Started a new job a few months ago, so no real quantities of vacation saved up til late summer anyway. I'll be lucky to get home (NY) at all this coming year. However, it is my 50th birthday and there are two ideas in my head right now. I have a cousin (also turning 50) with whom I spent many years in scouts and on family camping trips. He is a good solid woods companion. We have toyed with the idea of a birthday trip in the adirondacks, after labor day, possibly the Whitney Loop (or at least the Low's Lower Dam to Little Tupper portion). If he can't go with me, I am considering a long (for me) solo in the St Regis Canoe Wilderness, revisiting a trip I did a few years ago. If that whole idea totally fails (e.g., family emergency earlier in the year, say an issue with my elderly parents, eats my meager vacation day hoard), I would like to do a 3-day/2-overnighter along a stretch of the Neches River (Big Thicket area) near me in East Texas next fall (cooler). I could drive there and back (vs fly, with the ensuing travelling and packing/unpacking eqpt days) and use up just 1-3 days of vacation, depending on the associated weekend.
This time of year, here in LA, the weather is awesome, so i do more ground trips now, while it's cool... canoeing is more a spring/fall thing... summers are for NY... or staying here (indoors!)