I have no idea how, but after packing everything, my pack lost weight from my earlier shakedowns. Rex will share his pack and gear list in the next post. This one is all about me, me, me and what I couldn’t live without for our 57-day journey across Northern Spain.
My pack is the Gregory Jade 38L Pack only weight is 2.8lb / 1.09kg. Dry loaded weight 15.6lb / 7.08kg.
My fanny pack is a large Waterfly Bag only weight is .25lb / .11kg Dry loaded weight 2.6lb / 1.18kg
Below is everything I will be carrying with me.
Unpacked View
My Packing List
Passport Camino credential Wallet (driver’s license, insurance card, credit cards x2) Sleep sheet Comforter Toddler Pillowcase w/zipper Puffy jacket (stuffed in pillowcase for nighttime and wearable if cold) Eye mask Earplugs Shoes x3 (hiking shoes, hiking sandals, shower flip flops) Convertible hiking pants x1 (pants, capris, shorts) Hiking skirt x1 Shirts x3 Lightweight tee shirt dress x1 (for after shower, dinner, outings, and bed) Light windbreaker x1
Rain jacket x1 Undergarments x3 Socks x3 Gloves Baseball cap Neck shade Buff Bandana Arm covers Hand covers Medications x7 (original bottles required) Salt tablets Shampoo/Body/Laundry bar soap Toothpaste/Toothbrush Sunscreen Vaseline Facial moisturizer Lip balm Trekking poles Cell phone Battery pack and cable Earphones Selfie mount
Sunglasses Eyeglasses (w/printed prescription for replacement if needed) Pack rain cover Knee braces Headlamp Spade, TP, wipes, Emergency Toilet kit, and pee towel Bath towel Collapsible water bottle x1 Water tube Umbrella Black large trash bag Small tarp Handheld fan Lacrosse ball Stuff sacks x2 Carabiners x5 Sentimental items (coin, rock, key, dragonfly necklace, lip color, and donkey)
The list was so long and once laid out I didn’t think it would all fit. Then once cinched, scrunched, and stuffed everything went in. I even had a little room to spare.
My total pack and gear weight comes in at 18.2lb / 8.26kg dry (without water or food items I will add along the way). Not bad. Now, it’s time for some more shakedowns.
Only 50 more days!
Question: What comfort item would you refuse to travel without?
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” Benjamin Franklin
Within the hiking community there is a term called a shakedown where a backpacker, in preparation for a long hike, takes their full selection of equipment on shorter trips with the intention of testing its trail-worthiness.
Rex and I officially started this process this week in preparation for our Camino de Santiago trek in September/October. We selected the Camino Frances route which is 562 miles across northern Spain. It should take us about 58 days to complete it from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port in France to the coastal town of Fisterra, Spain. This includes several days of rest throughout the trek since we will no longer need to worry about our limited vacation time. We won’t be carrying a tent since we will be staying in alburgues (hostels) along the trail to the Cathedral in Santiago. If this post has you curious about the trail, there is a movie titled The Way starring Martin Sheen which will give you a great rough overview of the journey.
We will provide our full gear list and photos of what we are packing in a later post. Our recent shakedowns focused on packs and sleeping gear mainly. But our shoes/socks, umbrella, hats, and fanny packs were being tested too.
Rex learned his new Hoka Speedgoat 4 shoes needed to be returned. While super comfy to walk around in, they don’t provide enough support with the added weight of the pack. He is glad he caught this now versus out on the trail where he’d be stuck with them until we got to a town with a sporting goods store. His new 48-liter pack seems to be working well, but now comes the challenge of deciding how much to put in it. It is time to reduce or eliminate as much as possible, because every ounce/gram counts when you have to carry it over 500 miles/800 kms.
I am excited to say my pack (Gregory Jade 38L) fits great. It’s the right size for me and the straps don’t pinch or rub where they shouldn’t. Hopefully, all my stuff will fit into this relatively small pack. I purchased my shoes (Obōz Sawtooth II) over a year ago and they continue to be supportive, comfortable, and leave me blister-free. I get plantar fasciitis and since wearing these I haven’t suffered with it once. The rigid sole support is key to preventing this painful issue.
As a ball cap girl, I was struggling to find a full-coverage hat which wouldn’t hit the top of my pack or collapse into a floppy mess after packing it. After much research, I found a highly recommended hands-free, lightweight, cooling umbrella and bought it. I am so glad I did. It will go down as one of my best purchases for this trip. It is easy to put up and take down in stride. No stopping needed. Now to find the most convenient and comfortable place to secure it when I’m not using it.
Oh, and I almost forget to give a huge shout out to WoolX soft merino wool tee shirts. I’d heard they were fantastic, cooling and odor free, so I had to buy one and try it. So far, no smell after seven days! I thought I might try to see how long it would take before the smell set in, but after seven days, I felt it was time to introduce the shirt to the washing machine.
