Packing and unpacking

I'm off for Whitman tomorrow, where I will spend a week having training and preparing for the rock climbing trip I'm leading the following week. My bags are relatively packed, though the giant Semester in the West duffel isn't quite organized, due to the fact that many of its ingredients are needed for Scramble training and leading as well (sleeping bag, anyone?)

So, what did I end up bringing? Aside from the obvious basics (hopefully 22 pairs of underwear will be enough), there are a few things that I decided on which I hope will make the semester a bit more homey and interesting. Here's the list of Things I Packed Which I'm Really Excited About:

1. My new Carhartt overalls. For those of you who aren't acquainted with the Carhartt brand, they make fantastically durable clothing for people who do hard physical labor in the outdoors, like farming and ranching and stuff. So I got a pair of their quilt-lined double-knee-padded overalls for when it gets cold and miserable, and I'm hoping they're warm enough to make up for my lack of down pants.

2. A deck of American Environmental History cards. These were a Christmas present from my dad last year, and will allow me to annoy and/or amuse everyone in the van by informing them that the area we're driving through was once the site of a pristine wilderness preserve, before we put a dam downriver and flooded the whole thing.

3. A cowboy hat. This is not actually mine; I borrowed it from Clive on the grounds that he won't need it this semester, whereas I clearly will. I'm looking forward to wearing it with my dirty jeans and plaid flannel shirts. Extra points if we actually get to hang out with cows.

4. Planet Earth on DVD. I'm hoping we'll occasionally have enough free time to watch some of the BBC's spectacular footage of our planet, and where better to watch it than in the middle of the desert at night?

5. A copy of Mammal Tracks and Sign by Mark Elbroch. This book weighs about three pounds and is an absurdly comprehensive guide to mammal tracks, scat, dens, hair and just about everything else you could ever find. I doubt we'll have much time for tracking, and I've always been terrible at journaling tracks anyway, but I hope I'll at least be able to read about some of the animals we'll be leaving near.

6. My pillow. I have this awesome square pillow with a tree pattern on it that my friend Anna made me for my birthday in 7th grade. It's probably the most useful present I've ever gotten. I've taken it on almost every outdoor trip I've been on since, because it's the perfect size, super-comfy and really cute. I'm sure by now it's impregnated with a bunch of hair grease, but I still love it dearly and am looking forward to sleeping on it.