Aaron McHugh, Author at Aaron McHugh

How To Be Full of Shit in 7 Steps or Less

I can’t choke down one more two-step, three or seven step to smashing, success, and wild amounts of wealth or infinite gain. I’m calling Bullshit. Friends here’s the deal.

Some guy or gal figured out that they could write a punchy title that catches your attention. You read the article because, of course, you want to experience significant progress from where you are today to a light-year jump to where you would like to be.

Our friends with wordsmith titles, tight copy and deep promises pin prick a hole into the improved possibility of your future. The promise is awesomeness forever. Endless rainbows, pots of gold, rainbows, unicorns and leprechauns handing out golden tickets.

Really?

I buy it. I read them. I’m allured by the promises of hope and exponential up-and-to-the right growth. Yeah. I do. I wish the next micro-move I make would have gazillion x multiplication and I’d immediately be transported from the work I did today for a living to the work I imagine in my future.

Infinity and beyond?

Here’s the crux. In the end, eventually, someday, starting now, you have to have something meaningful to say, to write, to create, to birth, to invent, to alter, to improve, which lasts. Lasting results require substance. I think of Jim Collins and his studies titled, Good to Great and Built to Last. Fundamentally, these books were dissections of of how businesses, ideas and movements must have sustainable substance in order to last and make a difference.

Which is another way of saying, people’s interest is easily captured but difficult to retain. Do something that matters. Say something meaningful. Stop quoting someone else. Start by having something to say. Start leading your own tribe. Find people like you-who do things like you. Cut the bullshit headlines, catchy phrases and in-your-face promises. Instead dare to matter.

Making Career Decisions By Focusing On the Wrong Part Of the Problem

I felt trapped. My kids were little, my mortgage was big, my lifestyle was bloated and we had a lot of medical bills. I loved the work I was doing, but the environment I worked in was really difficult. It felt like I couldn’t afford any risk, risk of change, risk of not earning enough or risk of staying where I was.

I was stuck and corroding on the inside.

I spent a lot of worried energy scrutinizing imaginable scenarios, outcomes and career changes that I could forecast. I was really focused on trying to solve the outcome. It felt like, my career map was a series of dotted lines all headed in different directions, each concluding with an unknown. I felt…

Helpless.

Hopeless.

Anxious.

Worried.

Frustrated.

Despair.

Focusing on the wrong part of the problem

Start on the inside

I phoned up a couple of friends. One guy I’d known since college planned every move he made. He’d successfully landed satisfying and rewarding work for decades. His advice was, “You start from the inside”. Instead of attempting to answer the question of which company do I want to work for, his mantra was that I should start with what do I want?

I had spent so much time concentrating on my dissatisfaction I couldn’t answer the question What do I actually want? What do I desire? His wisdom guided me to remove the external questions about destination and instead focus on a different set of internal questions.

What kind of work gets me out of bed in the morning?
Do I want to dig ditches and work with my hands or do I want to be at a computer?
Would I rather start with a blank sheet of paper and build a map?
Or Would I rather improve or revise a map that already exists?
Do I want a lot of autonomy or do I prefer a lot of structure?
Do I want to work with a small team or big?
Do I want to be in charge and direct other people’s work?
Would I prefer to be an individual contributor?
Do I want to work remote or drive into an office every day?
Do I want to work for a mission organization or for profit?

Decide what’s most important to me

I decided to create a rank and order of priority to these key questions. You can listen to the podcast I recorded on this topic-How to Rebalance Your Career in Thirty Minutes.

Amount of money I earn
Character of the people I work with
Ethos of the company (what do they stand for)
Business problem I’m attempting to solve (what am I going to be spending my time thinking about all day)?
Relationship with my boss
Pace of life (how much do I want to work 40 hours or 80)

Even writing these questions out again a decade later, I feel empowered. Empowered to chart a course from the inside out. Starting with the answers that are deep inside is a lot more empowering than concentrating on the infinite possibilities of destinations.

Once I got clear on what I desired, it was a lot easier to decipher the external options that surfaced as I moved forward. The unexpected byproduct of this helpful exercise was self-confidence. I knew who I was, what I was about and what mattered most to me. Subsequently, as opportunities surfaced, I had a strong filter to apply against to help make my decision.

Finding your path to a well-lived life is a lot easier when you know what’s important to you.

