New Year's Resolution - A Blog Series
Part 12: Mosquitos, Cars and Bears, Oh My!
By Retta Witter, Senior Consultant, J. Geiger Consulting, Inc.
I am on my way to my first goal of becoming a 1000 Miler, doing the Lake Eleven segment. How do I decide what to do next? In my blog And the Survey Says, I learned that many people did it by doing day hikes, some stayed at hotels and some used bikes to help them around, so they didn’t need to get rides or bring two vehicles. My husband is willing to do the day segments with me which is always a fun adventure for us.
So in order to determine what my adventure will be to becoming a 1000 miler, I brainstormed ideas with my hiking partners and my husband on what they would want for the next adventures and they were very similar.
In the BABOK this process would be called Elicitation and Collaboration and is covered in chapter four. The technique is called brainstorming. The purpose of brainstorming is to get the team talking in a creative way to solve a problem. In my case it isn’t what I would call a problem, but it is a decision that needs some analysis. When brainstorming, it’s important to foster open conversation and take notes on everyone’s ideas. It’s also important to make sure your team members know that they will be heard which builds trust!
Based on the timeframe the next goal will be getting completed, the local bears will be much more active and it will be mosquito/tick season and those items were discussed.
Here is the information I came up with from those sessions.
Requirements for my next step in getting to become a 1000 miler:
2 to 4 nights
3 to 5 days
5 to 10 miles per day if camping OR 13 to 15 if sleeping in a real bed.
Spacing between campsites or parking lots.
Road segments meeting previously discussed requirements. Understanding the cars speeds and frequency of encountering cars is important.
Not busy roads
No more than a days walk
Not during gun-deer season! FYI. Many segments are closed during this timeframe so be aware, they will reroute you if the segment is closed.
“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.”
From those requirements I did research in the IAT guidebook and Atlas to see what items fit my requirements. Here is a short selection of them.
Options multi day
Jerry Lake segment to Rib Lake segment which is 43.7 Miles a total of two road segments 3.4 and 0.6 . This segment does have bears.
Sauk Point segment to Lodi Marsh segment 38.4 miles, several road segments a FERRY RIDE, total road miles between 0.5 and 2.5 miles.
Washington County segment forty five miles, 9.5 miles on the road
Day trip options:
Devil’s Lake segment and Sauk Point segments are just under forteen miles, but we can bring a picnic and have great views and pictures options. Use bikes to get back to our vehicle easily. The fall pictures at the top of the cliffs would be amazing. (this is part of the segment discussed in #2 above)
Sturgeon Bay segment – just under thirteen miles, many in the city but we can also have a nice lunch on the water. Use bikes to get back to our vehicle easily.
Solution:
Since the goal of becoming a 1000 miler is mine. I am the decision maker. I will just be finishing up a multi-day hike and have never done a day hike on the IAT. I am planning to do the Sturgeon Bay segment with my husband, early summer. We have never been to that state park and I think the Devil’s Lake section will give me some amazing fall views and pictures. I would like to do that area later in the hiking season.
Join me next week for “Oh No What We Gonna do?” What do we do when things don’t go according to plan? While writing this Blog I learned some information that will cause me to change my first goal.