B.C. / New Zealand Packing list

I'm heading off to British Columbia in 2 weeks. I'll be there visiting relatives and Wwoofing until mid-September, which will be early spring in New Zealand. The knapsack I take to BC goes to NWZ, so the packing has begun in earnest. I'm sending the list to a few gear-bare keeners. If you have a comment or opinion about the list, please let me know. I can argue gear lists all day. The knapsack is what I'm wearing in the blog profile picture.

The pack will weigh 8-9 kgs out the door, everything inside the pack, including water and day-food. Basically it's 2-3 sets of clothes, rain gear, spare shoes and the ability to sleep outside in NWZ seasonal weather (down to 8-10 C) and hopefully handle a bit of rain. I only intend to be sleeping on the ground here and there as circumstances dictate.

The plan is to fly to Auckland, hitch-hike up to the top of North Island (Cape Reinga) and start walking, hostelling and Wwoofing the 1000+ kilometers to Wellington. Drop in and visit Bob Russell for a few days. Then down to South Island and Sue Green's sister for a few days, then a bit of tourist action in Milford Sound. Then the decision is return to Canada or keep flying West --- Vietnam, India and/or South Africa on my way to visit David Young in Botswana and Brian MacDougall in Egypt. If I get that far, it's maybe Israel, but Ireland for sure, then home.

Nice simple plan, not a lot of logistics. Nothing booked in advance. Everything electronic and stored in some Google app. Carrying a GSM quad-band cell phone if someone needs to get hold of me. Will check messages every few days. I'll keep this blog up-to-date every few weeks, tho not with pictures from my camera. Too techie.

CARRYING

40 liter knapsack
Small waist pouch for camera

KNAPSACK

Sleeping bag Primaloft .5 kg MEC overbag
Sleepmat Thermarest .25 kg Shoulders-to-Hips, self-inflating
Tarp/poncho (8'x5' silnylon)
Drybag (15 liter silnylon) for knapsack contents
Drybag (10 liter good quality) for clothes and electronics
Drybag (1 liter plastic) for travel books and documents
Daybag (10 liter shapeless nylon)

KITCHEN / FOOD

Spoon, breadknife, can opener
Water bottle .5 liter \ Expanding 1 liter
Multi-vitamins
1 day of light food (apple, cheese, chocolate, nuts, bread)

CLOTHES

Rain shell / Pants
Black jacket / Green light fleece / Tights
Poly skull cap / Poly gloves / Poly hats (2)
Bathing suit / Mini-towel
Wool socks (2) / Poly socks (2)
Techie tops (3) / Nylon shorts (2)
Sleep top/shorts / Cotton underwear (3)
Sandals / Sneakers

MEDICAL

Moleskin, Band-aids, alcohol gel, compression wrap, gauze, tape
Murine, asthma inhaler, Ibuprofen, pumice
Poly-Sporin, Gravol, Chlorine tablets, tweezers, scissors

TOILETRIES

Toothbrush/paste, floss, vaseline, sun lotion, chapstick
Toilet paper, hair soap, deodorant, nail clippers

ELECTRONICS

Cell phone/charger/battery-backup (buy local charger there)
Watch, wrist compass, LED flashlight, whistle, plastic mirror
Camera, Memory chips, USB memory stick
Single cell AAA radio, batteries (2 AAA, 4 AA)

DOCUMENTS

Map, travel book, hostel lists, glasses/spare, pen/pencil
Diary, family photos, photocopies of passport and drivers license, spare passport pics, Passport, MSI card, Blue Cross, Intl and NS driver licence, Vaccine record,
Pictures of all documents stored in Gmail

REPAIR

Therma-rest repair, needle/thread, duct tape
Safety-pins, velcro, cable-ties

A time for all things

I just spent 2 weeks in New York with my in-laws. My 93 year-old father-in-law was dying in the hospital and the family was doing as much as possible to provide support, as my 79 year-old mother-in-law spent every day, all day in the hospital. I spent the 4 of the first 5 days in the hospital. The off day was spent upstate with the brother-in-law and his menagerie. My father-in-law passed just before Jewish Shabbat, finally getting some peace after 2 months in the hospital attached to the cold, impersonal tools of medicine.

If you don't have a living will, write one up today. Mine is nothing fancy:

Do not resuscitate if quality of life implies permanent unconscious state or persistent vegetative state
Do not keep alive if this requires extraordinary medical support
If in doubt, pull the plug

Lots of people flew in for the funeral, which happens asap. I was very glad that both my kids made it in time. Then the family 'sits Shiva' for a week and gets some closure.