Keep going,

-Aaron

Follow Your Weird to Find Your Superpower

Tonight, I wasn’t able to make an earlier flight home. It was 3 pm and my flight didn’t leave for 6 more hours. I put out a tweet “Need a MicroAdventure in Salt Lake City. HELP”. My new friend Carl Richards, The Sketch Guy, was himself boarding a flight but gave me a call.

“Aaron, you can go run Mt. Olympus or you can do one of the most amazing things ever and go ride a Swiss Bob down a snowy trail on Iron Mountain. Go to my house to pick up a sled and my wife will give you directions”.

DONE!

Carl’s wife was a sport. She let me come to their house, pick up a sled, borrow some gear and gave me directions to the trailhead. At sunset, I started up the packed snow trail in Park City just up from the Winter Olympics circle. I listened to a podcast on my way up from Rob Bell “A prayer for the New Year”.

Once up top the backcountry trail, I mounted the small toosh size Swissbob sled, cranked on the headlamp and swooshed my way down to the car. JOY!

Following your weird

Although it feels a bit weird to show up at a new friend’s house when he is out of town to borrow his boots and coat… to me it’s more weird to sit at the airport for four hours and drink too much, answer endless email and read Outside Magazine wishing I was in Belize paddling in a sea kayak.

My weird wires me to eat $12 sushi in the car after I stop off at the grocery store to buy Carl’s wife some flowers and the Sketch Guy a few more Sharpe markers. I’d rather squeeze in a few hours of possibility than slog through hours of aimless work. My weird fuels my joy.

Let’s get to you. You’re weird too. In fact you have a particular dose of weird that is good. But have you ever observed your weird as your super power? IF you thought of it mythically, like a comic book like one of those characters you have to call on if you want to make an ice bridge, form of a giraffe, “ What’s the reason I’d have to call you? What bind would I be in that only you could help me solve?

You have a good amount of weird and that perfect proportion of weird is what makes you powerful and the only you there will ever be. Follow your weird and find your superpower.

It doesn’t have to earn you gazillion dollars. It doesn’t mean you’re famous. It does mean that you’re weird is the perfect amount and what you choose to do with it will shape your life, your career and your play.

My superpower weird is leading me into more adventure, connection and joy.

Where is your weird leading you?

Write Down Your Goals and Stare At Them Every Day

Life can either happen to us or we can purpose to live our life. I find that by writing down my goals I am more purposeful about achieving them. I post them at my desk or laminate them and hang them in the shower. I have to be reminded daily of what I am purposing to do, become or accomplish. I want to direct my life.

As Henry David Thoreau wrote in Walden, “I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life”. The best way to get the marrow is to suck it out.

I made this podcast on how and why to create a Life List. I stare at it everyday and am checking off my progress.

This post is an excerpt from the Field Guide: 99 Ways to Navigate Your Best Life. Download the full guide here.

Trip Report: Controlling Outcomes and Missing Beauty on The Green River

Last weekend, I paid six hundred dollars to catch one fish. I joined sixteen other guys on an annual invite-only fly-fishing trip to the Green River in Utah. The Green is a life list “fish before you die” river.

After three years, I decoded that these comrades share an ethos that is unpublished and unspoken but forms a fraternal code of conduct. I like to think of it as, The Dembeck Field Guide of Green River Ethics.

After twenty consecutive years, the lore is rich. The guys like to tell a story about a fella who was caught with a stringer of dead fish that he clubbed over the head. The punch line of the story is that he and the guy who brought him weren’t invited back.

I picture the Hollywood playboy brother from A River Runs Through It showing up with his red coffee can full of worms. Blasphemy.

Rule #1: Do not kill fish. Catch and release only.

The normal ritual is to hike the river trail from Little Hole to fish the shoreline pockets and eddies. Even newbies land five to ten fish each day.

Rule #2: Don’t waste your money on a guide. Fish hard and catch a bunch.

This year a huge alpine snow pack was swelling The Green to burst her banks and blew away the trail.

To guarantee our normal fishing quota, everyone’s actions implied an amendment to Rule #2: now reading, …except when The Green gobbles up trail. We hire guides. Must catch fish.”

Floating The Green (Photo credits Chad Turner)

Drifting down the high-walled canyon, Chad and I, begin hooking into a few fish, but they wiggled off.

