What We’re Packing
It’s Monday morning, and we’re in Cumberland Gap National Historical Park near Middlesboro, KY. It’s a beautiful day, with the clouds that were around earlier with the sunrise having moved out. We’re going to stay in the park for another night, so we don’t have to break camp today. We showered up, had oatmeal for breakfast, and we’ll soon be heading out to do some hiking in the park.
I thought I’d write a bit about how we packed for a long camping trip like this. We have a small truck with a topper, and most of our gear/food is in plastic totes – each containing items that are – more or less – similar in function.
Well, Dan’s back from the shower, so I’ll have to finish this later.
Continuing while traveling between Cumberland Gap and Asheville, NC…
For example, we have the large “tent” tote. This contains the tent and most of what goes in it once it’s set up: sleeping pads, sleeping bags. There’s actually a second tent in this tote, as well. The first tent is my Eureka Wind River, a 2-3 person tent that has room for our two sleeping bags, each of our clothes bags and Jake’s sleeping pad and sleeping bag, which is actually more like a square pita, with two open sides. The other tent (an REI Half-Dome) is smaller and will be used when we want to do a backpacking trip, where we’ll be away from the truck for a couple nights or more. Actually, we might have to use this tent before we do any backpacking. The door zipper on my Wind River, which – I figured – is on its fourteenth year, is beginning to fail. We might be able to replace the zipper pull, and all will be fine. In the meantime, I think we’ll use the Half-Dome. It has less floor space inside, but has vestibule areas – one on each side – that can be used to keep shoes, etc. We’ve used this tent with Jake before, and it works fine.
Then, we have three “food” totes. The first contains the larger dry and canned food items (e.g. pasta, rice, pancake mix, vegetable oil, syrup, etc.). The second contains smaller items, like canned soup, baked beans, quick noodle/rice dishes (mostly for backpacking), lentils and other small dried beans, nuts, raisins, etc. The third tote is a smaller tote we’re using for our beverage mixes (instant coffee, teas, and hot chocolate), snacks and bread/buns. We also have a small container filled with the most commonly used herbs and spices; it hasn’t found a permanent home, yet, but I hope to find room for it in one of the food totes soon.
The “kitchen” tote holds all of our cookware, small cutting boards, cooking utensils, plates, bowls, cups, silverware, kitchen towels and wash cloths, dish soap and extra ziploc bags.
The “equipment” tote contains a real mix of camping gear, including the larger griddle that doesn’t fit in the kitchen tote, popcorn popper for over the campfire, gas lantern, kitchen tarp and rope, backpacking stoves and fuel bottles, and hat and mittens for possible cold weather in the mountains.
Another, un-named tote holds each of our backpacks, two different sizes of day-packs and our lightweight sleeping bags.
We also have a small tote with all kinds of car repair stuff.
Then, for gear that is not in totes, we have our clothes bags – one each; Jake’s bag with leashes, cable, food and water dishes and dog treats; dog food; two-burner stove and propane tank; firewood and extra drinking water.
In the truck cab, we have maps, campground guide, books, journals, snacks, water, CDs, laptop and camera.
Well, we’re almost to Asheville, NC, so I’ll end here.
Tim
Tags: gear, packing, U.S. Segment 1
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