The Traveling Widower

Tag: backpacking

  • How do you pack for Antarctica?

    I’m less than 3 weeks away from Penguin Day (November 16th), and I just completed my first test pack. I’m in big trouble. I’ve got too much stuff. Way too much for the suitcase I’ve used on every other trip so far. How come you might ask. Well, it’s complicated. First of all, I’ll be gone for almost 2 full weeks, so you need all the basics like underwear, shirts and socks (I plan on using the laundry service which helps a bit)

    And then there’s that weather thing. I’ll start out flying from Sacramento, to Los Angeles, and then on to Santiago where temperatures are similar to where I’m starting – high in the low 80’s. The next day, we fly to Ushuaia, Argentina where we spend the day cruising around the fjords before boarding the Resolution to head off to Antarctica. The weather in that port city can vary between 80 and 50 this time of year, and it will probably be nippy cruising around. I’ll probably want to wear a few layers, and heavier pants since we will be spending time out in the open, photographing the scenery and wildlife. 

    Then we board the ship and spend the next two days at sea navigating the infamous Darwin passage. It will be nice and cozy warm on board. There’s no dress code on National Geographic cruises, but I really don’t want to dress like a complete slob. Jan would be very unhappy if I go back to my old wardrobe habits (jeans, t-shirts, sweat shirts). And there will be times (many I hope) when we will be out in the viewing areas when there are photo opportunities of ocean beasties. Time to don windproof/waterproof layers. 

    Once we get to Antarctica, the fun begins. This is spring time in the land of ice and penguins, with temperatures averaging in the low 20’s (F). That’s really cold, but not that different from skiing in the Rockies. Activities will include kayaking on open inflatable kayaks, cruising in open Zodiac boats to view wildlife and scenery, and on shore “hiking” (snow shoes or cross-country skiing) to commune with the wildlife. Here’s where the packing challenges begin. This is sort of like packing for a ski vacation in, say, Canada, where you are flying to your destination, thus limiting what you can bring along. NatGeo provides the outer layer – a waterproof, hooded shell with a heavy fleece jacket. So you do not need to include that on the way there, but you get to take it home (if you want). Those will take up a lot of luggage space. Or I could just wear them on the plane. That could happen. Good thing I’m flying 1st class and will not have to battle for overhead luggage space.

    All the additional, required winter layers take up a lot of room in luggage. Insulated, waterproof pants are a must for most every activity. Those theoretically could be used for kayaking, but ski pants were not really designed for being immersed in water (which hopefully will not happen), so waterproof kayak pants are a better choice for that activity. And it would be nice to have something else to wear on board for evening gatherings. So that makes a minimum of three pairs of pants, other than what you wear for travel. I went a bit crazy shopping for this trip (hard to believe…it’s become a new hobby for me) – I bought North Face insulated pants, and a pair of fleece pants at the Colorado REI, and already had the kayak bottoms, and a pair of winter weight hiking pants that Jan bought me years ago. So that makes four for packing, although the fleece pants are also a thermal layer. And then I found a really nice pair of fleece lined pants, on sale, the other day. That would be overkill. Darn. I’ll save those for my January trip to Yosemite. 

    My pants dilemma – way too many!

    Thermal layers are thin, but still take up a lot of room in luggage unless you are a small size, which I’m not (tall, not wide!). You need more than one pair of each unless you want to do sink laundry, which is difficult in a small cabin, with a tiny bathroom. A couple of fleece sweaters for wearing on board take up a bit more space. And you need heavy, waterproof gloves, a hat, scarf/buff, and heavy boot socks – no flip flops on this trip. And, it would be nice to have another pair of lightweight, comfortable shoes for wandering around on the ship..sneakers would be a good choice since there is a nice gym on board. 

    And you still need room for all the odds and ends everyone carries on trips (meds, toiletries), and I’ll probably have some overflow from the camera bag. That’s almost worth another post, but I’ll spare you from another boring description of camera gear. Oh yeah, I also need to stuff a small pack in there somehow.

    This is why I always start packing a few weeks before the flight – I have plenty of time to reconsider what I really need for the trip, and can pare down to basics if need be. I do have one larger suitcase, and my next test will be to repack into that one, before I start eliminating items (except for the comfy lined pants….already out). We bought this particular piece of luggage for our one and only cruise so I know it will fit under the bed in my cabin. As long as the weight is under 50lbs, I’m good to go.