Rule #3: “Hook ups don’t count. The fish must be inside the net or boat.

Not landing fish sucks. My buddy floated through our hole to casually pluck out two fish right in front of my line and compounded my defeat.

Rule #4: Be gracious when you steal a fish from your friend’s hole. Pretend he warmed it up for you.

Chad Dreier “Mr. Thanks for warming up the hole for me”. You deserved the fish. Well done.

While we were getting skunked, I asked out loud, “What are we doing wrong? What are we missing?” Our veteran guide, answered, “Nothing. I don’t get it”.

Then I remembered, There are always two stories at work. I now see two headlines. The obvious story is “we’re not catching fish and we paid $600 for a float trip.” The less obvious is, “I manage my risks to maximize outcomes.”

That’s me tied up in the trees. Special thanks to David for catching my bumbles on film 🙂

Finding beauty

I’ve spent most of my life managing circumstances to maximize outcomes. I can see now how my fierce focus on results has limited my experience of joy. I’m learning how to settle in and enjoy the wild ride vs. trying to control how the story will end.

Thankfully, big uncontrollable rivers and small-brained trout invite me to practice the life skill of loosening my grip on life.

When I exhale into the moment, I’m discovering more beauty, rest and peace.

Thank you to the one lonely trout that permitted our net. I’ll come find you again next year

PS. the other guys killed it. Here are a few of their pictures.

Jason Dembeck our host and organizer of the annual Green trip

Jeff Dembeck Mr. “Double Hookups” which means both guys in the boat caught fish simultaneously

I think Chris may have co-authored much of the Dembeck Field Guide to Green River Ethics.

Form an Alliance with Consistency

A lot of people talk a good game about consistency, but in reality they have a lot of false starts. Why is it so difficult to consistently do the work that needs to be done?

At work
On our side hustle
In our relationships
With our health

I believe a major culprit is the endless choices we face everyday. We are constantly bombarded and enticed by seemingly better options.

I could go there
I should do that
I forgot to finish
Oh look something’s 20% off
What they lost that game
“Dad can you give me a ride”
New text msg
New email preview

With endless choices and constant interruptions, I can easily default to aimless activity. I’m busy doing stuff, but not actually accomplishing anything meaningful.

I believe that people like us want to close the gap between the lives we have and the life, work, relationships, health, finances that we really want.

Consistency is a multiplier you need working for you. Over time consistency produces a compound effect. Tomorrow morning you get a do-over. All the false starts, all of the mishaps and failures…they get erased tonight.

Tomorrow you get to start again.

Wake up.

Show up to your life and engage.

Do the work and make a strategic alliance with consistency.

She won’t let you down.

This post is an excerpt from the Field Guide: 99 Ways to Navigate Your Best Life. Download the full guide here.

Meet Mr Consistency-Dave Eitemiller running 48 miles in Zion National Park

Career “Success” and Your Lonely Victory Party

When my friend turned thirty, he decided to interview older men about their life experiences, regrets and life-lessons garnered during the decade of the thirties. His hunch was that he might possibly avoid some of their mistakes and reorient his life’s compass towards the right stuff.

“What is the One Thing you wish you knew when you were thirty years old?”

He explored this question with a college professor, his grandfather, personal acquaintances, and business titans, men who owned oil rigs and men who lived in humble settings.

Each man had a different tale of health, finances, career and choices. When it came to the topic of relationships with spouses and children, each man told one of two high-stakes gambling stories. Either they risked everything and bet exclusively on their career or as their career unfolded they played their hands wisely and simultaneously choose the people they loved.

The reverberated echo of advice for those who bet on their careers and underinvested in their families, “it wasn’t worth it”.

It’s difficult to maintain intimacy with the people you love when they are consistently prioritized to second place. They know when they aren’t being chosen first. I’ve witnessed a number of career “success” parties where the host is being celebrated for smashing it, crushing it, banking it, and usually depositing a big check.

Most of those victory parties were pretty lonely affairs when you got past the cocktails and big thank you speeches. There was always a beautiful wife and children, but in the edges of her smile were a thousand stories of second place.

I’m motivated to choose the narrow road of betting on my family first and let the cards fall, as they will on my “success”. I’m not sure what the outcome will be, my career may not reach its independent potential.

I’d rather risk betting on love and increase my chances of having a small kick-ass victory party with the people I love.