Most of my time when I visit NY is taken up with family and making sure I see all the grandkids, nieces and nephews. I try to clear off at least one full day for myself. This trip was for 2 weeks, so I got in 2 full "New York" days. I also got in a bit of running and many, many kilometers of walking. As usual, I ate more than required and drank a fair bit of beer.

My 'New York' days go like this: up and out the door before 6:00 AM, breakfast in the city at my latest diner (currently the Seinfield diner at Broadway and 112th St., formerly the Roxy on John St. down by the World Trade site). Absorb a local paper and mucho coffee. Start the ongoing vigil for access to bathrooms (parks, fast-food places, bars, big book and grocery stores). I do a LOT of walking (8-10 hours worth), a little shopping, maybe a museum and for sure a few parks. Lunch involves pizza or pastrami and a beer, as does supper. I almost always get to either the East River or the Hudson, Times Square and Washington Park, As well, I almost always take in a concert or ball game and return to Queens after midnite.

This trip, I got to see Amadou & Miriam at Webster Hall. It was an amazing show. A husband and wife from Mali, both blind. I missed them when I was in Dublin in 2006 (all sold out, I hung around for hours trying to get a rush seat), so bought the ticket early in the day. I chose this over baseball at the new Yankee stadium.

I finally got to walk the new High Line elevated park in the meat-packing district of Manhattan. This made me very happy indeed. I have been following its development for years. It is a good example of what really talented people can do with a public space. New York is filled with so many beautiful parks. Another new one for me this trip was Morningside just above Central Park.

I also got to see game 7 of the hockey finals (yea Pittsburgh) by dropping into my brother-in-law's firehouse in the Bronx. Dropping in is a bit of a misnomer. It took 1.5 hours to get there and more than 2 hours to get back. This also meant that I missed getting to a baseball game this trip and both teams had new stadiums. Such is life.

An emotionally draining trip. Good to see so much family, altho the occasion was a sad one.

Hobo...with a cell phone!

OK. I walked to PEI. Some 280+ kms of walking in 7 days, which works out to about a marathon a day on foot with a pack on your back. There was more pain than I expected and less bother about being uncomfortable. Pain became a constant companion somewhere in the middle of Day 2 and has not left me yet. What parts hurt? Basically, every thing that moved, carried weight or touched anything else. My mantra was...

Keep Walking
Just Keep Walking

Whenever one set of pains would lessen, a new one would start up or an old one flare up. As the days accumulated, so did the list of aches and pains. All in all, a very painful exercise. Much more pain that I anticipated.

My concerns about being uncomfortable (ie: rain, being wet all the time, nights on the ground with no cover) were over-rated. You can only get so wet and so uncomfortable in this particular set of circumstances. This would be in contrast to the pain which developed into so many levels it becaime a mental battle as well as a physical one.

I'm going to do up a Gonzo web page story with more details to suit my requirements, but for now, it's the blog entry, some detail and the trip video, which shows a fair bit of pain etched into my facial features.

Walk to PEI - 280+ kms, 7 days, 6 nights, 3 in motel, 3 on ground, rain every day&night.

Halifax to Elmsdale - 41 kms, dinner at pub, sleep under bridge
Elmsdale to Truro - 51 kms, dinner Chinese, sleep in motel
Truro to Earltown - 35 kms, dinner beans, sleep in woods
Earltown to Tatamagouche - 21 kms, dinner Chinese, sleep in motel
Tatamagouche to Port Philip - 45 kms, dinner beans, sleep under tree
Port Philip to Port Elgin - 43 kms, no dinner, sleep in motel
Port Elgin to Bridge - 28 kms, dinner at Mom's, sleep in nice bed

Used Rogers cellphone where it worked....Called Sophie for her birthday, let Regina know where I was, let my Mom know where I was and when I was coming, had Bruce Duffy to share my experience with. Glad I had the phone. Nice to book a motel not having to show up like drowned rat at the only motel within 50 kms and you're on foot. Hard to haggle a decent off-season price. All in all a great tool to have in your backpack.

My self-indulgent writeup on the Gonzo site: Hey! My scrotum is wet!!!

