Traveling for a long period of time is an incredible experience. You get to explore places as quickly or as deeply as you want, you learn to live with less and appreciate more, and if you enjoy the outdoors, you get to play in them daily. But it’s not all sunshine and mountains. There are days when your adventures get rained out, days when you feel the dirt seeping into your bloodstream, days when your traveling partner becomes the most annoying person on the planet. Those days only make up 5-10% of an entire trip, but surviving them is key to enjoying the experience of traveling as a whole (and also not committing murder, blowing your budget on hotel rooms, or dying of dehydration). This list, though by no means comprehensive, is intended to help mitigate the small stresses that accumulate and cause shitty breakdown days, thus leaving you with more time to enjoy your journey.
Inherent Assumptions:
1) You have NOT purchased a $50,000+ vehicle/camper/trailer in which to travel. If you have, you probably have a lot of these already included in your fancy schmancy rig. This one’s for us poor folks.
2) You already know the basics of what you should bring on any trip (stove, tent, toiletries, etc.)
3) You, in general, are traveling on a budget, and do not plan to eat out every meal, stay in hotels, or go paragliding in every town.
4) You plan to be outside, a lot.
The 10 Essentials:
1) A strong, yet flexible organization system. You will access your stuff a dozen times a day or more. In order to not have this drive you insane, you need to know exactly where everything is and be able to get to it in less than 30 seconds. Our system was detailed in my very long post about kitting out the Subaru, but the essentials are this:
– Like with like. Our boxes were: toiletries, first aid, cooking equipment, pantry food (rice, sauces, cans), backpacking goodies, hats, and then a bag each of clothing.
– Most frequently used stuff is easiest to reach.
– Each person has their own box for personal gear/equipment
– Hard sided containers are easy to arrange and take in and out, but some soft sided storage is good for weird spaces or things that fluctuate in volume (clothing, snack foods)
2) Means for separation from traveling companions (if applicable). If you’re traveling alone, more power to you. If not, read on. No matter how much you love your traveling companion, you will eventually drive each other crazy. The stresses of being confined to a small space and sharing decision making build up over time and at some point, one or both of you will break. Expect and plan for this- on a regular basis, spend a day doing different things (a bike comes in handy, but you can also arrange for drop offs), then come back together and recap. You’ll appreciate your time together more, and still feel like you’re your own human.
3) Water carrying capacity of 10 L or more. 10 gallons would be better. Water can be surprisingly hard to find, especially if you’re traveling through remote areas or away from towns. Having a big container that can be filled and used for several days cuts down on the chances of realizing you don’t have enough water to make coffee. A container with a pour spout can double as a shower- a hot shower if you leave it baking in the sun for an afternoon.
4) Folding table and chairs. Why? I can’t exactly characterize the superior comfort of cooking at a table vs. on the ground, or sitting in a chair vs. on the ground, but trust us that the $50 investment will pay off the first time you reach a dispersed site and want to hang around for a few hours.
Also, you can take the chairs to outdoor movies, concerts, riverside picnics, etc. Make sure to test out the table before you commit to it- some are more stable than others, and a wobbly table is a pain.
5) Good maps and guides. Navigation and planning are equal parts fun and infuriating. While Google Maps is great, being able to see the big picture on a paper map is pretty priceless. You can usually pick up a basic state road map at visitor’s centers, and use Google to fill in on the go. For hiking and trail running, a combination of NPS/USFS brochures (often available for download online and in paper at visitors centers) and a good GPS app on a mobile phone has worked well for us. I highly recommend both Gaia (DIY and on-a-whim navigation) and Trail Run Project (better for established routes). A guidebook of free and cheap campsites is helpful (The Wright Guide is no-frills and awesome) because free-campsites.net is not comprehensive and doesn’t work when you’re in the middle of nowhere without cell service.
6) A Utah-heat-proof cooler. I’m not saying you have to buy a Yeti (but if you do, you won’t be disappointed), but a $20 Coleman was NOT cutting it for us. Shelling out for a cooler that holds ice for more than 2 days means, obviously, buying less ice, but also, less food waste, an ability to be out of a town for longer and still eat fresh.
