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Packing Light

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I saw a camper for sale by the side of the road yesterday and thought for a moment about what it might mean to own such a thing. That’s about as far as I can go into the wilderness – the few moments spent wondering about something I would take with me if I ever went there.

As we have already discussed on Trail Baboon, I’m not a survivalist. I do love unspoiled places – so much so I stay out of them so they can remain unspoilt.

Vintage_Campers

The camper in question wasn’t huge. You could take it into the deep woods and perhaps maintain a level of comfort at mealtime and bedtime. The rest would be a truly natural experience, I suppose, except for the necessary gas and electric hookups. And the grocery bags full of food. Although I’d like to be self sufficient enough to feed myself from the land, I have not yet learned how to bag a wild potato chip.

This love of creature comforts is something I have always attributed to my Western upbringing, so I was relieved to read Paul Salopek’s latest post from his seven-year-long project to walk from the Rift Valley in East Africa to the southernmost tip of South America. He writes about his guide and companion, an endearing, frustrating man who packs heavy.

I get the romance and allure of built into the idea that you can toss a toothbrush and a change of clothes in a sack, sling it over your shoulder, and head out to feel absolutely at home anywhere in the world. I admire people who pack light, and for a time I thought I was one of them until I realized that I was really expecting my wife to be prepared so I didn’t have to be. Uncomfortable fact: If she stopped sharing her nail clippers and Tylenol, I wouldn’t be able to leave town.

What are the must-haves when pack for a journey?

66 thoughts on “Packing Light”

  1. Comfortable shoes (this time of year, that means sandals!) and a toothbrush, in that order, are the two must have items. All of the rest is negotiable.

    I’m a light packer, and since I rarely go anywhere where I need to pack for a dinner at a fancy restaurant, what I pack is usually aimed at being able to don something clean with some regularity. For a three week trip to Mexico in February, here’s what I’d pack: Toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, deodorant, shampoo, moisturizer, suntan lotion, nail clipper and a comb. I’d have to bring along my blood pressure meds and some Tylenol, just in case. We stay in a private home, so I don’t need to worry about bedding or towels, and we have access to laundry facilities. Leaving Minnesota in February, whatever I’m wearing for the trip suffices to cover whatever I might need for warmth. Sandals, a few changes of underwear, two pairs of shorts, a pair of jeans, a skirt, and 4 or 5 T-shirts or blouses. A book or two, plus my iPod. I usually pack an assortment of small gifts that I can give to Adriana who cleans the house every other day, and other locals who cross our paths in a friendly and helpful way. That should do it! Chances are I’ll return home having never used the skirt, the jeans, at least one T-shirt, and the comb. Life is pretty simple as we live it in Kino Bay.

    Traveling as much as she does, I can’t wait to see what all vs brings on her trips, which I’m sure are a lot more complicated than mine.

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    1. I’m not even going to try to guess what tim, the other frequent traveler in the baboon group, packs. I do hope he tells us.

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  2. RISE AND SHINE BABOONS!

    PJ and I have similar packing strategies. This will be a good packing list for our Big Trip in April. We like to stay in rental apartments with cooking facilities and laundry available–it cuts down the need for clothing.

    Personal items: cosmetics and meds. Deoderant. Ibuprofen, hand sanitizer

    Miscellany: Flashlight, drawing and art supplies (minimal), money pouches to hang around neck, passport, extra bag to drag home all the stuff I don’t need but that I bought anyway (Note to self–when in Scotland DO NOT PURCHASE HAGGUS)

    Gadgets: phone, iPad, iPod, camera

    Clothing: 1 skirt or dress, rarely used, 5 pr underwear, 3 pair shorts or jeans depending on weather, fleece jacket, 1 or 2 sweaters, 2-3 turtlenecks, lots of socks, 2-3 pr shoes or sandalsdepending on destinations

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      1. I can easily forget to take my phone charger. I’ve started using a packing list and will be less likely to forget the charger. Now I need to remember to look at the list and check to see if I have everything.

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  3. Good morning. For plane travel, I try to get everything into my carry on bags. When traveling by car I see no reason to pack light. I always take a book to read. When traveling by car I take a large supply of clothing. For trips by air I take only a few sets of clothes and carry some soap to do my own laundry during the trip if I run out of clean clothes.

