Long-Term Travel Gear List

When I spent all of 2011 on the road I slowly built up a gear list of all my stuff. I used it to keep notes about what was and wasn’t working with my equipment for replacement as needed. This page is the home for those constantly-updated, formerly private notes, though there are also a few blog posts about gear here.

There’s a thing with gear lists where people obsess about particular brands and models and having the exact right stuff. The best gear is the gear you already own. This is not a shopping list. Use this as a list of ideas for needs to fill and desirable qualities as you naturally have to replace things. I assembled this gear over the course of five years of travel before my long trip, a full year on the road, and years since. It includes obvious things like “pants” and less obvious tiny-but-occasionally-vital things like “rubber bands”.

I think of gear like r/K selection theory: either get cheap things that are easily worn and replaced, or invest time and money in high quality equipment. For example: as nice as clever collapsible water bottles look, I buy a bottle of water every few weeks and toss it when it’s dirty or I need the space. Either strategy works if you choose deliberately; inconsiderate selection means you’ll waste money and be frustrated with your gear. The two strategies interrelate: buy cheap to get the experience to choose for quality. I share my choices in the hopes they help you make better choices, not because this is the one true gear list. Relatedly, I got a lot of ideas from Tynan’s gear posts. And Matt Might’s list includes tech gear and excellent tips.

Item links go to Amazon because it’s popular, but in Chicago nearly all of this is available cheaper at local outdoors/travel stoors like Uncle Dan’s and chains like REI or Moosejaw. Some products are unspecified because it simply doesn’t matter (eg. toothpaste). But also, I don’t link or list details for products branded with logos; if they’re going to treat me like a billboard, fuck ’em.

Backpack

I have already written about what I look for in a backpack, so I’ll just note that my bag is a GoRuck Radio Ruck (2013, 24L). In early 2014 they shook up their sizes and I think the best choice is the 26L GR1. Don’t hesitate to buy a used GoRuck bag, they are very durable. I keep two Omega Pacific Lite D black carabiners on the internal or external webbing for hooking bags or paracording miscellania.

Previously I carried a Deuter Futura 28. As my gear slowly shrank I wanted a bag that blends in with commuters, and the suspension system that is so nice for hikes makes the bag awkward in every other situation.

My bag has one large internal compartment and a few internal pockets. This improves item lookup of small items from the unordered list’s O(N/2) to a hash map’s O(1), and similarly organizes this page.

Front pocket/pants pockets

Internal top pocket

Internal bottom pocket

Laptop pocket

Main compartment

Thug bag

Even though the signs at the checkpoints often say liquids can only be 3oz, the actual rule, as written and as enforced, is 3.4oz (100ml).

Electronics kit

Sundries bag

Loose items and clothing

I used to keep clothes in Eagle Creek Compression Bags, but they were bulky, inconvenient, and wore out after a few months. Now I achieve much the space savings by “ranger rolling” clothing (this has many names). In short, you invert a flap of few inches of the garment (waistband of pants, waist of shirts, top of socks, etc.), fold into thirds (so the flap can be held in place by compression), tightly roll from the other end, and then wrap the flap over the roll. This may sound complex, but you will be an expert about the third time you try it. Here’s good videos for: t-shirts, long-sleeve shirts, pants, towels, briefs, socks. Dirty clothes can be segregated in a separate plastic grocery bag or by leaving unrolled.

Much of the clothing listed is wool. Modern wool is softer and more comfortable than ten or twenty years ago, making it much superior to cotton in many ways: wool’s more durable, wrinkles relax out of wool, wool doesn’t stick to you to chill you when wet, wool dries faster and, best of all, wool is naturally bacteria-resistant so it takes longer to smell. You can get good clothing from Minus33, Terramar, and Icebreaker; though at any given time most have obnoxious logos.

Read all that? Tell me where you’re headed and if you’ve thought of better gear.