Have Gear, Will Travel

I bit the bullet and made my first round of purchases towards my trip today. But just in case, if by some twist of fate a lucrative and meaningful job crashes into my lap before I leave, I chose the "store pick-up" option so that I wouldn't be out the $12 in shipping if I decide to return the whole lot of gear. After scouring the REI.com outlet for unreal end-of-season bargains, I settled on the basics: a backpacking tent, MSR camp stove, water purifier, folding stool (for those tedious hours spent in the field waiting for my furry friends to zip by), and two collapsible vinyl buckets. Why two, you ask? Simple: camp bathing. One bucket to suds myself up in, the other to hold the rinse water. Even an outdoor explorer has to keep clean . . . remember, I'm coming from San Francisco. I consider this a ginormous leap in personal comfort sacrifice. What's more, as I've learned from previous backpacking trips, these buckets are especially useful for tramping creek water back to camp so that I won't have to sit "poolside" while I pump it through my purifier. It's the little conveniences that make any outdoor excursion that much more enjoyable.

I decided to shell out the $60-odd bucks for a purifier rather than haul my own jugs of Arrowhead water (or Dasani, depending on where I find myself) for several reasons. First, compared to the sweet waters of a mountain spring, bottled water tastes like pooh. 'Nuf said. Second, I want to leave as small of a carbon footprint as possible on this journey, and a pick-up truck bed full of empty HDPE containers doesn't quite jive with my goal of greenness. Driving the truck is bad enough, but I'll be glad to have it and it's 15-miles-per-gallon engine when early snowstorms stop me in the Rockies. So, the least I can do is cut down on my paper/plastic/glass waste and not crucify myself for my choice of transportation. Third, I just might decide to backpack a few miles into the wilderness, and a water purification system is therefore an absolute must. Hauling an extra five pounds of water on my back over a 10,000 foot mountain pass is, um, how can I put this gently, stupid? Fourth, I'll always have my purifier, and I am already anticipating the lifetime of trips it will undoubtedly join me on. Now that my sister-in-law is preggers with the family's first grandbaby, I need to live up to the "globe-trotting aunt" persona that my family has already handed to me. Not a bad gig, if you ask me. ;-)