Top 10 Lists on the Internet

Last year my wife and I planned to climb Mt. Rainier and we had a wonderful time doing so over the 4th of July weekend. This year my wife wanted to do the Rim-2-Rim hike in the Grand Canyon. Unfortunately wildfires in the area have burned the North Rim lodge and so the area will be closed at least until the spring of next year. That makes it tough to do a Rim-2-Rim with one of the rims closed. Now we are looking at alternative trips as it is really depressing not being able to carry out our plans.

Today my wife sent me 15 bucket-list hikes in the USA. While not all of the hikes are in National Parks, some of them are and it is a pretty good list.  I like how it is divided into hard-moderate-and-easy hikes so you can choose them depending upon your ability. While I like the list, my bucket-list of hikes is much different. Yours probably is too. If you do an Internet search for bucket-list hikes, none of the lists will be the same unless one plagiarizes another. That's okay. All Internet lists should only be treated as a starting point, allowing you to cherry pick your favorites and leave off those you have done or know are not your cup of tea.

In my YouTube channel, I list a number of ski areas that make various top 5 lists. While one may think that I view myself as the absolute expert on each of the resorts, the real power of the channel is when others comment about how their list is different than mine. When it comes to the steepest areas in North America I talked about why I removed Squaw Valley, which is now Palisades Tahoe, from the list. I enjoy the friendly comments with others asking me to add it back. I also enjoy all of the other recommendations, which is why I skied Kicking Horse a year ago. The ski area did not disappoint and made it onto an updated list.

When you come across lists of any kind on the Internet, remember that they are not sacred nor infallible. Instead treat them as mere suggestions. They are starting points for you to create your own lists. My wife and I have a list of vacations we would like to take. As we come across lists of interesting places, we see if there are any additions or changes we need to make. Ultimately our list will become better because of the suggestions of others.

Vacation Planning

This morning my wife and I went for a walk and she expressed a desire to hike rim-to-rim in the Grand Canyon. This is kind of like her idea of climbing Mt. Rainier. While it sounds like fun, it is not something you think about and then do the next day. there is a lot of training involved and requires about a year of preparation. Even then, there is no guarantee you will be successful.

As we walked, we talked about the logistics required for such an adventure. Do we start at the North Rim and hike to the South Rim? Do we stay at the lodges on each rim? How long is the hike and what is the expected elevation gain? We talked through some of the details, most importantly that we would do south to north. While it is a 22-mile hike, the drive requires 4 hours and needs to be factored into the planning.

Most vacations require some planning and the Internet has become very useful for such adventures. In the past, you might have to go through travel magazines or books to find information. Now you just use your favorite search engine and all the data you need is at your fingertips. Everything from lodging to tips for training. You can even find videos of someone else doing the same thing.

We came home from our walk and I immediately looked at lodging options. Sometimes staying in one of our National Parks requires reservations be made over a year in advance, other times you can't make reservations until after January. Fortunately we can reserve our lodging now, provided we avoid a few important dates.

My wife wants to do the adventure with some of her coworkers and so she needed to go to the office to confirm dates. She knows which ones to avoid and we should be able to make plans soon. Now all we need to do is to develop a training plan. And stick to it, of course.