Published with NRS Duct Tape Diaries, January 2021
In 2021, I predict that I will forget something very important for a rafting trip. I will probably forget a lot of other important stuff, too, but I will DEFINITELY forget some piece of gear or a crucial ingredient for a meal—or my pants—on a rafting trip at least once. Odds are good that you will forget something, too.
There’s the list, of course. That manuscript of itemized rafting gear which tells you absolutely everything you might need or want on a trip, be it one, three, or ten days long. It certainly helps. Maybe you printed it off last year. Maybe you’ve written your own. Maybe you’ve even laminated it.
Maybe you check it once, throw in the overlooked items and check again. Maybe you’re that one perfect boater who reads the list once and packs so methodically nothing is forgotten. Maybe you like the list because it lets you say things like, “See, babe, we DO need to buy a [fill in the blank].” But even perfection can be marred by last minute additions to the crew, menu substitutions, botched shuttle plans, and this disastrous thing called… life. (God help you if you tried to pack for the river in 2020).
Lindsay DeFrates 
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