Shakedown #1 Mileage: 4.15 miles / 6.69 km Road type: Paved Pack weights: Rex 10.6 lbs. / 4.8km – Kara 9 lbs. / 4.08km
Shakedown #2 Mileage: 5 miles / 8.02km Road type: Paved / Dirt Pack weights: Rex 17.4 lbs. / 7.9kg – Kara 15 lbs. / 6.8kg
Shakedown #3 (rain) Mileage: 3.5 miles / 5.63km Road type: Paved Pack weights: Rex 22 lbs. / 10kg – Kara 20.8lbs. / 9.4kg
Shakedown #4 Mileage: 5.15 miles / 8.29km Road type: Paved Pack weights: Rex 22 lbs. / 10kg – Kara 22.4 lbs. / 10.16kg
Our packs are now filled with everything we think we need for the trip and we’re working on increasing mileage with the weight. We know our bodies we won’t be 100% ready for the tough Pyrenees Mountains climb we’ll be facing on day one, but these shakedowns will take some of the “in our control” potential issues out of the equation.
Hello world! We’re Rex and Kara – The Roaming Rountrees. We’re about to embark on something many would consider crazy. For years, we’ve had a dream to quit our jobs and travel the world. I’m sure lots of people have had this same dream at some point. However, few act on it, either for financial reasons, or not wanting to rid themselves of all the “stuff” they’ve collected over their lifetimes. We crunched the numbers and talked through every scenario we could think of and decided life is too short not to say we tried. So, we are giving this a go! We plan to embrace a nomadic lifestyle becoming intentionally homeless while traveling the world and experiencing everything this beautiful planet of ours has to offer. We know there will be many incredible surprises and unexpected challenges along the way, but it will all add up to an epic adventure. We’re going to write about our experiences in this space – both the good and the bad – so come back often and please comment. We’d love to know someone is reading this.
Our dream began taking shape in 2017. Until then, we had an arbitrary goal of retiring early. Sort of a “wouldn’t it be nice” type of thing. But a quote by Antoine de Saint Exupéry has stuck with me for most of my adult life which says, “a goal without a plan is just a dream.” So, we needed a plan.
First step was to sell our Northern California home and downsize to an apartment. Our only child was grown and had moved out, so we didn’t need a 4-bedroom house for just the two of us. The housing market had been climbing for a while and the equity would provide a strong launching pad for our savings plan. We invested the equity in the stock market and started saving toward a goal of retiring within five years.
This date coincided with my employer’s retirement benefit eligibility. Kara would be 53 and I would be 49. It could be possible. It would be scary, but we had to try. If the market turned against us, we still had two well-paying jobs we enjoyed, and no one was forcing us to leave. Our worst-case scenario would be to postpone.
Over the next few years, we focused on our savings. We didn’t go to the extreme of eating Ramen noodles to save 90% of our income like some of the extreme examples of early retirement bloggers, but we did make sacrifices. We still took vacations and went out to eat on occasion, but we cut what we felt were frivolous expenses from our budget.
Any money left over at the end of each month, or unexpected refunds or bonuses went into our “Retirement Bridge” account. We called it a bridge because this savings would be the bridge we’d live off until we could access our 401k accounts at 59½. As we downsized, we sold more and more of our possessions, funneling it all into the bridge account.
We shared our plans with our friends and family, so they understood why we were slowly selling everything we owned. We did not tell our employers, though. If our plan went sideways, we didn’t want anything to jeopardize our jobs. Reactions were mixed from family and friends. They ranged from most congratulating us with, “Wow, that is so exciting!” to those that didn’t fully understand or were silently judging our decision. Ultimately, it didn’t matter what anyone else thought. What mattered was Kara and I were on the same page with what we would need to achieve it.
I will admit, Kara has been further ahead of me throughout this journey, especially on purging possessions. I was reluctant during each increasingly painful cut as we downsized further and further. I am a logical person. I know we cannot move from place to place around the world with a house full of stuff. But I liked my stuff and had spent years accumulating my stuff.
Logically, I knew our oh-so-comfortable recliners could not come with us. But it didn’t make it any easier watching them get carried out of our apartment by a stranger who had bought them for an absolute steal. While many of our “things” were painful to let go, we found it freeing after a while. Minimalism isn’t so bad after all.
We finally took the leap and informed our employers of our intention to retire at the end of August 2022. This is the day it officially became real. Could we still back out? Sure. But then it would feel like quitting on this grand plan after we’d already told everyone about it. We had to do this! Courage is feeling fear but doing it anyway. What we’re about to do is by no means life threatening, but it is scary and is taking all the courage we can muster to walk away from the security of our paychecks.
On September 1st, five years after selling our home to start this process, we give our laptops back to our employers and board a flight to Spain to begin our grand adventure.
We will be walking the Camino de Santiago from Southern France all the way across northern Spain to the Atlantic Ocean. We expect it to take us nearly two months to complete the 562-mile / 904-kilometer journey which will hopefully allow us time to decompress from our hectic, scheduled lives and slowly transition into a more relaxed nomadic cadence. There will be much more to come on this, so stay tuned.
We hope you’ll find interest in our adventures and decide to follow along. We will share our journey, experiences, learnings and at times, random thoughts with you on this blog. Come roam the world with us!
