I started off just planning to have a look for any descriptions of the Milford Track, or the Routeburn, or one of those other tracks in New Zealand that are so well known – just to get an idea what they’re each like, how long they are, and how busy they are. Then I turned up a National Geographic list of the Best! Hikes! Ever! And then I started reading about the Kungsladen in the far north of Sweden…
“In the extreme north of Sweden, a hundred miles (160 kilometers) inside the Arctic Circle, hides the last remote wilderness in Western Europe. This is Lapland, and through it runs Kungsleden, the “King of Trails,” a 275-mile (443-kilometer) route through an expansive landscape of birch forests, hidden glaciers, powerful rivers, and the highest mountains in Sweden. The sheer scale of the Kungsleden hits home when, at the end of a 16-mile (26-kilometer) day, you realize you’ve only traversed half of the undulating, glacier-carved valley that you dropped into that morning.”
And started thinking – well, that would be fun to do. And then someone mentioned the Cirque of the Unclimbables, in Canada’s Northwest Territories, with the unforgettable Lotus Flower Tower route, and I spend half an hour staring at photos and route descriptions and trip reports, pondering how I could afford to pay for a share of the charter plane to get there.
And then someone links me to the blog Up In Alaska, and I sit there reading and reading and thinking “Wow, snow biking in Alaska! That sounds like lots of fun! I should start biking in the snow more often. Maybe I can do it when it gets cold and I can’t get distracted by all these other activities there are to do in the Rockies in Summer (hiking, climbing and that sort of thing). And I could get a Pugsley! And have a fat wheel bike! I’ll fit in in somewhere between all the telemarking I want to do, and backcountry touring, and ice climbing…. So many things to do, and places to go (and the luxury to be able to choose to do the things that fascinate you – provided you can actually find the money).