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  4. if i am going to china for business i pack on one way. if im going to the woods for a week it is another.
    china gets a couple of shirts that drip dry well , the pant i have on and one more usually dark and washable in the sink, socks on plus 2, underwear on plus 2, shoes on plus 1 sports coat on, computer, i phone an the appropriate electrical transition stuff, tooth brush and a razor w fresh blade.
    the woods get 2 pairs of jeans and a pair of shorts, boots and sandals, short sleeved shirt long sleeved shirt, flannel shirt rain jacket, hat, tent sleeping bag light, ax cast iron pan tea bags and cup swiss army knife w tweezers and corkscrew, guitar if theres room and some pastels with paper. rope and maybe a pillow, bratwurst and beans for dinner eggs and potatoes for breakfast. cheese and wine for lunch
    if its family camping i take a roof rack full of stuff with spices inflatable matress, coffee pot, folding chairs, lots of cooking stuff like grill grates and spatulas, peanut butter and onions in large quantities books video games for the drive and wine.
    we too look at the campers form time to time but my kids always remind me that when they were little i used to take them to the sportsman’s show and look at campers and rvs and act like we were really picking them out only to disappoint them with the reality that it was an exercise in spending a saturday afternoon instead of preparation for a purchase
    the article about his travel mate who travels with a suburban full of back up gear is a funny notion. i think my family would like that.

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      1. yes 100% deet was a lifesaver. it really angers the bugs. they fly in and run back and forth across your face and arms and ankles but wont land. just a couple drops ad rub it in. lasts 6-8 hours. without it the black flies alone are enough to ruin the trip the skeeters come in at dusk and hang in there for 20 minutes but wont land (unless you miss a spot)

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    2. We have considered buying a camper partly because we are becoming less inclined to use a tent and sleep on the ground using some kind of sleeping pad. All of my camping out is currently done in motels and I am not sure that we will get a camper. I might try taking at least one more trip into the boundary waters which will require me to get reacquainted with sleeping in a tent.

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  5. i am reminded of all the rv travelers who camp out in wal mart parking lots so they have access to everything they need when the store opens. used to laugh, now i kind of get it.

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  6. Depends on the suitcase! Similar to PJ and Jacque, but my miscellany include colored pencils and an unlined journal, just in case.

    While the kids and Mario (step-son) were here a couple of weeks ago, we saw how useful is an iPad. Thinking of getting one of those… and that would come with me.

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    1. i pad is good but to use it like a computer you need to be in a wifi setting or pay for a phone line. i liked that in ely a week ago like in yellowstone there is no service available.

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  7. I’ve experienced the extremes. As a kid I read about packing light before taking my first BWCA trip. To reduce weight, I didn’t bring a belt for my jeans. When I took on the 1 1/2 mile (all steep up-and-down) Silver Falls portage I had to hump my pack while doing a duck waddle because my pants were around my ankles.

    When I was in my mid-50s I decided to hike the length of the Superior Hiking Trail. I knew weight would be a problem because I was not in great shape and would have to carry my whole household on my back every foot of the 213-mile trail. I was so strict about avoiding weight that I didn’t even bring a book, which is unthinkable for me. I didn’t allow myself any alcohol, and my “food” was freeze-dried paste not fit to feed a dog. I decided that I would allow myself one luxury, a sort of symbol of the fact I was still me, just me taking on a big adventure. I brought a little kettle and some fine instant coffee. That would be my single luxury. Although I was living like a pack mule, I would have a decent cup of coffee each morning.

    On the third day of the trip I re-thought that. It took ten minutes to make coffee, and then at least another ten minutes to let it cool down and drink it. Then I needed ten minutes to wash the pot and pack it. After that, no matter how badly I needed to keep hydrated I would have to stop to pee several times, making me need water worse than before. To keep to my schedule I had to hike about six hours a day, and here I was wasting about an hour a day so I could have one cup of coffee (that frankly wasn’t gourmet quality). I left the pot and my supply of coffee at that third campsite, knowing some other hiker would find them to be treasures. I staggered on feeling enormously sorry for myself because I my great adventure was depriving me of every pleasure in life, even the morning cup of joe. Under the circumstances, it was a miracle I made a dozen days on the trail before breaking down in tears and begging some other hikers to get me to a resort where I could whimper and rest in relative comfort while my family came to my rescue.

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    2. Not really, tim. What I forgot is that there are different requirements for people at different stages of life. When I was a young man I could camp happily in the BWCA under primitive circumstances. It wasn’t so much that I didn’t pack right for the Superior Trail . . . I really was too damn old to be doing something like that.

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  8. I usually pack far too many clothes no matter where I am going. You never know. I am not as bad a Mrs. Beaver in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, though. She brought a sewing machine.

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    1. hey! back in my Gypsy Draper days, I would travel to work someplace for 6 weeks to 4 monthes at a time with my luggage rack packed from the bottom up : Suitcase with whatever clothes and toiletries, Featherweight sewing machine, Beloved Cat. Suitcase got checked, sewing machine and cat went under the seat. Couldn’t do that nowadays with security restrictions, but those were happy days.

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  9. my kids think my dirty jeans and shorts on trips are horrible and wonder what people could be thinking about me. i tell them to pay attention to the people we meet in town and it will be apparent that these people dont think about me very much at all.

