Ready to go

Sunday, March 19, 2006

Well...getting close to my departure time. Today is the first time I’m excited about the trip. I’ve been so busy at work and getting ready for the trip that I haven’t had a chance to really think about it. I just finished packing and there is not much left to do now. This is my first ever blog entry and my last from Seattle for the next month.

A lot of people ask me what I’m taking for a trip like this. Answer: as little as possible. I made a brief inventory as I packed. Here’s what I’m taking:

• A dozen books
• A rough draft of my novel
• “Old Blue” my old Camp Trails pack
• Sleeping bag, 40 degree F Lafuma 800 Extreme
• 5 pairs of socks
• 5 boxers
• Hiking boots
• Teva sandals
• Two nylon “stuff sacks”
• 3 Eagle Creek “Cube” organizers (for clothes)
• 1 long sleeve button-up shirt
• 1 short sleeve button-up shirt
• 3 T-shirts
• “Old Yellow” travel towel
• 1 Sweater
• 2 pair North Face travel/hiking pants (the kind that convert to shorts)
• 1 pair blue jeans
• Digital camera (Canon Power Shot A620)
• Usual bathroom stuff (toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, soap, etc.)
• Flashlight (mini-mag light)
• Mosquito coils
• Mosquito repellant
• Potable Aqua brand water purification tablets
• Daypack
• 1 roll toilet paper (very important!)
• Notebooks, pens, highlighters
• 1 magazine (current issue of Outside)
• Money belt

It all weighs in at just under 40 lbs. 40lbs is a little heavy. The usual travel rule for backpackers is to “travel light”. Right at the top of the list I’m violating that rule with the 12 books I’m bringing with me. Well, this is a research trip, so the books are needed, but when I picked up my fully loaded pack for the first time I was temped to chuck them.



A couple of the items on the list are veteran traveling companions of mine. “Old Yellow” is a small terry-cloth towel I found at a campground in Greece in 2001. When I found “Old Yellow” I had been traveling in Europe for about three weeks with out a towel. I had been using t-shirts to dry myself off so having an actual towel to use was a major step up. It has been with me on every trip I’ve been on since. “Old Blue is a backpack I brought out of retirement for this trip. These days my usual pack of choice for camping and travel is my Arc'teryx Bora 80, but for my trip to Afghanistan I didn’t want to take anything really nice with me because I have to be aware of the possibility of being robbed. I bought “Old Blue” back in 1991 for a nine-month trip to Australia and SE Asia. It was an OK bag at the time, but these days it’s two external aluminum stays and minimal padding it's not the first bag I normally reach for.