That's It?!

Every family has its own rules and language and philosophies that become ingrained into our beings over the years.  Here were two of our main ones:

1. Whatever goes down Saturday night, your butt will be at Mass on Sunday morning.
2. Burckells don’t check.

That’s right, you heard me, the Burckells don’t check.  EVER.  What that means is that if we were going on a quick weekend trip or two weeks in the Caribbean, that suitcase is going over our heads on the plane, nothing gets checked.  This was a non-negotiable with my dad and I’ll never forget the first time I flew in college “as an adult” on spring break with my friend Celia and we checked our suitcases.  I wandered the airport with only my purse and an US Weekly magazine and felt like a true queen in the ultimate act of Burckell rebellion.  Why am I sharing this?  Growing up as a required “carry on-er” means that I am an excellent packer.  Not to toot my own horn (toot toot), but one of my true talents is the ability to pack quickly and efficiently and not overthink my choices.  One would think this would have made packing my pack for this trip much easier...it did not.

Packing for this trip has been perhaps more challenging than the actual trip (we will report back on that later).  

What is the absolute least amount of gear we can bring to survive?  And are those things heavy? And are those things one million dollars at REI? 

Here is what we ended up with:

• Tent
• Sleeping Bag, Sleeping Pad, tiny inflatable pillow
• Rain jacket, hiking clothes, underwear, socks, sports bra
• Propane tank & burner attachment, 1 pot to boil water, plastic bowl, cup, fork & spoon
• Wipes, toothpaste & toothbrush
• Luxury items like journal, power bank, camera, and a tube of icy hot
• Bear bags, first aid stuff, head lamp, water filter, bug spray
• Food for each day (bars, peanut butter, & MRE type add water dinners)

…and that’s it.

Is that the right stuff?  I don’t know.  I think so, but only time will tell.   We weighed in last night and both of our packs are at about 25 Lbs.  We were hoping to be closer to around 20 LBs and did an edit last night removing any duplicates of things we both brought to try and get it down a bit, but the final weigh in is right at 25 Lbs.  I guess the only spark of hope here is that the pack will get slightly lighter each day as we eat.

I am typing this from the backseat of my parents’ car as we head southwest to Amicalola Falls State Park in Georgia.  I keep getting the giggles because it is really quite a pleasure to climb in the backseat as an adult and let your parents drive you on a road trip.  We are a couple hours in and normally by this point in a trip, the little ones are begging for goldfish or gummy worms or Nintendo Switch time or to listen to the Frozen soundtrack.  This drive feels so very civilized.

It is also pouring rain.  The forecast looks like we might possibly encounter a lot of rain this week.  When we first started planning this trip months ago, I promised my mom that if the week we picked looked rainy, we would just pick another week to do the hike.  It looks like I am a liar, liar pants on fire because we are moving forward! No turning back now!

This morning as Brandon and I were making coffee and breakfast for the crew before it was time to hit the road, he turned to me and said, “I guess you are really doing this.”  We all laughed and I couldn’t think of a better way to sum up how I am thinking and feeling right now.  “Yes, I think we are in fact doing this.”  This is the first of what I hope will be many AT backpacking trips over the years and I know that we will make some mistakes as we learn and get our footing with this new hobby, but that is kind of the point for me.  My normal day to day is so scheduled with work and kids and all the things and I am so looking forward to waking up the sound of birds (or rain) and just tying up my boots and starting the day’s walk.

I gave my husband a kiss and these sweet littles a squeeze and we are off.  That right, we are really doing this.