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  10. Morning all. Packing is an excellent topic for me today, since that’s what is on today’s agenda… packing. We’ve made a good start, but everything has to be in the car before we go to bed tonight – so no messing around today.

    Like tim, I have two different packing lists (which I keep on the computer). With a good list I can make sure I don’t take too much or too little. When I’m traveling with clients, I tend to the “take an extra blouse or skirt”. With camping I tend to the “at least have one clean pair of underwear per day you’re gone”.

    Since I refuse to take a carry-on bag the size of a bison onto an airplane, I almost always have a checked bag. And because of this, I always carry a few things in my carry-on bag: toothbrush, pair of clean underwear and clean socks. Have learned the hard way that if your bag goes someplace without you, at least you have two pairs of underwear to wash out in the hotel/lodge sink. That way one pair will always be clean and dry in the morning.

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    1. My thoughts are with you, Sher. I had a friend once tell me when it came time for her family to drive her oldest brother off to college (she had four siblings) she cried all the way because she felt their lives at home would never be the same again. Then she said, “And that’s exactly what happened. Life never was the same again.” So the message here – I suppose- is, so it goes. Hey – that rhymes!

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  11. OT. BiR, last night you mentioned that you had just finished Age of Innocence for book club. The book we’re reading is Age of Miracles. Hopefully you just mistyped…. while Innocence is a classic, Miracles will be the discussion book!

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    1. You’re right, VS, I meant to write Age of Miracles. It was what a friend of mine calls a “brain fart.”

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  12. Hmm, I’ve listed my former work travel packing above.

    These days, I can’t even seem to get to Shakopee for a day at Renn. Fest. Be that as it may, I do have this fantasy life in which there is always enough in the trunk of the car, should we ever decide to make an impromptu trip to the Island or Up North. On my list of things to do.

    But really, all I truly need to travel is something to read and something to knit that isn’t too mentally taxing. That and a loaded credit card and I am good to go at the drop of a hat. So much of the world has gotten so 24/7 and hyper-civilized that undies and a toothbrush can be had with a wave of the plastic.

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  13. For about thirty years I was a freelance outdoors writer who took trips often. “Often” translated into four-day trips about once a week from spring through early winter. I made packing lists but soon found that the better answer was to never unpack my duffel bag. Each spring I loaded it with the Dopp kit, books, a portable radio, clothing for hot and cold weather, and so forth. At the end of each trip I would wash the clothes I had used and restore the consumable toiletries and books. In a day or two, I’d be off on another adventure.

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  14. My wife packed and traveled with an Aunt and Uncle plus three other cousins for about 15 years. Every summer was another state park. I believe they hit 46 or 47 of the lower 48. It was camping out of a van. Aunt Ruth and Uncle Bill had extensive packing lists for each kid plus a general list of camping supplies. They had the whole routine pretty well worked out the last few years. Everyone had a job at camp set up. Songs were sung, journals were kept. They even made the local paper in a story about their routines.
    It was camping with tents and cook stove unless weather issues drove them inside.
    And a few years after they were done, Ruth and Bill wrote a book about the entire thing and gave each camper one. Hard bound and inscribed, they are keepsakes.
    Kelly being the oldest was the first to drop out due to work schedules. Then Ruth died. Bills last trip was with our son about age 6 or 8. (That in itself wore Bill out.) A driving trip with hotels to see Mt Rushmore.

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  15. I don’t travel much at all, just to a handful of out-of-town conventions. I’ve noticed my packing has gotten lighter and lighter as the years have gone by and I’m less into dressing up. I still pack something to wear to the WisCon dessert function, where the guests of honor deliver their speeches and the Tiptree Award is frequently given, but it’s devolved from a gothic gown to a long skirt and Chinese jacket to a Utilikilt. A handful of silver jewelry, a few toiletries, a second pair of jeans, several days’ worth of underwear, socks and shoes/boots to go with the Utilikilt (if I’ve brought it), a fistful of t-shirts, a couple of overshirts and a blazer in case it’s cold in the hotel, and my poetry manuscript has been it for a while. At least there’s room in my little suitcase for books now! My roommate wants to see prairie (we’re thinking either Pipestone or the Petroglyphs) and visit Duluth and the Forevertron outside of Baraboo sometime, so I should be doing a little overnight packing in the near future. Probably be leaving the poetry, the extra jewelry, and the kilt at home for those trips.

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      1. Thanks to a bad experience kennelling our dog while we were gone on a 2-week vacation, my parents came to prefer day and overnight trips. So, I visited Pipestone, the Glyphs, Paul Bunyan and Babe in Bemidji, and a mess of other outstate attractions, as a kid. Also Wisconsin Dells, more than once, but Roommate seems to not be interested in that, go figure.

