Brendan Leonard - The Art of Getting Lost: 365 Days of Adventure, Big and Small

Jeff Greenwell

YOU DONT ACTUALLY HAVE TO QUIT YOUR JOB FOR THESE ADVENTURESbut they do take enough of a time commitment that you might want to give your boss a heads-up a few months (or a year) in advance. On the other hand, these trips are long enough that, halfway through them, you will definitely find yourself wondering if you really do need to go back to your job when the adventure is over. A few weeks in the bottom of the Grand Canyon without access to e-mail, for example, can change your perspective. So can six weeks on the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route. If youre lucky enough, or diplomatic enough, to be able to get this much time off work and in nature, you might find yourself with a big shift on your life perspective by the end of your tripwhich is kind of the whole point on doing a big thing, isnt it?

Mike Deme

LENGTH: Quit Your Job

DESCRIPTION: If youve ever thought about riding your bicycle across America but werent in love with the idea of sharing the road with hundreds of cars, the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route might be for you. Rolling along the Continental Divide, the route begins in Banff, Alberta, Canada, and finishes in Antelope Wells, New Mexico (on the USMexico border), covering 2,768 miles of terrain, most of it unpaved.

On the route, youll cross the Continental Divide 30 times and climb more than 200,000 feet. Its 90 percent unpaved, mostly dirt roads with a small amount of single-track, as it runs through Alberta, British Columbia, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico. Its not only a challenge of endurance but also of route findingits not officially signed, and at times, youll go more than 100 miles between water and food sources. Oh, and you might see the occasional bearbut maybe just pronghorn and antelope.

Participants in the Tour Divide race start their attempts in mid-June of each year and finish in 2 to 3 weekswhich requires pedaling more than 125 miles per day. To ride the route at a more leisurely pace (and have time to take more photos), plan on at least 6 weeks (and add a little extra time to get yourself and your bike to and from the start and end points). Youll need a reliable mountain bike or cyclocross bike, bike-packing bags or a trailer, some solid bike maintenance/repair knowledge in case of minor mechanical problems in the middle of nowhere, and the fortitude for some long days in the saddle.

SEASON: Late JuneSept

INFO: adventurecycling.org

iStock.com/tonda

LENGTH: Quit Your Job

DESCRIPTION: Millions of people visit the Grand Canyon each year, but most see it only from viewpoints on the South Rimand only 10,000 people each year get to see it from the bottom of the canyon, on the seat of a nonmotorized boat. The difference? Many visitors spend only a few minutes at the South Rim, and seeing it from the bottom on a boat takes anywhere from 12 to 28 days. Oh, and most people who have been on a Grand Canyon raft trip will probably tell you it was an experience of a lifetimeluxury beach camping, 277 miles of river travel with more than 40 rapids rated 5 or higher on the Grand Canyons own 110 whitewater rating scale, millions of years of geological history, and no cell phone signal (thats right).

Most guided Grand Canyon boat trips take between 12 and 16 days and run April through October. Every day, youll ride on a raft or a wooden dory rowed by a skilled guide, who will ideally keep the boat from flipping in all those rapids (which they usually do, but there are no guarantees), and youll stop to hike up some of the dozens of side canyons that line the Grand. Every night, youll have dinner and drink and sleep under the stars on a beach on the riverbank as the Colorado flows by. At the take-out, youll very likely think it was the best camping trip youve ever had.

SEASON: AprOct

INFO: oars.com/grandcanyon

The Hardest Thing Is Convincing Yourself Its Okay

YOU PROBABLY FEEL LIKE YOURE PULLED in a million different directions: Work, family, home maintenance/improvement, yard workthe list never ends. Even if we dont have a lot of commitments, a lot of us find it difficult to take time off work (Americans are statistically very bad at it). So its hard to look at an adventure and tell yourself you deserve a few weeks, a week, or even just a weekend off to go do something in the wilderness.

But listen when I tell you that you need something to put in your end-of-year holiday cards. If you dont send cards, you need something to look back on at the end of the yearbesides all those commitments in life. Its great to do your job and keep the gutters clean and the yard trimmed, but no one gets to the end of their year and says, Wow, what a great yearI mowed my lawn every Saturday like clockwork! Plenty of folks do, however, look back at photos of their hikes, weekend trips to new cities, and vacations and smile.

You have to first convince yourself you are worth it and then follow through with everyone else in your life. In many circles, this is called self-care: the idea that we need to take care of ourselves in order to lead productive lives. Usually, self-care deals with sleep, nutrition, and exercise, but plenty of people will tell you that getting out of your routine is a part of self-care as well. To me, that means having an adventure, whether its for a day or a month. (Lets be honest: Most of us can envision taking a day off more than a month off.)

So talk yourself into it first. It may be setting aside a couple of weekends each summer for your own adventure dreams, taking a Friday off to travel somewhere new for the weekend, or taking a Tuesday off to go skiing or hiking. Yes, you might get paid for those unused vacation days at the end of the year, but there are few things that you can buy with that money that are worth getting out of the office instead. Its easy to get stuck in a rut where youre working hard for everyone else and neglecting the things you want and needlike spending the night sleeping under the stars or going for a long hikeso you have to recognize it and schedule some time out of the rut for yourself.

Now I know youre important at work and at home, but trust me, the folks at work and at home can do without you for a day or a couple days. Although its tough to imagine, one day the world will keep going on without you in it and will do so for many years. Youd be surprised what people do when youre unavailable for a day or two: They figure it out on their own. Yes, if you were there, you could have helped (or maybe even done it better), but dont think about that. Think about self-care and schedule some time for yourself.

iStock.com/wildnerpix

#3 Thru-Hike the Appalachian Trail