The Things I Carry

I was packing up the other day when I realized how little of the stuff in my suitcase now were things I started out with.  So I thought I’d go through my bag as I packed things up, and talk about some of the cool things I’ve bought or replaced, and what is standing the test of time.

Inca Trail to Machu Picchu

For those of you who don't know, tomorrow we set off for a 4 day hike through the Andes on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. It was one of the first things we decided to do when we were talking about doing this trip, and while we're still excited to do it, the butterflies have set in in the last few days.

We've both hiked 14,000 feet peaks, and I've run three marathons and a 15.5 mile race up the side of a mountain to over 13,000 feet and back.  On paper, we have the street (or mountain) cred. But we've been lolling around cars and boats and airports for the last 10 weeks. The altitude was a challenge when we got to Cusco (we're at 11,200 feet here). So yeah, we are nervous as hell.  One of us has not run a marathon, and has a not completely diagnosed knee injury, so yeah.  Nervous.

But they told us, at our briefing on Monday, that all we needed to bring was our passport and a positive attitude. Both are packed, although we're still wrestling with the second one to get it in our bags.

Here is what we'll be carrying on our backs. Both packs weigh between 10-15 (that's a guess) pounds, which includes two water bottles for David and three for Lana (my bag weighs less otherwise).  We've hired a porter to carry our sleeping bags and bedrolls, which we rented from PeruTreks, the company we're hiking with. The porter will also be carrying things that we won't need from day to day, including toiletries and a couple of changes of clothes. Otherwise it's all coming along with us. On advice of other travelers we've met we rented trekking poles once we got here (alas, there are three sets cooling their heels at home), and upon advice of PeruTreks itself, I rented a pair of waterproof hiking shoes rather than wear my trail running shoes, which will get wet. That last one is not ideal, but we're going with blisters over wet feet. 

We each have rain pants, rain jackets, and rain covers for our bags. Gloves, sun hats, sunscreen, sunglasses, bug repellent, snacks, necessities for going in the woods, if necessary, hand sanitizer, medications and first aid stuff, our Samsung androids, a battery charging pack, headlamps, money for tips and water/snacks bought along the way, our PASSPORTS, and our entry tickets for our second day.

Lana is carrying Mr. Bee, our Steripen for sterilizing water if necessary, the larger share of the medications including her epipen, benadryl and a course of steroids that we really don't want to use.

David's carrying the big camera (might as well get the best shot of Machu Picchu that you can), zip ties and gaffer's tape for repairs, his headlamp (mine is with the porter).

Our bigger bags and all of the things we don't need will be stored at the hostel we're staying with, and we'll come back and stay here another night after returning from Machu Picchu.  All the hotels seem to offer that service, which is great. 

The trip so far hasn't been physically challenging--we've kick-flipped through the waters of the Galapagos and lugged our heavy big bags across the Miami airport, but other than that we've been pretty sedentary. We'll get our chance now, though.  

We've brought our android players, and we will have wifi in our hostel at the end of the trek, so we'll see you on the flip side. Wish us luck!

The Rest of David’s Gear

While planning what to take on our trip, I read a lot of gear posts from other travelers.  Some photographer-specific articles gloss over the soft-goods like clothes, but given the volume and weight of the photo gear they describe, I wonder if they’re taking anything but the clothes on their back and possibly a change of underwear that doubles as padding around a particularly expensive lens.  Lana and I settled on six changes of clothes to give us some flexibility on where laundry day falls, depending on either timing or facilities (mostly a good location or weather for drying, as we can hand wash nearly anywhere).  I picked clothes that were quick-drying and light weight/small volume foremost, but also durable, since I’d like them to last a year if possible, and buying 36” inseam pants is tricky in some parts of the world.
I already listed my photo/electronics gear previously, which is all stored in my black Osprey Quasar 30L backpack; all of the gear below fits in my carry-on, a red eBags Mother Lode TLS Weekender.

From middle left, clockwise:

• 2 pair pants (navy and tan; REI)
• 2 pair shorts (synthetic blend, tan—one not pictured, being worn) with custom hidden pockets sewn in by my very generous mother with some assistance by me, on the easier, hand-sewn portions
• 1 pair light running shorts (navy)
• 6 pair ExOfficio briefs
• 6 pair socks (RoadRunner DryMax)
• 6 shirts; 4 short sleeve and 2 long.  All synthetic blends (one being worn; mix of REI, Eddie Bauer, and Columbia)
• 2 tech t-shirts for running or for layering (grey & white, on top of shirts above)
• 1 sleep sack, made by my mother out of CoolMax; it zips to Lana’s to form a double when needed/possible
• 1 pillow case, ditto.  Not pictured; for the road trip, it is also filled with a down pillow
• 1 pair boxers on top of the sleep sack
• 1 mostly crushable, and very breathable sun hat (Henshel Breezer)
• 1 light-weight zippered cardigan fleece (black, below hat)
• 1 pair swim trunks (blue, on fleece)
• 1 rash guard for sun protection while snorkeling, or layering (grey, on top of trunks)
• 1 pair light-weight tights for cold weather (black, in same stack above)
• 1 microfiber towel (top right)
• 1 rain jacket (grey, in stuff sack; Sierra Designs)
• Travel first-aid kit
• Sunglasses
• Travel Braun electric razor (2 AA, so no bulky recharger to pack)
• Bubi flexible silicone water bottle (blue, with silver carabineer)
• Toiletries in quart zipper bag (folding toothbrush, deodorant, soap, shampoo, short comb, chapstick, acid-reducer pills and anti-histamines)
• Toothpaste (using up the > 3 oz. tube on the road trip)
• Travel clothes line (braided elastic)
• Ecco Trail IV low leather and Gore Tex breathable/waterproof shoes
• Nike trail shoes, the bulkiest concession I’ve made; I am replacing my daily 8 mile ride with a 3-4 mile run with Lana each morning
• Bill-capped running hat
• Flip-flops (beaches, public showers)
• Tom’s Cordones, for a flat-packing, lighter/cooler shoe option

David's Gear

Aside from clothes and medication, this is the gear I'm planning to take on our travels.  While it looks large when spread out, it all fits in my backpack (the toiletries, journals, Kindle, and backup drives will be in my carry-on sized bag, along with clothes).

Starting in the center, and roughly spiraling out:
Canon 7D

EF-S 17-55 f/2.8 IS USM

EF 70-200 f/4 L IS USM

67mm hoya multicoated filter on 70-200 for weather resistance

EF 50mm f/1.4 USM

EF 1.4x II Extender

Body/lens cap pair

Four 16GB CF cards

Ultra-light gloves

77mm circular polarizer

Two spare batteries

Battery charger

Rocket blower bulb for dust mitigation

Disposable rain sleeve for 7D & lens

Neoprene sleeves for lenses

Crumpler Haven (nearly all of the above fits in that, which in turn rests in the bottom of my backpack)

Zip-ties and gaffer's tape--my equivalent of bailing wire and duct tape

Above the 7D:

Canon G12

3 16GB SD cards

1 spare battery

Waterproof housing (for some portions of the trip only)

Mini tripod

Lightweight monopod

Photo processing and backup:

Lenovo x220 laptop (secondary photo backups)

Silicon Power A80 1TB USB 3.0 drive (primary photo storage)

Western Digital 1TB USB 2.0 drive (primary photo backups)

Multiple 2.5" SATA drives (incremental tertiary photo backups, to be shipped home)

Mukii ZIO impact/water resistant cases for 2.5" drives

Mukii ZIO SATA to USB 3.0 cable for SATA drive backups

Mukii ZIO SATA to USB 2.0 cable (spare/redundant)

Kingston USB card reader for photo import

Spare/redundant USB card reader (not pictured)

USB mini cable for direct camera photo import (in case both card readers are lost/broken)

16GB USB flash drive for generic storage (not pictured)

USB flash drive configured with bootable UBCD recovery tools (not pictured)

SD card that doubles as a USB flash drive, configured as bootable Ubuntu 12 in case of drive failure or paranoia attack

2.5" 9mm SATA drive (clone of boot drive in Lenovo, in case of drive failure)

Reading, writing, and other:

Journals

Kindle keyboard

Samsung Galaxy Player 4.0 (not pictured)

Multiple USB Micro chargers

Steripen (USB-rechargable UV water sterilization)

Black Diamond Spot headlamp

Headphones, stereo splitter and extension cables

Passport, immunization records, and decoy wallet (small bills, expired credit cards)

Toiletries:

Folding toothbrush

Small comb

Portable electric razor

Toothpaste

Tissue

Toilet paper (sans cardboard tube)

Soap and shampoo

Cotton swabs

Ear plugs

The clothing list will be determined by some trial and error on our road trip.

The backups and redundancies are probably overkill, but I'm professionally responsible (for one more day) for backups, and I know how terrible it is to have a backup failure, and also how to reduce the chances of having one, so I'm going with the overkill option, rather than underkill.

We've been living by lists for the last two weeks as we've been moving out and preparing our house for a renter, as well as planning the trip, and this list was easy--just copied from one of our existing lists.  I'm looking forward to some listless weeks ahead.