Read Forbes article about former Charlie Scharf CEO of Visa’s story of stepping down to change his bet on success. “My decision is entirely personal,” Scharf said on a call with investors, noting that he and his wife have “worked hard to spend time with our daughters.”

I’d love to attend Charlie’s career success party and see the smiles of his wife and daughters.

Don’t pursue a career in hopes of your family waiting for you to “succeed”. Your victory party may be pretty lonely. This post is an excerpt from the Field Guide: 99 Ways to Navigate Your Best Life. Download the full guide here.

Trip Report: Adventure Awaits Colorado’s Winter Backcountry Huts & Yurts

We weren’t sure if the wood burning stovetop would be too hot to serve as a griddle for our pancakes. Alex improvised by adding a stick of butter to the flapjack mix and poured away. Eating hot pancakes and fried bacon for breakfast in a Colorado Yurt is good living.

I think more people would venture into Colorado’s winter backcountry if they knew they could eat well, stay warm and rest. Don’t let winter intimidate you. You don’t need to be a polar explorer, wilderness survivalist or Jack London fan to survive a winter overnight trip.

Two nights ago, our seven-man crew skinned up the jeep roads and single track trails to our backcountry shelter, The Hidden Treasure Yurts. Staged in the last flat vestige below the upper slopes of New York Mountain, our small band of merry adventurers came to carve turns in the virgin Colorado powder.

As we scuffed and slid along under the weight of our packs, a convoy of giggling grade-schoolers zoomed past us on snowmobiles and sleds. The youngsters were headed to the neighboring Polar Star Inn. Their hot chocolate mustache smiles were all the proof I needed to convince me that winter backcountry travel is accessible to everyone.

New York Mountain Hidden Treasure Hut at 11,200 feet February stars (photo credit Justin Lukasavige)

Winter backcountry shelter from grit to luxury scale

Here’s how I’d describe the range of your choices when it comes to choosing backcountry winter shelter.

Jack London Yukon award: Sleep in a snow cave
Gritty: Tent camp
Yurt: Roughing it in a heated teepee with bunk beds.
10th Mountain Hut luxury: Let your friends believe you’re tough, but you know you spent the weekend napping and reading magazines by a warm fire.

Carving sweet turns in deep fresh powder with no crowds, no lines and no rules (photo credit Justin Lukasavige)

Getting Started: Choosing your Shelter

Yurts and Huts are terms used to describe mountain shelters all around the world. Not all Huts and Yurts are created equal. Backcountry shelters vary widely between just barely out of the elements to full-blown luxury accommodations. I slept a few grateful nights in a “Hut” at Camp Muir on Mount Rainier that reminded me of a nuclear fallout shelter. Here are a couple tips to help you find a mountain shelter for your next big winter outing.

In Colorado, Huts are considered permanent structures, often times they are gigantic log homes, outfit with electricity, wood burning stoves, nice beds, full kitchens and indoor toilets. If you love luxury reserve one of the thirty-four 10th Mountain Division Huts. Many of them sleep fifteen to twenty people and are as nice as anything you’d find at the base of Peak 10 in Breckenridge.

A Yurt is like a giant teepee supported by an exoskeleton-like wood frame, and are wrapped in an exterior protective layer of canvas or plastic. Like Huts, Yurts are also heated with a wood-burning stove. During the winter, Yurts are often located at more difficult to reach locations that can significantly change the skills and equipment required.

Nearing the Hidden Treasure Yurts in the wide open spaces (photo credit Justin Lukasavige)

How to stick to the green runs

Before you reserve a Hut or Yurt, make sure you understand the terrain and distance requirements. If this were your first winter backcountry outing, I’d stay away from approaches longer than three miles. Find a Yurt or Hut that is easily accessible from a well-traveled snow covered jeep road vs. a backcountry singletrack trail. My first Hut trip was at the 10th Mountain Hut Shrine Mountain Inn located just 2.7 miles from Vail Pass off I-70.

Taking off the skins and getting ready for the well earned turns (photo credit Justin Lukasavige)

Choosing Your Mode of Travel

You can easily adapt your mode of winter backcountry transportation to accommodate your team or family.

