How much stuff do you need?

So over the past few weeks we made a list of all the things we will need (or think we will need) for our Alaska / Yukon trip. Given the fact we will be gone for 10 weeks, and during that time, we will be car camping, backpacking, and sea kayaking, we were both getting anxious about whether all that gear would fit in our tiny Subaru.

It's a bit of a paradox: on any extended tour, you want to be as light and agile as possible, but still, given the duration of the trip, we wanted some creature comforts, such as a bigger tent, a couple camp-chairs, etc, since we would be doing this for 10 weeks.

So this anxiety reached a crescendo this past week, and we broke down and stuffed sleeping bags and blankets into duffel bags and backpacks and then loaded them up along with basic kayaking gear, chest cooler, food box, palatial tent, inflatable mattresses, water container, sundry other items, and a partridge in a pear tree.

We were quite relieved when, after we loaded up the Subaru, we realized that we wouldn't be needing to bring a U-haul along with us, or buy an Expedition. Whew!

For a while I was trying to rationalize if we needed to bring so much stuff, but have eventually made peace with the fact that it also depends on the size of the container: an Imprezia stuffed to the ceiling is probably still travelling lighter than the average half-loaded Expedition.

Whether it's a car, or a house, it always seemed best to keep your containers small, so by necessity you remove the temptation to fill these things (and your life) with clutter.

Except now of course.....