    My trips to warmer locals have been a lot easier to pack for, even with cramming snorkel gear into the suitcase. No gloves, heavy sweaters or thermal layers – just shorts, some shirts and a pair of beach shoes. The Alaska trip was relatively easy as well – just rain gear and the kayak stuff. I did bring my down sweater along, but never wore it. With the exception of the Churchill (Northern Lights) trip in 2027, all of my future adventures will be to relatively warm climates, so packing will be easier. Iceland will be in mid-summer – it may be wet, but not freezing cold. Patagonia will be a lot like the Alaska trip – possibly wet, but not freezing. Both the Baja Jones and the Run-from-the-bears Kodiak trips will be easy to pack for since there are limitations on luggage size and weight in the small single engine planes. I’ll be packing a duffel bag for clothing. 

    Since travel has become the focus of my life (Bromberg 2.0), I’m going to have a lot of opportunities to improve on my packing skills. My house will likely continue to develop into an REI outlet store as I find more specialized toys and clothing for the specialized requirements for each adventure. I’ve already got my eyes on a line of hard duffel bags for the Kodiak trip. I’m waiting for someone to invent spray on clothing. It could happen. 

  • How to fit 50 lbs of stuff in a 25 lb bag

    Most of what I packed for the Road Scholars trip – no problem with a Subaru Forrester!

    As I alluded to in a previous post, this one will take a crack at explaining how I have been cramming everything you need for photography, kayaking, snorkeling, hiking and general purpose living for a long adventure, and meet the stringent baggage rules for airlines, small cruise ships and even worse, single engine planes. Yeah, some of the trips I’ll be going on are in remote places, and the only way to get there is on small planes. I even get to go on a float plane for one trip. That will be a real treat. 

    You have already seen photos of the camera gear I may bring along on a trip. As I mentioned, there is much more than just the cameras and lenses – there are lots of chargers, cables, extra batteries, memory cards, lens cleaning stuff – just a lot of extraneous but thankfully small objects that need to find a place somewhere in the luggage. I have four options now for packing camera gear in carry-on luggage:

    1. A Think Tank camera roller bag, which can hold pretty much all my stuff, including the GoPro, and it fits in all overhead storage, including commuter jets. I will never check in my camera bag – too much temptation for baggage handlers. The problem with this bag, is that I wind up with two roller bags in the airport until the big bag is checked. Awkward at best. The photo below illustrates how much you can fit in this bag – 2 camera bodies, the big lens and 3 others, the GoPro gear with plenty of room to spare for a laptop, books, a sweater. The weight with the gear below comes in at 17.5lbs.
    Think Tank photo roller bag.
    1. A LowePro backpack, which holds the same amount of gear as the roller bag, but it’s a real backpack with great back and shoulder support. It also fits in overhead storage, but weighs more than the roller bag. I have yet to use it, but likely will for the Antarctica trip. As you can see below, the backpack holds even more gear than the roller bag, and is comfortable to carry with padded shoulder straps and a real waste supporting hip belt. It too weighed in at 17.5 lbs. My only fear is that it might not fit in coach overhead compartments on smaller planes. I usually fly business/first class, so hopefully it will fit.
    LowePro Backpack – Tons of room
    1. A mid-sized back pack from Think Tank – this was the latest pack added to my collection, and can hold a limited amount of gear. If I bring the 500MM lens, I can fit one camera body, and maybe 2 other lenses. It also has limited space for the other stuff you like to bring along on carry-on luggage – meds, iPad, maybe a light sweater, batteries. I almost need to bring a second, small carry-on for that stuff. The proverbial small piece of luggage that fits under the seat in front of you. Where my big feet are supposed to go. As you can see in the photo below, there is a lot less room for gear in this pack – I can fit all the regular camera, gear, but not the GoPro case, and there is little room for extra stuff in the front pockets. But, it only weighs in at 14.5 lbs, and easily fits in any overhead compartment. Plus, I can use this as a pack for hiking.
    1. And last and least – a smaller LowePro camera pack, with even less space for cameras than the other bag. Good for a trip requiring only two smaller lenses, or just the 300MM and one camera body. It’s basically a day pack. 

    For my trips to-date; Option 4 worked fine for Colorado, since I only needed one body, and 2 smaller lenses; Option 1 worked best for the Galápagos Islands, where I carried pretty much everything I owned for this spectacular trip, where snorkeling and underwater photography were on the agenda; I struggled with packing for the Baja trip – I wanted to see if I could pack less, and wound up buying the in-between sized pack (Option 3) at the last minute (I like shopping at camera stores, almost better than REI). The new pack really was not large enough, and I wound up carrying all the extra stuff in the luggage, which was really full. But it worked. My next two trips will be easy – I’ll need the big lens and 2 bodies, so I’ll take Option 1 or 2, either of which should fit in overhead for all the flights. I hope. 