Hiking: everyone can do it, but not easily in two-feet of powder.
Snowshoeing is just like walking and easy to rent.
Skiing or Splitboarding: More difficult to just pick it up without some practice and preparation. If you stick to moderate terrain, almost anything will get you there.
Easiest physical option is to rent a Snowmobile.

You gotta learn to love the up (photo credit Justin Lukasavige)

Get Out and Go

The backcountry of Colorado is eager to give you a new flavor of adventure. If a group of school kids can get out there, so can you.

My cohorts from the Treasure Hut are a burly bunch. They’ve skied on Alaska’s Denali, regularly skin up Breckenridge peaks before dawn before they drive to work, run 100 mile ultra races and instruct Texans on ski vacations at Vail mountain.

These guys have chased adventure in winter for decades. We loved the solitude of New York Mountain, but we did wonder, “Where is everybody? Don’t they know what’s out here?”

Everybody starts at the beginning. I hope you will give winter backcountry travel a try.

Special thanks to Justin Lukasavige for being a good friend, but also bringing his camera and capturing this epic winter adventure. You can find Justin’s work at Backcountry Treks.

Justin making it look easy behind the camera

Destination: My Favorite Adventure Runs From Across the Globe

Some people collect stamps or guns. I collect intangibles like runs, trips, adventures and experiences. I’ve kept a mental list of my favorite runs from across the globe, but never written them all down.

I thought it would be fun to share my collection of favorite adventure runs with you. They aren’t in any order. They are all worth repeating. I haven’t included exact mileage or specific route details. Consider this list as a jumping off point to start your own adventure run.

San Pedro Valley – Valley Trail near SFO airport (photo credits parks CA)

San Pedro Valley Park near San Francisco Airport

Located in the hills above San Francisco Airport (SFO), this trail is within a ten to fifteen minute drive. I hunted for a trail while I waited for my brother’s flight to land. I saw the foothills above the airport and knew there had to be something good. Dirt fire roads, old paved roads with lots of rolling hills. Amazing views of the bay. I found this trail ten years ago and I keep going back when I end up with some extra time flying in and out of SFO.

Elvis Pawn Shop in Tupelo, MS

Elvis supposedly bought his first guitar at this pawn shop in downtown Tupelo, MS. A customer took me along on his group run at 6 am as he pointed out the pawn shop “look that’s where Elvis bought his first guitar”. This run helped me realize that you can find something cool even in the middle of small town anywhere USA.

Stanley Park, Vancouver, British Columbia

is a gorgeous paved waterway urban trail hugging the English Bay as it extends out to the University of British Columbia. Keep hugging the water as you piece together Sunset Beach, Vanier Park, Hadden Park, Jericho Beach Park to the turnaround at Fraser River Park. I used to cover a sales territory in B.C and this was a treasured find that I repeat each time I make it to Vancouver. The beauty of intersection of sea and mountains makes the Vancouver landscape like few places I’ve been. I’m remembering this to be a 5-7 mile run.

Rural Dairy Farms in Shrewsbury, Pennsylvania

Starting at the Hampton Inn in Shrewsbury doesn’t sound very appealing, I agree. The beauty of this run is that you quickly leave behind the Home Depot and hotel row and escape 150 years into rural dairy farms. Local farmers didn’t think too highly of my running tights and headlamp. The hills are steady and the farms and valleys don’t stop. This run reminds me of a scene from Forest Gump. You’ll see why.

London Tower Bridge to Westminster Abbey, Regent’s Park, Hyde Park

On my first trip to London, I decided to leave my hotel near Tower Bridge and aim towards Hyde Park. I basically meandered my way away to Westminster Abbey, paid my admission and then walked through the cathedral. Amazing! After I wiped a few tears, I started running again from park to park until I finished up at a Tube stop nearby Hyde Park. Taking the tube home enabled me to see a lot more of the city and not worry about directions back to my hotel. Now when I enter a new city I use running as a means of exploring and then I hop a train, subway or call an Uber to get back to my hotel.

Eiffel Tower @ night

My son and I spent Thanksgiving in Paris a few years ago. Our hotel was just down from the Arc de Triumph. Here’s a full post I wrote on our four days in Paris without a plan. Running the city at night was really peaceful and safe. The Eiffel Tower was light up like a beacon as the lights changed colors and danced in display. It was really special to see the tower for the first time all light up.