7) TOYS. Cards, books, dice, Frisbee, bikes, blow up floats, etc. Bring as much fun stuff as you can without crowding out your car. Hopefully, your journey will be a mix of big epic adventure days and downtime. Toys not only expand your fun quotient on off days, they create socialization opportunities with other humans, and you’ll be able to float down a river on a whim*, or take a bike ride in a new town, without bothering to rent anything. Plus, cards, books and dice might save your relationship when you’re confined inside by rain for days on end (see below).
*I’d almost consider a watercraft or flotation of some sort a mandatory item in itself. An inflatable kayak or SUP offer loads of fun opportunities, but they take up space. We bought these two little floatation tubes for $3 apiece and they’ve lasted 3 summers of fun. Small and light enough to throw in on a fastpacking trip, but they’ve survived shallow rivers and bushwacking down banks too.
8) A place to escape from the rain. If you have a van, or other space in which you can stand up fully, congratulations, you have this one covered. For anyone else, do not underestimate the power of rain to dampen your spirits. Rain itself is great, but cooking in the rain, setting up in the rain, hanging out in the rain… none of those things are great. You need either a good, easy to set up shelter system (a cheap tarp and some paracord comes in very handy!), a solid rain jacket, or a separate part of your budget dedicated to indoors activities on crappy days (happy hours, museums, movies, etc).
9) Duct tape. If I have to point out the merits of duct tape to you, you probably aren’t emotionally ready to travel.
10) An efficient coffee making system. I’m not stretching for a tenth item here. I regard coffee very seriously as a make-or-break your day item. For early morning starts, long drives, and to battle general laziness, coffee is essential. And if coffee takes too long to make, then you will try and skip it, and you will end up regretting it. A simple pour-over drip cone has been the easiest for us, but if you want to go SUPER easy, you can do instant coffee. For lazier mornings, we also have a plastic French press, but a daily ritual of cleaning out the press gets old, so it sees less frequent use. (Yes, if you read that carefully, we have 2 coffee making systems. This is serious business.)
…And a Few Luxuries:
1) A Mini-Bar- Beer and whiskey are essentials before essentials, along the lines of a tent and sleeping bag. However, it is very easy to step it up a notch and keep your fancy tastes from ruining your budget by packing along the necessary ingredients for making your favorite cocktails on the road. We love margaritas, Manhattans, and Negronis, so our kit has: sweet vermouth, Campari, bitters, simple syrup, lime and lemon juice, decent gin, decent tequila, decent whiskey (but that’s on the “bedside table” for nightly access), and some very good Westland whiskey for special occasions. Being able to concoct something resembling a margarita on a sunny afternoon, or making a perfect Manhattan on a cold evening, is a luxury well worth the cubic foot of space the box takes up. Plus, having a little bar means it’s easy to make friends around a campground.
2) A Foam Roller- While other massage tools may be smaller (and we brought those too), there’s something nice about the way a session on the foam roller works out the kinks from a month of sleeping on hard surfaces.
3) A computer- Sure, you can book things and navigate and make plans from your phone. BUT. A computer makes things easier. It makes it possible to watch a downloaded movie on the 3rd straight day of rain. It makes it easier to write blog posts about watching downloaded movies on the 3rd straight day of rain. Unless your goal is complete disavowal of technology, a computer is worth it.
I’m not saying that bringing all 13 of the things listed above will make your trip a perfect success, but hopefully you’ll get a few more hours of fun out of a day. Let me know what you think some essentials to happy wandering are- this list is as flexible as our travel plans!
The Life and Times of Little Red Running Shorts 
There are times/places/situations wherein having a small (5 or even 3-gallon) gas can on board would (or at least could) come in super handy. That’s something we think about and plan to add when we’re in more remote areas, driving roads we could essentially drive for days (or weeks!) at a time with no gas station options within 60/80/100 miles. Also, cash. Not much, but an intentional stash, just in case(s).