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?

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keeping it all together life organization travel

5 Comments Leave a comment

  1. 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.

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