Kona HI finish in the pool after running the lava fields

Kona Lava Fields

My friend Kevin Lynch is a seven time IRONMAN, completed 70+ marathons and regularly bikes 200+ miles a week. Did I mention that he is in his sixties? Kevin is an ambassador of the Aloha spirit. Over the years, Kevin has introduced me to insider-only running adventures on the Big Island of Hawaii. This run was through the Kona, HI lava fields, along the shoreline of Kahuwai Bay, linking the wave crashing trails in front of the Four Seasons Resort Hualalai, up through Kukio and back north to finish in Kukio’s private infinity pool. If you want to repeat this run, you’ll have to call Kevin to escort you. Let me know when you’re headed to the Big Island.

Oat Hill Mine Trail Calistoga Napa Valley (photo credits Napa Outdoors.org)

Napa Valley, Calistoga Oat Hill Mine trail run

I discovered this trail when my wife and I stayed at The Solage boutique resort. I found this trail meandering my way towards the hills above Calistoga. The trailhead is easily accessible off Silverado Trail rd. Coming from the mountains of Colorado, this 1500 foot hill climb was welcomed terrain. Phenomenal views, well marked trail with lots of vistas to look down into Napa Valley. Here is a trail map you can download and a nice brochure overview on the trail.

Crater Rim Trail circles Kilauea’s summit caldera.

Volcano Kilauea Caldera Photograph by J. Kauahikaua on September 27, 1997

Kilauea volcano crater rim trail

I ran this course as part of a 10+ mile race in 2007. The race does not exist any longer, but you can still run or hike this course along the Crater Rim Trail that circles Kilauea’s summit caldera. The trail actually takes you along the rim and then down inside the Kilauea Caldera to the floor and back up again. Amazing, moonscape like none other. Along the trail are steam fissures, cooling lava, tropical rainforests and desert. Add this one to your life list. Here are details for driving to the Crater Rim.

Trip Report: Monster Trout on The Grey Reef- Wyoming’s North Platte River

Fish on! My wrist and forearm was fatigued from landing countless feisty rainbows over our two-day guided drift of the Grey Reef. Just outside Casper, Wyoming, the North Platte River empties nutrient rich tail water from the namesake Grey Reef Reservoir. Monster trout incubate in this special section fishery providing the perfect combination of temperature, depth and food.

Me holding one of the day’s prized catch

In October 2012, I spent two days fly-fishing the Grey Reef on a guided drift boat with my friend Bruce. We caught dozens of huge fish upwards in size of 21″ and 5 lbs. For fly fisherman, those are big fish.

The Grey Reef is commonly fished from guided drift boats, as public access points are limited. Day one, we put in and began our voyage at the Gray reef access area about thirty-five miles southwest of Casper, WY. Download this PDF map to give you a visual of the Grey Reef section. Check out Casper’s visitor bureau detail on the Reef.

Bruce and Cody staying warm in the October breeze at our lunch spot

Abundant Wildlife

One of my favorite parts of fishing the Reef was the abundant wildlife that we encountered including Bald Eagle, Antelope and pheasants. The land surrounding the Reef feels very remote and desolate. If feels like you’re in the badlands of South Dakota while you float through middle dozens of private ranches.

Happy is easy to find on the Grey Reef with hungry rainbows

Guide Service Options

St. Peter’s Fly Shop Fort Collins, CO
We used St. Peter’s for our two-day float. They are a little cheaper than the local Casper, WY shops but offer the same trip options. Cody our guide rigged every fly, unhooked our fish and rowed the drift boat through windy weather. Best of all, he stuck us on every honey hole he knew of.

Grey Reef Anglers
Their floats range between 8 to 22 miles. Full day for 1-2 people, guide and boat $475.

The Reef Fly Shop
Great information on their website about traveling from Denver or Salt Lake City. Their price list offers some additional options for trophy trips and specialty trips.

Cody our guide freeing one of the monsters

Gear Recommendations

I’d recommend bringing a 6 weight fly rod. I fished a 5 weight and after two days, I was genuinely sore from pulling in big fish. The guide services list what flies to use for each season on the Reef. When we fished in mid-October it was windy enough that we needed to wear a protective shell jacket and waders in the boat. Plan on fishing nymph rigs primarily unless you are late summer.

There are no stops or services available along the river. Make sure you bring everything you need for a long day: sunscreen, water, extra food.