Following is a little 2:18 minutes video with 7 little clips embedded:

Walk to PEI

Being unable to swing the details to spend my 1st 3 weeks retired walking the Appalachian Trail, I have opted to walk the 250+ kms from my house in Halifax, NS to the Confederation Bridge, PEI. Sounds simple enough. Nice, laid back secondary roads, fair amount of stores, gas stations and motels along the way, early spring weather.

I'm bringing a 9 kg pack with a winter-weight sleeping bag, mat, rain gear and change of clothes, plus a cell phone and camera (for all the highlights).

My sleeping places will be a few motels and your basic on the ground in a sleeping bag.

Why am I doing this? I want to break the mental tie from a 23-year career job, see how my body handles everyday distance walking and see just how uncomfortable I'm willing to be at my advanced age. When I did this stuff in my 20's, the ability to be uncomfortable made a whole lot of other options that much simpler. I have to be a lot tougher than I am currently to do the sort of travelling I want to do in New Zealand (Walk and Wwoof my way from North to South for at least 1000 kms).

This trip will be a good test of my gear setup, my headspace and my aging parts. The 'on the ground' conditions will be a good test of all the mental mojo.

Everything else fits inside a 40 liter bag (the blue one showing in my profile picture.) Weight is 9 kgs with .5 liter water, 1 day food and a few morning porridges and hot chocolates.

GEAR

40 liter knapsack
Waist pouch for camera, map and change
15 liter waterproof liner bag
Cat's Meow winter-weight poly sleeping bag
Self-inflating mat
Cell phone, watch, camera, 1-cell radio
Compass, whistle, foil blanket, multi-tool, candle
Map, book, glasses, pen/pencil, Therma-rest repair
Rope, cable-ties, sewing kit
Water bottle (.5 liter) and chlorine tablets

KITCHEN / FOOD

Butane/propane stove, pots, gas, matches
Cup, spoon, knife, can opener, scrubber
4-5 packets of porridge, tea
Multi-vitamins
1 day of food (apple, pasta or soup, chocolate, nuts, bread)

CLOTHES

Body - Hat, t-shirt, shorts, socks and boots
Rain shell, pants, gaiters
Sandals
Tights
Skull cap and balaclava
Bathing suit and towel
2 poly hats, light & dark
2 wool socks and 1 poly liner
2 poly gloves
2 spare tops (short and long)
2 underwear

MEDICAL / TOILETRIES

Band-aids, moleskin, alcohol gel, compression wrap, Vitamin I
Gauze, tape, Murine, asthma inhaler
Toothbrush/paste, floss, vaseline, sun lotion, toilet paper

Walkin' Down the Road

Well, here it is. When I turned 50, I decided that I had to change the track of my life. My kids were getting all grown up, my wife and I had agreed to separate after 25 years. I had been working at Dal for 18 years. It was time to start thinking about how I wanted to spend the next 25 years of my life. No real plan in place, just the thought that since you only go through this life once, I had some ideas in my head that needed some serious consideration.

I am now 54, and about to turn 55 in a few months. I have made a formal announcement of my retirement plans from Dal and have spent the last year or so working on the house, with an eye to leaving it in my wife's care for 6 months to a year.

well, I'm walkin' down the road with my hat on my head
had to leave my mama in my big brass bed
well, sun is shinin' on me and you know it sure feels fine

The basic plan is to go out West and see my brother and sister for a few months, hopefully generating some $$$ by planting trees for the summer. More than likely, I will fly to New Zealand using an around-the-world ticket through Star Alliance. This will use up a major portion of my available funds, so needless to say, I will be working most of the time that I am away.

When I was younger, I always figured that a person needed 3 things to travel when they were older (time, money, health). Since then, I have added one more requirement (mobility). I have spent my last 3 vacations in Ireland, Vancouver Island and Cuba. In each case, I walked, not just to get somewhere, but as a big part of my recreation. I have put in over 500 miles this year, just walking to and from work

I hope to spend a good 6 months in New Zealand, working on WWOOFing farms. After that, it's really up in the air. Hopefully, I'll get to Botswana to see David Young and Cairo to see Brian MacDougall. And of course, back to Ireland.

The themes I want running through my life are simplicity, serendipity and synchronicity. What does all that mean? I'm working on it.

I hope to use this blog to track my travels. Just how online I want to be while travelling is still really up in the air. I've been online since the concept existed and I use the Internet like people use a phone. It is a very cool time to be connected. But it has a cost, in time and in headspace. We shall see.