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I
spent a lot of time researching gear and it did pay off.
The two most critical pieces of gear - my boots and travel
pack - I found through research and luck.
I
have never had a pair of hiking boots that did not give
me blisters - even wearing two pairs of socks and moleskin.
My most recent boots, which fit so comfortable in the store
and just walking around, have ruined my last two trips to
Kings Canyon. The first one was ruined when I got big blisters
on the first day. I waited four days in a campsite for it
to heal so that I could continue the rest of my two week
trip - but ended up backpacking right out and driving all
the way home after it was clear it would take a lot longer
to heal. On the last trip, I felt that if I used better
high-tech moisture-wicking socks and watched the feet close
and moleskinned the heels at the first sign of trouble,
I would be OK - and I was...... for the first three days
of backpacking, but ended up getting blisters the fourth
day and that did halt the planned trip, though I did spend
the rest of the two weeks in a high mountain valley nearby
which is one of my favorite spots in the world.
For
my around-world-trip I knew that I had to find new boots
and just happened to be at the North Face outlet in Berkeley
when there were some good-looking boots on sale for $50.
I decided to get these and if they started giving me blisters
when I tested them carrying weight before the trip, at least
I could use them for just hiking around SF. They had some
kind of material for lining and I always shied away from
boots without leather lining, as I had seen some Merrill
boots my brother bought that had some material lining -
it quickly wore holes. As it turned out, these are, without
a doubt, the best boots I have ever owned. Never a blister
- even when worn relatively new and with one pair of medium
weight socks.
For
the second most critical piece of gear, the travel pack,
I spent a lot of time visiting the REI and the North Face
outlets and looking at what was available but I was not
impressed with any travel pack I saw. Every single one had
some major flaw that ruled it out. Some had poorly adjustable,
or even non-adjustable, harnesses. These would end up as
torture racks carrying any substantial weight over a long
distance. Some had weak and poorly designed construction
- the most common of these flaws was un-reinforced stitching
of the shoulder straps where they attached to the base of
the packs. These wouldn't last a month.
I
still had some time though, as I had to wait until I bought
and received (some by mail) all my travel gear so that I
could see just how much space I needed before I settled
on a pack. I did however, know that I wanted a travel pack
that had a flap that I could zip over the harness to keep
it out of harms way in the hands of baggage handlers. I
also wanted a pack that was small enough to maybe qualify
as carry-on luggage (7 in. x 14 in. x 21 in.) because I
initially thought that I would always try to carry my luggage
on, rather than trust it to the hands of airline workers,
especially in the southeast asia. As it turned out, the
first flight from SF to London was the only flight I carried
the big bag on. All the airlines I traveled on seemed to
have their act together enough for me to entrust my luggage
to them. Even when I flew from a small island airport in
the Gulf of Thailand to Bangkok to transfer to another flight
to Chiang Mai, I let the airline handle the transfer of
the luggage between planes.
I
also kind of wanted a travel pack that had an attachable
day pack, as the ability to attach a day pack might come
in handy, rather than having to worry about, and deal with,
two separate bags, especially on trains ond other ground
transportation…and the day pack would give me that
more space for gear.
By
August I had most of the gear, but still had not found a
good pack. I had read about, and found websites for, two
foreign travel pack manufacturers - Macpac
in New Zealand and Karrimor
in the UK - but neither one of them had any US resellers.
I
was over at the North Face outlet one day and saw one of
their North Face $240 packs on sale for $99 and almost bought
it - but it was one of those that had weak stitching attaching
the shoulder straps to the bottom of the pack. After spending
an hour at the nearby REI I decided to stop back at North
Face and buy the pack there because I could always pay Narain's
(a store in Berkeley that specializes in sewing outdoor
gear) to add some reinforcement to the strap attachment.
Luckily,
when I went back to North Face the pack was gone. I say
luckily, because later that day I stopped in at Lombadi's
Sports Store in SF, a store that is not really known for
its outdoor gear, and found a two models of Karrimor packs
AND they were on sale for 40% off. These packs were quality
packs. The zippers were large and solid. The harnesses were
comfortable and fully adjustable 5 different ways - and
with the pack on........ and it was designed to be cool
(and it was).
There
were only three minor things wrong with the model that was
in the size range I wanted - the material of the pack seemed
a little too heavy duty and thus would add a little more
weight than necessary, the day pack did not have side pouches
for water bottles that the North Face pack had and the ends
of the zipper that attached the day pack to the main pack
seemed a little light weight and might eventually tear (though
it was much better than most pack zippers I had seen). Lombardi's
did not have the color I wanted - only black that would
absorb heat in the tropics, and a bright blue pack that
would be hard to conceal should I ever want to put the pack
down near a trail in Nepal or New Zealand so that I could
do some off trail hiking. But still, it was far better than
any pack I had seen so far and would certainly last the
entire trip and serve me well. So I bought it.
Later
that week, I contacted the manufacturer in London and asked
if I could exchange the black one for a green one when I
got there and they said it would be OK. Unfortunately, when
I got to the London store I saw that the green was a little
too kaki colored (military looking). I knew that there was
a problem in Nepal with the Maoist rebels and did not want
to be mistaken for government troops or a foreign advisor.
Luckily, though, they had a grey pack that was also the
newer version..... AND all three of the minor limitations
of the pack I had been concerned with were fixed with the
new version - the material was lighter weight (but still
strong), the day pack zipper ends were reinforced and the
day pack now had bottle pouches.
I
made the exchange and lived out of that pack for six months.
I carried it, and the day pack, for about 400 kilometers
throughout Europe, southeast asia, Japan and New Zealand.
My Nepalese guide/porter carried the main Karrimor pack
with about 35 pounds of weight in it about 180 kilometers
in the Himalayas, while I carried a fanny pack and the Karrimor
day pack with about 25 pounds of weight. In New Zealand
I took it on a 4 day tramp on the Routeburn track carrying
about 40 pounds of gear in the big pack and the daypack.
At
the end of the around-the world trip the pack(s) still looked
brand new. There is absolutely nothing I can think of to
improve this pack. I would have bought it if I had had to
pay full price and it would have been the best gear money
I spent.
I
also spent a lot of gear research time looking into lightweight
notebooks and ultra small digital cameras. I narrowed the
notebook down to either the SONY C1 MV Picturebook or the
U-1 sold only in Japan - both under 3 pounds. But after
packing (cramming) my new pack with all the gear I already
had, I decided I didn't have room for even a lightweight
small notebook and all the power converters I would need.
I also didn't know if I would really have that much time
to be using it at night as I knew I'd still be spending
a lot of time reading guidebooks to plan my next moves…
and I didn't want to whip it out on trains or plane - when
I saw how small and lightweight these notebooks were, I
wanted them. I coveted them. And I knew others would.
The
digital cameras were small enough to take, but they all
had only USB ports to upload to a computer and I figured
most internet café machines I would be using would
be older machines without USB ports. I would also have needed
to install the camera software onto the computers and I
didn't think I would be able to install it on many I'd be
using. I figured that if I wanted to I could probably find
pictures on the internet of most of the sights I would see
anyway.
The
rest of the gear I took is listed in the table below.
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