    One of the key factors to check for each option is the overall weight of the packed bags. Some international flights limit your carry-on weight. For the flight from Guayaquil Ecuador to the Galápagos Islands, I believe it was 19 lbs. The roller bag (#1) worked, but the big backpack (#2) did not. My trips next year will also be a problem, since both have really small planes to get to the final destination. I have not quite figured that one out yet.

    My solution for the carry-on weight problem, is to pack all the extraneous get (chargers, monopod, extensions sticks…pretty much everything but cameras and lenses, in the checked baggage. That seems to work.

    So how about the rest of the stuff you may ask? That depends on the trip. Life was easier for packing before my wife passed – we had two large checked bags plus two carry-ons, and were able to distribute most everything we needed including SCUBA gear, my large shoes, all of my wife’s fancy clothing (I dressed a little more casually). There was always enough room. She had more shoes than me, but hers fit inside mine. We were a great match. Now I’m limited to one reasonably large bag for everything but the camera gear. Bummer. But, by figuring out how much clothing I really need, I can leave more of the space for hiking/snorkeling necessities. The magic key is “on-board laundry”! We did this on our one long cruise to the South Pacific – we paid for the laundry package, and had clothes cleaned almost every day. That left plenty of room for other things. I did that as well on the last Geographic cruise. It’s not that expensive, and relieves a lot of packing pressure.

    Fortunately, for the trips I’ve been on so far, I have been able to just bring very light layers, enough for getting there and back, and a few days worth on board before I send stuff off for laundering. Plenty of room for fins, mask, wet suit, and other items needed for excursions. Trips to colder climates (Alaska, Antarctica) will not be a problem either since I will not be snorkeling – I’ll just need more layers, and some of my expedition level hats and gloves. National Geographic provides a parka and fleece layer for the Antarctica trip, and their are outfitters that provide boots for both trips. No need to try and pack heavy footware for those trips. I’m not sure how I’ll get the heavy parka home though – shipping from Santiago Chile?

    Here is all I packed for the Galapagos Islands – that included snorkel gear (fins, mask, etc), a thin wet suit + other neoprene things, water shoes, light deck shoes, a hiking stick and enough clothing for 6 days to cover travel back/forth to US and a few days on board. The small backpack fit in the luggage. And I wore my huge hiking boots on the flight.

    For the Baja trip, most everything was the same except I had fewer camera components – no large lens and extra body since I thought the whales would be close (sniff). I also left the Sea Life camera behind, and just brought the GoPro. Which I never used (sniff). I wound up repacking the camera gear in the new mid-sized back (Option 3) instead of the smaller bag shown in the photo.

    And then there are auto trips. No problem packing on those, especially with a large SUV acting as my traveling closet. For the long Road Scholars trip, I basically emptied out my closet into the back of my car. Well, not exactly, but I did have a lot of stuff in the car. Plus I could carry all of my camera gear without worrying about weight restrictions. Same goes for whale watching, hummingbird chasing, and anyplace else I decide to drive to this summer.

    One of my trips in 2026 will be a major packing challenge – Baja Jones. For this trip, I’ll be sleeping in a hut on the beach along Laguna Ojo de Libre, which is in the middle of nowhere, Mexico (I upgraded to a hut with an en-suite shower…woo hoo). To get to this very remote place on the Baja peninsula, I will first drive to San Diego (a favorite place), stay overnight in a hotel, and the tour will begin the next morning with a limo drive to Ensenada, Mexico. Assuming our countries are not at war by then, there we will board a single engine Cessna for a 2.5 hour flight which hopefully will land safely in Guerrero Negro. There is a single runway airport there – it looks like it is paved.  I’m not sure what the weight restrictions will be, but I doubt if I’ll be able to carry too much. I’ll probably have more weight dedicated to camera gear than clothing – no hiking, no snorkeling or swimming, so bare minimum for clothing, enough for four days in the hut. Everyone will probably smell like salt weather and whale breath after a day anyway, so who cares what you wear. I’ll have fresh clothes waiting in my traveling closet when we return to San Diego.

    The Kodiak Island (or How to Not be Eaten by a HUGE Bear) trip will likely be a bit simpler – this is a photographers trip, so they will expect the 8 passengers to be carrying a lot of heavy camera gear. Plus, I’m guessing we can leave a suitcase at the hotel in Kodiak, so I can just bring what’s needws for the four days on the fishing boat. That will be a very strange trip – sleeping in a converted shipping container, with a shared bathroom for four people, and sleeping in bunk beds. Not a lot of room for luggage, or anything else for that matter. No laundry on this trip. I hope my roomate does not snore. Or is an axe murderer. Something else to worry about.

    So, I’m definitely learning the ins and outs of photography travel – I hope to have it down by the end of this year, and continue to slim down what I take for each trip going forward. Maybe someone will come up with spray-on clothing.