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  16. As usual, I kinda stand out in this crowd. Other than my one fateful trip to Cabo and two rather recent Carnival cruises, I’ve rarely traveled anywhere. What I’d have to have with me is pretty clear, though: my Mac laptop, dental floss, and Nicorette gum. As long as these things are available, I’m a happy camper. It’s obvious that I’ve spent far too much time languishing in hospitals, isn’t it?

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    1. Hey, I’ve never been to Cabo or on a Carnival cruise, so you’re a world traveler compared to me! Furthest I’ve been is Chicago in one direction and the Black Hills in the other. I figure it’s not how far we’ve been physically, but how far our imagination and curiosity have ranged.

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    1. Very good, PJ. Billy Holiday is the greatest. I think her voice was stronger at one time than it is in this recording. Even with her the strength of her voice reduced she is amazing.

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    2. Cliff Richard was huge in Europe during my teen-age years, BiR, but I liked Tommy Steele better. Both had very long-term successful careers. I still like Steele better.

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  19. This one, in honor of the State Fair and because the video is so creative and fun…and it’s not a bad song either:

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  21. Minimalist packing: clean undies, a book, something for recording the events (journal, camera, or other), toothbrush and a credit card or other form of payment. Truthfully: more like what you lot have already said: several changes of clean clothes, Tylenol, phone, comfy shoes, brush for my hair, at least one outfit I will never wear, wet wipes, a few other things that stay in my toiletries kit…

    Back in my days of doing Renaissance Festival, every weekend’s packing had to include street clothes for warm and cold weather, all of my costume pieces (which could be layered based on temperature) – this included a wool cloak (which often didn’t go out first couple of weekends, but was useful for rain as well as cold) and small hat with bells, custom made boots, toiletries, food for 3 days, bug spray, sun screen, camping gear (tent stayed at the site, in the campground, for the duration), cash (especially for purchasing beer after hours), boatloads of kleenex (useful at the end of very dusty days), washcloth (useful for washing ankles and legs after very dusty days), props for my character (including bubbles, a stuffed muslin bunny in Renaissance garb, wooden “spork,” and other odd bits and baubles), wire for making my braids stick out and faux bird to perch in the braids, leather mug (unbreakable, even if you fall on it several times), and at least two extra pairs of undies (wet undies are the worst). I do not miss packing all that up after work on a Friday night into my car, heading out to Shakopee, and then returning home with the mound of laundry to be done on Sunday before the following Friday. I do miss playing with my props – though not enough to dig it all out again from storage.

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    1. My stint at the Ren. Fest didn’t include overnight stays, and I can only imagine all the fun I missed out on. It was great fun roaming the grounds in my cast-off Shakespeare-in-the-Streets dress with a flower garland in my blond Afro, hawking roses to gentlemen for their ladies. T’was quite amazing how being in costume allowed me to step outside of my normal self and approach total strangers in a playful and flirtatious way. Haven’t been to the Ren. Fest in 25 years or more, perhaps it’s time to go back.

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  22. One thing I love to have at the ready is a qt. sz. ziplock bag filled with cute little containers of essential toiletries. And flip flops go wherever I go – any time of year. if I’m visiting my daughters and run out of clothes I can borrow something from them. If I’m visiting my son I can borrow something from his wife as long as it’s Christmas time and she’s still in Texas with her family and doesn’t know about it. If I’m visiting my mom she often has clothes lying on the bed when I get there with notes pinned on them that say, WHO LEFT THIS HERE? Most of the time they’re not mine but occasionally I like something enough to lie about it.

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  27. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Antique-Seward-Upright-Royalrobe-Wardrobe-Steamer-Trunk-W-Original-Keys-Hangers-/171111317564?pt=Antiques_Furniture&hash=item27d707803c

    i sold a couple of those old wardrobe steamer trunks at my garage sale. they weighed at least 70 pounds with nothing in them. my kids asked why anyone would ever need a suitcase like that and i told them in order to travel in the old days with 3 or 4 suits for the man and 3 or 4 ironed dresses for the ladies then the shoes, and the day clothes your pajamas and all the other stuff you needed a 3 foot by 3 foot by 4 1/2 foot suitcase was about right. i threw one of these in my old vw bus back in hippy days and it did the trick perfectly. and laid down on its side as a coffee table bench combo until it need to be a suitcase again

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  29. Sunglasses, a straw hat, a small fan if the weather is warm, CD’s, reusable cups – one for hot beverages and one for cold – bandaids, antibiotic ointment, towel, spoons, coffee and filters, or a french press if no electricity, beer, wine, a corkscrew, a bottle opener. Socks, even if it is summer and I’m not expecting to need them. Learned my lesson on that one.

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