It’s starting to feel real!!
Over the weekend my friend A and I went shopping, and started out at REI. I had some hiking socks to pick up, and wanted to look at the backpacks, but I didn’t think that I would walk away with a backpack AND hiking poles! I had come to terms with not finding a backpack that I liked and that was comfortable, but even a continent away, the camino provides.
The backpack is the women’s REI co-op Trail 40 pack, in Medium (and the colour Graystone). It also comes in a Small, and in the colour Oregano. It’s really comfortable. The employee, who I asked many, many questions of, let me know they had bean bags in various weights to put in the packs, so I put in 2 5lb bean bags and walked around for a bit. Granted, I know it’s not the same as trekking through Spain for 6-8hrs at a time, but still….the shoulder straps didn’t dig in at all, and the pack stayed in place. Two pre-camino, pre-training thumbs up. Also, the zipper to the main compartment makes a u-shape (like a suitcase zipper), so there’s no having to dig in through strictly top-loading openings to get to the one item you hastily need, which has fallen to the very bottom. There’s room for a hydration bag, plenty of pockets, and room to hang items on the front, plus two side zip pockets on the hip straps (one on each side). Considering I’m only walking for a week, this backpack is more than perfect for me!
Now the hiking poles. I’ve been debating on getting some, but the more research I did, the more I leaned towards the affirmative. So after finding my pack, we turned to the next aisle and were overwhelmed with choices. And the cost! Holy hell, I didn’t realize two pieces of aluminum and some cork would cost so much. Then, like with the pack, the camino pre-provided. There was a clearance bucket with three sets of poles in it marked down to half the cost of the poles I currently had my eye on. So I tested them out, felt confident they would keep me upright, and added them to my purchase pile. (They’re the REI Co-op Traverse Print Power Lock Cork Trekking Poles – Pair in Antique Moss.) I also grabbed a pack of rubber walking tips for the poles, because I remembered camino alumni talking about the clickity clacks of the metal tips hitting the pavement early in the morning when leaving town. Don’t want to be disrespectful to the townspeople trying to sleep while we all leave at the crack of dawn.
I got some other odds and ends, but I’ll include all those when I do my packing post in late September. Next up, comfortable hiking boots, because my current ones will make my feet curl up and die before the end of day one (That’s a visual for you, eh?).
If you stuck around to this point of the entry then I give you props. Thanks for reading, and Ultreia!
xox
Jess
Jessica Shafer 