Time away:
24 days
Where to:
Alaska, USA and British Columbia, Canada
Season:
Well… “summer”; inverted commas since in reality we experienced all extremes of weather, from freezing sleety rain with some snow, all the way through to blazing sun and actually quite warm!
Expected activities:
LOTS of hiking; 2 separate camping trips, one was very remote in the mountains of interior Alaska, one was our 3 day kayaking excursion off Vancouver Island, plenty of animal watching and sightseeing mostly in rural areas, a 1 day bicycling tour, a day of rafting, and necessary interludes where you’re just getting from A to B. Yes, it was AMAZING!!!!
Colour scheme:
the ubiquitous grey-scale neutrals … but with plenty of strong solid blue/red/pink/green to give things some pep!
What I packed:
everything is linked to its original construction post…
top row, L to R:
blue dress
black corduroy jeans
khaki hiking pants
4 long sleeved tees + 4 shorter sleeved tees:
paprika, charcoal striped
white striped, dk green, lime green
purple, white
pale grey
white fleece sweater
khaki sunhat
leather satchel, borrowed from Craig
pale pink raincoat
charcoal knitted beanie
goretex jacket (borrowed from Mum)
2nd row, L to R
pink zip-up hoodie
blue corduroy skirt
cherry-red neck warmer
black shorts for kayaking
orange hand warmers
pink hand warmers, a holiday project!
1 pr black tights + 1 black leggings
bottom row L to R:
charcoal mini skirt
bathers
selection of handknitted socks
blue thongs
hiking boots
white sandshoes
black walking shoes
water shoes (borrowed from Mum)
not pictured:
selection of underwear
pyjamas
toiletries bag
knitting
a small-folding backpack for hiking
My daily outfits:
Thoughts:
Sometimes, I enjoy planning my travel wardrobe almost as much as I love the travelling itself! … note; almost… Partly because I love the concept of a capsule wardrobe, paring right back, packing super-light and living with minimal options; and living out of a suitcase forces you to embrace that concept and fully explore its mix’n’match-abilities without the temptation of your entire wardrobe at hand to waylay you from seeing it through.
Having said that though… packing for this particular holiday felt like the biggest packing challenge! 24 days is quite a long time, we covered a lot of ground, moving about a lot, and with a few stretches of roughing it and camping with no laundry opportunities. But mostly because the extremes in weather were, well yes, EXTREME. We were pre-warned to prepare for everything from freezing sleety rain and high winds, hiking through bonafide snowy patches, all the way through to quite warm days with blazing sun! and everything in-between… weather continuously bouncing up and down and all over the shop. And we got it!! I kind of needed something of everything.
And how did it go? Well, as expected for a fairly minimalist pack, everything I brought got worn pretty hard. A few random notes:
1) We were advised to bring water shoes for kayaking, in fact the tour notes specifically said “no thongs” So I borrowed some water shoes from Mum and wore them. But I’m not a fan… the water shoes took aaaaaaaaaaaaages to dry, and this is a real pain in the neck when you’re travelling. This was a little surprising actually, since you’d think that water shoes should be designed to dry quickly, right?! they’re made of of scuba fabric, mesh and rubber, which I would have thought would dry pretty quick, but no. I actually thought thongs would have been fine!
2) My hiking pants were great, but are getting a little tired. I think I need new ones… 
3) I occasionally cursed myself for not tossing in a second pair of black tights because the pair I brought got washed and worn VERY frequently. I’d packed 1pr black leggings as well, specifically to wear with the black shorts for kayaking… and they got worn a few times underneath my hiking pants as “thermals”. And then the kayaking leg was too warm for them after all, haha! SO hard to anticipate what to expect… oh well, I managed!
4) My ivory/pink raincoat… freaking LIFE SAVER and fabulousness in every way. I love that thing equivocally, and as well as being a completely practical item it looked chic, smart and quite stylish too, and not like everyday, rough-and-tumble travel wear at all. Honestly, I think it’s the superficially impractical colour that gives that impression, and yet you can toss it in the machine and it comes up like roses. LOVE IT!!!! It received a few compliments during our trip and people seemed flatteringly surprised that I had made it!
5) Taking the summery blue dress was a risk… that paid off since we had a few days that could almost semi-qualify as almost hot! Thinking style wise though, if I’d stopped to think more I kinda wish I’d packed my red dress rather than the blue one… since I felt I had a LOT of blue in my suitcase. Also, my white canvas tennies were kinda excess to needs, strictly speaking, but I was glad of them… it was nice to have something cute to slip on for the sunny and warmer days.
6) I always pack my bathers, just because you never know, and they don’t take up much space. I didn’t ending up swimming at all on this holiday… too cold!! but Khutzeymateen Wilderness Lodge had a sauna which we used once -and can I just say so faaaaaabulous!! Also I wore the bikini bottoms as “undies” underneath my shorts each day that we kayaked and let them both dry out in the tent overnight.
Final note: I have to admit that even though I’d been told; the weather was far colder than I expected and threw me for a bit of a loop at times. I’d been told to expect it; but even so a small part of me was like… but it’s summer, right? how cold can it be? The answer, VERY!! doh! Fortunately, I’d made several fleece items…. SAVIOURS!!! and the importance of a goretex jacket was impressed upon me, so I’d borrowed Mum’s from their Antarctic excursion and boy was I glad I had that thing too! Camping in the Talkeetna mountains was bitterly cold, with hard driving rain, and even snow.
And now I really want to make my own goretex jacket, but this could be a slow long-term project… watch this space! I also want to make a cross-body messenger bag like this gorgeous caramel leather one that I borrowed from Craig. It’s his “work” bag! I begged for it and he graciously allowed me to use it, haha! and it was absolutely brilliant. The perfect size, looks super cool, and pretty darn tough and hardy too. WANT 
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