If anyone that is reading this lives in the northeast, you can certainly understand when I say, “This was one of the worst springs ever!” If the day wasn’t wet and rainy and the sun just happened to peek out, it was too cold to even enjoy going outside. I stared at my idle kayak and bike every day after work and watched another layer of dust build upon them both.
One rainy Saturday, I realized my husband had enough of my whining about the weather when he approached me with his hands on his hips and asked, “Hey, do I look like Jeff Probst?” He was wearing a quick dry, many pocketed, neutral colored shirt and khaki shorts that Jeff often wears on the TV Show Survivor. My husband was trying on his new river clothing. Since we were stuck in the house again, we decided to do a trial run of packing seven days of clothing and personal items into a 12x13x24 inch duffel bag. I bought a duffel bag recently, which I dug out of the closet still in the packaging, thinking that 12x13x24 sounded pretty big!
We got out our Seven Day Grand Canyon packing list and made our respective piles of clothing and other items on the bed. We quickly realized that seven clean changes of clothing will not fit into a duffel bag the required size! I guess Western River knows what they are talking about when the packing list suggests only 2-3 shirts, shorts, etc! I easily downsized my inventory by asking myself questions such as, why do I really need a pair of PJs when I am sure we will all be sleeping in anything dry or somewhat clean river clothes? Why do I care if I wear my same two most comfortable pair of shorts the entire seven days? What do I really need to keep warm at night and dry over the rapids? What is more important, room for my river guide or room for a t-shirt that I like? As we went over our packing list one last time, my husband did have one question that he asked me more than once. I reassured him that it would be okay if he didn’t take a fresh change of underwear for each day of the trip. No one would know – I wouldn’t tell anyone!
Karen Bennett
Download the packing list for our 6 & 7 Day Grand Canyon Rafting Tours.
