Hello again, Jan here!
Prepping.
No one likes it, but it's a chore that needs to be done to make things go silky smooth later.
Some fancy boxes that would have covered the cost of shipping a cardboard box with my stuff across Canada. but hey, now i can use it as a step stool!
Preparation started 4 weeks before the journey and as governed by a new line of work - it dictates what can be packed and for how long. In my case, the new line of work requires me to move myself and some possessions to head on out there to do the tasks at hand and I'll be out there for around 6 months or so. So again, in my instance, packing some extras and conventional(?) stuff. Like a desktop computer but I'll also be road tripping across Canada to get to said-work and plan to be camping along the way.
As wonderful as the great outdoors will be out there, I expect some down time and can't exactly assume I'll be wheeling down crazy ATV trails, flying bush planes and landing within 100 feet of a shoreline, white river rafting and fishing down the Yukon river, or whatever exciting adventure that i don't know about just yet, every single day. However with how integrated most people's lives are with technology (including our social ability to talk to people online) I don't think one could be shamed for bringing with them their good home PC but since i have a NAS server that isn't protected enough to travel, best to say it has to stay home... So Remote access is a thing and it has improved over the existence of the pandemic why not just remote into my good PC instead of bringing it?
So i re-built my first PC as an access point. Why go to these extents? Because spend $500 prepping and packing a desktop PC wins over getting a new $500 laptop. My pride simply doesn't allow me to submit to getting a laptop. No huge hate on laptops, but got to do things the old-school way! Thus is the Bush life! No such thing as glamping, only a lean-to built from the finest of pine firs and where we whittle down our own forks and spoons and and sleep on dirt mats made of only the finest Alpaca wool you ever did see! I'd rather repurpose what i have and see if it works.
Intel i5 2500 with a Hyper 212 black edition heatsink with some fractal design case fans. Blazing fast DDR3 RAM screaming at 1300Mhz on a good day. Paired with an aging EVGA 760 SuperClock GPU all on an Asus P8Z68V-Gen 3 Mobo. This baby screamed playing Star Citizen at glorious 15FPS at 1080p. A build like this powered by a brand new 650W Bronze Gigabyte PSU, it's super good enough to watch Neet-flix off the home server. oh and using it as a space heater at night so don't mind the 90+c temps at full load
Anyways with that tangent done and dealt with, back to prepping.
Boxes, Bags, Totes, McGotes, if you can get it to fit like little legos or tetris blocks, by all means use it. But what to bring? Overland Bound, a community dedicated to vehicle based sustainability and travel and their motto is "adventure is necessary" have already got that list made so i followed it with a grain
of salt.
2 gallons of water per person per day, besides that - we don't need much to survive.
but if that's too hardcore for you then check out these guides they've written;
The camping checklist and the The Ultimate Overland Checklist
Two straight forward lists containing; Shelter, Bedding, Cooking, Clothes, Personal, Misc, mostly all in the "Three Cases" guide. As mentioned above, take it with a grain of salt as you don't need everything and the kitchen sink. well actually bringing a kitchen sink wouldn't be a bad idea as you can wash your pots and pans with it... I don't think i have any more room.
Currently as of writing this I have 4 boxes and 5 bags. and I'm still figuring out how to pack dry food. McRaunchy it is!
1) Tools. Tools that will stay with the vehicle. Everything from Tow-straps to jumper cables, from winch pulleys, to torque wrenches, from jack stands to a pair of spare Croc-brand Crocs.
2) Cooking Gear; Coleman stove, a fuel bottle, a bag of utensiles, cups, a mess kit, Ziplock bags, paper plates and paper towels, and a frying pan.
Added wood rails to lift the Coleman stove to have some room under it, utilizing as much room as possible. Usable room is good room.
3) Camping Gear; Ground tent, tarps, ropes, stakes, ground mat, sleeping pad, and a full hammock system. Going over multiple days, especially with a vehicle, there is no reason NOT to bring a spare method of sleeping. after a few nights setting up and down a ground tent, you'll get annoyed. However, throw in the mix of something different, it helps with the back problems.
4) Cooler: [insert food here] I have a 12 pack of Mr. Noodles, i aint doing much fancy dishes. Packing food for travel should be made in one of two ways. 1) as simple as possible to minimize the complexity of cooking. 2) just make it before hand and use a stove or something to re-heat it. Keep it simple.
5+) As many bags as possible to fit everything else. From clothes, to a spare winter jacket, to extra pants. Trust me, You don't want to dry a pair of pants over a bonfire in the middle of a forest. People will think you're in a cult or something.
100% not a cult thing. Trust us on it, we are whole grain crazy people, there is a difference.
With that said, Pack whatever you think you need; Camera gear and GoPros to your fave collection of paperback books. There are as many guides as opinions out there and if you're traveling by vehicle, then weight isn't toooo much of a concern until it is. But hey, the B-25s Bombers from the Second World War that partook in the Doolittle raids had fuel bladders shoved into literally every nook and cranny they could get them into. So bringing extra fuel cans isn't a bad idea.
