Packing 101: Clothing

Selecting Clothing to Pack

First Rule: Pack less

An old plan for packing calls for you to lay out everything you plan to take, then put half of it back. That is not a bad idea. However, if you follow the Hargrove No Check Checklist, it will do the work for you. For instance, it calls for 3 shirts and 2 pairs of pants, plus the ones you wear on the plane.

The Right Clothing:

This is going to read like an infomercial for Ex Officio. There are several other clothing retailers that have good stuff. I like Ex Officio for several reasons:

• Lightweight, easy-to-pack stuff. When I first saw the nylon-based pants in Papua New Guinea in 1995, I knew they were for me. Lightweight and rugged, they shed wrinkles -- if that matters to you -- and dry quickly. That last is critical.
• Insect Shield™™®: This is a great innovation for birding. Permethrin is bonded to the cloth before it is made into pants, shirts, etc. This gives you lots of bug protection without worrying about putting on DEET. Other companies besides Ex Officio have caught on to this. Everything I wear in the field is treated with Permethrin. I usually apply some myself before leaving on the trip just to be on the safe side. I prefer this to taking something for malaria all the time.
• Several styles, for example, leg bottoms that zip or no, security pockets, etc.
• The underwear is great: I like the fit, and it dries quickly, especially the T-shirts.
• The shirts are also some of my favorite. I usually take three and wear one on the plane. I learned about the combination of a T-shirt and long-sleeve in Thailand from another birder. The T-shirt absorbs all the sweat, helping to keep the shirt wearable another day. Since you have at least two T-shirts, you can wear one while the other is drying from a nightly wash. This actually works quite well.

Linda, the other half of the Jim and Linda birding duo, prefers some pants she bought at Royal Robbins some time ago. The come with some Teflon woven into the fabric. This means they shed water like a duck's back. When washed, they dry quickly. When they get rained on, it doesn't take long for them to recover. They lack Permethrin woven into the fabric. I always treat them before we leave on a trip.

For warmth, we use layers. For the coldest spots, there is nothing better than modern thermal underwear, which is lightweight and warm. In addition, we use a "fleece" jacket. made from old plastic bottles. This is very warm, light weight, and crushable.

You will probably want to try some of these ideas and decide what you like. Just make sure it is light weight and quick drying.

OK. We've mentioned quick drying enough that you probably know where this is all heading. There are two secrets to packing light:

1. Wear the clothes several days before declaring them dirty. Your fellow birders won't even notice, particularly if you have several identical pants and shirts.
2. Plan on washing. We use some packets of Woolite. These packets don't count as liquids so far as the TSA is concerned, so you can carry enough for the trip. We buy them in convenient 10-packs. Be sure you have a universal stopper along. Many, probably most, sinks you'll encounter on a typical birding trip won't hold water using the built-in stopper, even in 5-star hotels.

If you travel like us, you plan to arrive early for the start of the tour. That means that your first night is a great time to wash clothes. Don't pass it up.

Some caveats:

• Don';t wash socks. You'll notice that the Hargrove No Check Checklist includes many pairs of socks. I have tried to find socks that can be washed in a sink and dried overnight. Unfortunately, the ones that dry quickly are too thin to be of much use with hiking boots. Plan to take lots of socks and have them washed by the lodge staff someplace with a drying room.
• Beware of the humidity: Sometimes, it is simply too humid for anything to dry well. Turn the washing over to the lodge staff, provided they have some place to dry the clothing. Don't be shy about asking about a drying room. This led to a wonderful tour of the lodge's hydroelectric plant once in Ecuador.

Packing 101: Rollaboards and Day Packs

As you may know, we are famous for traveling on birding trips with two rollaboards and day packs. In this post, I will discuss why we chose the ones we use.

A Confession: 

It is much easier to pull this off when two people travel together. If you are traveling by yourself, it will be harder to pack everything you need without checking.

Another point of view: 

Our son thinks we are wimps to use rollaboards. He opts for a "large backpack," which he hoists easily onto his shoulders. We prefer to delay the hoisting until we spot an open space in the overhead racks on the plane.

First Rule of Luggage:

With apologies to Henry Ford: Choose any color you want, so long as it isn't black. I had the unpleasant experience in Barranquilla, Colombia of returning to the airport at midnight to claim my bag, which had failed to arrive in the checked items. I watched a succession of black bags that looked a lot like mine circulate around the carousel before finally spotting mine. This was before we stopped checking bags, but you may be forced to check a bag even when you don't plan to. Sometimes, the overhead space is full by the time you get on.

Now, we have one bright orange and one bright blue rollaboard. Much easier to see.

Another Rule: Never put anything valuable in a bag that is going to be checked.

Never! Never!

I lost a pair of spare binocs that way. The bag was locked when I checked it, and it was locked when I claimed it. The binocs were gone. Don't trust anyone in the baggage handling chain, included TSA agents.

Rollaboards: Hard-sided or Soft?

We travel with one of each. Both hard sided and soft sided luggage have advantages and disadvantages. Whichever one you use make sure it satisfies the airline rules for sizes. These are not all the same, but generally 22x14x9" will always fit. Some rollaboards are 23" high. (Apologies to anyone who uses metric.)

This site is useful: http://www.luggagepros.com/travel/carry-on.shtml

Hard-sided Pro and Con

Pro: 

• The size is fixed. If you can close the case, you are sure it will fit in the overhead compartment.
• Most such cases come with built-in locks
• Better protection for fragile items, such as spare binocs or small cameras
• Most use the portmanteau style: They open up flat giving you two sides to pack. This makes it easier to organize the items. (More on this below.)

