take the site for what it is. Take the route for what it is. Take the lake for what it is. Too much to explore and too little time to go back to the same spot (for me- but I see an upside because you may be able to enter a deeper connection to the same spot because of familiarity). If it's something that I just passed through on a different loop, I'd still backtrack part of a trip- but going back to the same campsite- not for me.

The speed at which you travel through a spot can have an effect on what you see- driving on an interstate at 80 mph gives you a different perspective from walking that same space, compared to horse back riding, compared to biking. Basecamping on a lake gives you a different perspective than passing through a lake from a portage to another portage. Don't fear FOMO

THEGrandRapids: "I've learned to get past this... only because it detracts from my experience (IE- I've struggled with it in the past and it negatively affects me). I use to have FOMO for the 5 star sites, and island camp sites, and the best fishing lakes, and the least crowded areas, and the exposed granite, and the best permits, and anything else I predetermined based on reviews and researching opinions. News- there are no bad sites in the BWCA or anywhere else (you could argue tent camping in an RV section sucks and I'd totally agree with you). There are no bad routes. You can't make a mistake picking a route or lake (taking into consideration time and experience). Take the site for what it is. Take the route for what it is. Take the lake for what it is. Too much to explore and too little time to go back to the same spot (for me- but I see an upside because you may be able to enter a deeper connection to the same spot because of familiarity). If it's something that I just passed through on a different loop, I'd still backtrack part of a trip- but going back to the same campsite- not for me.


The speed at which you travel through a spot can have an effect on what you see- driving on an interstate at 80 mph gives you a different perspective from walking that same space, compared to horse back riding, compared to biking. Basecamping on a lake gives you a different perspective than passing through a lake from a portage to another portage. Don't fear FOMO"

L O V E . T H I S .

I felt that way for a few years but I feel every place is more or less the same. I mostly aim for the solitude now so I do frequent the same places many times but every once in a while add a new place.

timatkn: "All the time...I have always planned way too adventurous trips because of it. But have learned to enjoy the moment and not worry about what I might be missing—-gives me more planning for the future.


T"

My sentiments exactly. !!!

THEGrandRapids: "I've learned to get past this... only because it detracts from my experience (IE- I've struggled with it in the past and it negatively affects me). I use to have FOMO for the 5 star sites, and island camp sites, and the best fishing lakes, and the least crowded areas, and the exposed granite, and the best permits, and anything else I predetermined based on reviews and researching opinions. News- there are no bad sites in the BWCA or anywhere else (you could argue tent camping in an RV section sucks and I'd totally agree with you). There are no bad routes. You can't make a mistake picking a route or lake (taking into consideration time and experience). Take the site for what it is. Take the route for what it is. Take the lake for what it is. Too much to explore and too little time to go back to the same spot (for me- but I see an upside because you may be able to enter a deeper connection to the same spot because of familiarity). If it's something that I just passed through on a different loop, I'd still backtrack part of a trip- but going back to the same campsite- not for me.


The speed at which you travel through a spot can have an effect on what you see- driving on an interstate at 80 mph gives you a different perspective from walking that same space, compared to horse back riding, compared to biking. Basecamping on a lake gives you a different perspective than passing through a lake from a portage to another portage. Don't fear FOMO"

I was always glad for 5 star sites, because it put less pressure on those less then desirable sites. I loved to travel (paddle) but I hated being rushed. Soaking it in was more of my focus. I took a number of trips in Woodland Caribou PP and I could just about lay back in my canoe anywhere there and soak it in. It was so cool to me! I was at awe that I could be where I was and experience what I was experiencing. Toss in seeing a moose or a walleye dinner... and I feel I truely experienced Heaven!

I always fret a bit about the route, campsites, lakes...the perfect everything. In the end when I am out there, it's to late to change course and I wind up having a grand time!

Now I just fret about if is the year that I make it back...don't really care a whole lot about the finer points of the trip, I usually have my mind made up long in advance!

When I first started I did. I would push so hard to be able to see everything I ended up not enjoying the journey, as I have gotten older I have been able to slow down and realize that part of the adventure is getting there.

I have done lots of new territory and I have done lots of re-visiting of familiar routes. The thing I have found about the places that I have been to more than once is that they are never the same. The trip is never the same. The weather, the water levels, the campsites (even the same ones), phase of the moon, something is always enough different that I have to let go of the last trip and redefine what this area means to me by this trip - now. Sometimes it is magically better, and other times I feel a sense of disappointment at the loss of the magic I hoped would be there again and doesn't seem to be. I have come to terms with this phenomenon and have decided that the wilderness makes every trip unique in some way. It's my job to find that uniqueness every time. Sometimes it smacks you in the face and other times it is very subtle.

I have done past routes the last two years. I think 2020 will be time for a new route or at least adding a new part to a past route?

Yeah, I get it, or at least have it. Not so much for me as for my partner. I feel as if I have to try to cram in all of the stuff I want him to see in one trip, since I don't know how much longer I will be able to go with him. True, I am not all that old (61 in January) but life can throw you some curves, and I want him to keep coming back after I am no longer able. Maybe it is a control issue, trying to do the absolute best trip every time, but it is there in the back of my mind when I plan. Just relax, and take what comes when it comes. Now, if I could take my own advice !

Better to have FOMO than FOLI (fear of leaning in)