Backpack
I need to write something. It’s been three days and even though it was a pretty shitty weekend, there must be something to say.
I…I spent a couple of hours today obsessing about whether or not I should bring a walking stick when I hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu at the end of May. I don’t normally hike with a walking stick, but after reading well over a dozen blogs, every “expert” says you should bring or rent a stick.
Packing for trips can be a little exhausting for someone like me. Every scenario is considered and acted out, in full detail, in my mind. I can picture everything from the moment I may need a safety pin, through chipping a tooth and right on to slipping and plummeting to my death. I want to be prepared.
I have to carry everything on my back for this trip. Now that I have purchased my super cool pack and it’s confirmed that my teeny tiny sleeping bag will fit, I have moved on to other things that I may be happy I included when I finish Dead Woman’s Pass (nope, I didn’t make that name up) on day two.
Toilet paper, hand sanitizer, rain poncho. I have a list, and even though I will arrive in Cusco, Peru like the good girl scout I never was, something unexpected will happen during my four day trek. The unplanned always happens no matter how many zip lock bags a girl brings. I suppose that’s part of the fun, the unknown, the crazy story I’ll never be able to anticipate.
Even so, I always dream of being that person with the forethought to bring the small piece of rope that saves the group when we are dangling from a mudslide. You know when all hope is lost, I just open my zippy pouch thing and something I remembered to bring saves the day. Kind of like James Bond or that Angelina Jolie movie…yeah, she had a backpack too.
My thoughts from the laundry room. Do I Need a Sleeping Pad?
keeping it all together life organization travel hiking life packing Peru thoughts travel winging it
That sounds like a great holiday! I’d say yes to the walking stick, just in case you twist your ankle or something like that, you wouldn’t want to be stuck up there with a sore ankle and no stick.See, I know what you mean about thinking about all of the possibilities. Sometimes though, you just have to accept that it will be somebody else’s zip-lock bag that saves the day! Besides, if you do it once then the next time that you do something like it again you’ll know exactly what to bring!
You are entirely too smart for your twenty years. I hadn’t thought about twisting my ankle, I jumped right to death. You’re right, I’ll just accept that I’m human and bring a stick. Now, allowing someone else’s zip lock to save the day…yeah, that will take a little longer to accept. Hahaha.
Haha! I’m always twisting my ankle,even in the most mundane circumstances, I have come to accept that I have stupid ankles.
I envy your hike. The view I see in the pictures I googled where extraordinary to say the least.
Thanks, Barry. I’m very excited and it does look incredible. I’ll report back. Thank you for reading.