Nothing like the last minute

When it’s comes to packing there are all kinds of approaches. Some people prefer to start the process two weeks or more before they leave home. Others don’t even think about getting the suitcase out until the night before they leave. I fall somewhere between these two options, and usually live and die by lists. I’ll think hard about what I’m taking far ahead of time and pack my back in my head several time before I get started. Knowing that I’ll be gone from work for so long I’ve been putting in extra hours to help make sure that everything goes smoothly while I’m gone and to make sure that I’ve left everything in the best possible condition for the rest of the people on my team. This means that I’ve had limited packing time, and the lists that I make both imaginary and digital have been invaluable lately.
We did a packing trial on Saturday all together to see how things were fitting and make sure that none of us were overdoing it. Everything fit and we all came in close to the same weight, so that’s a great start. Unfortunately I had a lot of stand-ins in my backpack as I was missing things that had been delayed in transit or I hadn’t made a decision on yet. Monday I was confident that I had time and I was just about ready. Tuesday I was still feeling good, but had more lists with vague, unhelpful  items like “toiletries” and “clothes that you’re forgetting ”. Tonight I’m pretty sure if I left now I’d be ok, but I don’t know what toiletries even entail or what I’m wearing when I arrive.
Things are still delayed in some cases, but times up, so everything I do have is in my packing cubes and has been fitted into my backpack. You need surprisingly little on The Way, and I packed thusly:
-3 shirts
-2 leggings
-1 hiking pants
-1 pair flip flops
-1 pair ugliest walking shoes ever
- 3 sets socks
- assorted toiletries that I no longer understand
- 1 hat for preventing squinting and soggy hair that will happen anyway
- 1 base layer
- 1 puffy jacket
- 1 rain jacket
- 1 ultralight down throw (thanks hammock dwellers!)
- 1 silk liner that amazon swears will get here tomorrow
- 1 mirrorless camera
- chargers that I think go to the things in my bag
- 1 dumb watch for keeping my phone out of my hand
- 1 tiny purse for my kindle, passport, etc
- Guidebook
- Pilgrims Credential
- euros that my cats were NOT interested in posing with.

In theory your pack should be no more than 10% of your body weight. I’m not going to make any disclosures, but I’m under that number so far. Given that I’m taking my Deva, which is luxuriously comfortable, but weighty while empty (4.9lbs) that’s pretty impressive.

For now, I’m going to bed. I’m going in to work early, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the alarm I think I disabled on my fancy new knockoff watch is going to go off in the middle of the night.