Con:

• These usually cost more than soft-sided.
• They are not expandable

Soft-sided Pro and Con

Pro:

• They are expandable, which is useful on the trip home when you may have gifts, etc.
• They tend to be a bit larger than the hard-sided ones
• Can be had cheaply. The one we are using cost $69 from Amazon. I have found that no luggage stands up to airline handling for long, so I don't like the expensive stuff. YMMV.
• Usually have several convenient outside pockets, good for magazines, etc.

Con:

• Don't have built-in locks. That means you have to keep up with the locks for the entire trip. I toss in a few spares, just in case.
• Not as much protection for fragile items.
• It's easy to overpack one, making it impossible to fit in the overhead compartments. You can see someone working on this on almost every flight.
• Usually have one big compartment, which makes organizing the contents a bit more difficult. Hint: I like to use Packing Cubes. for organization. More on this later when I get to the actual packing.

Day Packs

We each carry a day pack for travel, which we call our "personal item" if challenged by airline personnel. You have to make sure that this will fit under the seat in case you aren't able to store it overhead. Today, with more people carrying on luggage it is often a problem to deal with these. That means that you can't get away with a huge pack.

My pack is a "TSA Friendly" pack, suitable for packing a laptop. This eliminates the need to take the laptop out of the backpack, which is very helpful. Note, if you are a TSA Pre-check traveler you won't have to remove the laptop, at least not most of the time. I highly recommend 

Global Online Enrollment System (GOES)  if you travel outside the USA frequently. This includes TSA Pre-check. Enrollment is a bit of a bother, but well worth the time.

This bag has lots of compartments, which I like. Of course, that means you have to be careful to put everything in its place. Being just a bit OC sometimes helps. This, BTW is where I usually store the passports when we aren't going to need them. Other times, they go in my vest.

Linda uses a different type of backpack, one that is basically one compartment, with a small compartment for important items, such as lip balm. It holds a lot, so we tend to use it for things such as rain jackets that can be crammed into the bottom, with binocs on top,

Note: you should never let the airline have your day pack if there is any alternative. This is where the important stuff for the trip goes.

Travel Vests:

I always wear a vest when traveling. What you wear is not baggage. The airline can't have it. I use this to make sure I will arrive with some insect repellant (in single use packets, not liquid) and emergency meds (Loperamide/Imodium, for example.) The No Check Checklist has suggestions for what to put in the vest.

Note that you can use the strategy of wearing items to save space in a pinch, for example, a hat, or even binoculars and a camera.

A Triple Prime Birthday

Today I have a triple prime birthday; one where the age is the product of three distinct prime numbers. You don't have many of these:

• 30 = 2*3*5
• 42 = 2*3*7
• 66 = 2*3*11
• 70 = 2*5*7
• 78 = 2*3*13

Then the ones only a few people see:

• 102 = 2*3*17
• 110 = 2*5*11
• 114 = 2*3*19

I'll let you figure out which one is mine.

Some pictures from San Blas

Left the grandkids in charge of their parents for a day and took a quick birding trip to San Blas. Nice outing. Most of the birds were some we had seen before, but we did have two lifers out of about 60 species.

I'll get back to Parking 101 later. Time for the Revolution Day Parade in Sayulita.

Some photos from the trip:

American Crocodile, just to prove we aren't bird snobs

Cooperative Gray Hawk

The best view ever of a Bare-throated Tiger-heron.

Packing 101: The Hargrove NoCheckChecklist

You can download the checklist at http://hargrove.org/2014/PDF/NoCheckChecklist.pdf
I'll be expanding on the items in the list in future posts.

Packing 101: Overview

Here is an outline of the upcoming posts on packing for a birding trip. I hope to get this all written this week while on vacation. Note: Results not guaranteed, YMMV

1. The Hargrove No Check Checklist, what you all have been waiting for. The answer first, then the explanation.
2. Sharing the load: It's much easier for a couple
3. Tools of the trade
• Rollaboards: Pros and Cons
• Day Packs
• Packing cubes and other tricks
• Clothing choices: Insect Shield
• Preparing for washing: Woolite and a stopper
4. Dealing with TSA and the Airlines
• LGA bag
• Limits on size and weight
• Worst case planning: What goes where
5. Cramming it all in
• Big items first: Shoes
• Rolling up
• Nooks and crannies
• Leaving things out
6. Difficult to pack items: you may have to check a bag
• Trekking poles
• Tripods
• Rubber boots
7. How not to forget something: checklists

Family Vacation in Sayulita

Kicking back with family and friends in large rented house in Sayulita, Nayarit. Planning to bird up to San Blas tomorrow. Today, have some nice birds from the breakfast table:

Mexican (Yellow-winged) Cacique
West Mexican Chachalacas (Calling from distant trees)
Orange-fronted Parakeets flying past
Flock of Snowy Egrets against the hillside

And a lifer: Sinaloa Crow.

Quick post just to get started:

I'm converting from an email blog to the real thing. Report on recent trip to Cauca Valley Colombia can be found at www.hargrove.org/2014/PDF/CaucaValleyTripBlog.pdf. This is the complete report with photos. More photos are online at google+, mostly unedited.

Coming soon: The answer, "How do you manage to travel with so little luggage?"

Packing 101 will begin soon.