The Adventures of my Rucksack

This summer I completed my Mountain Leader training, and the last two days involved an expedition: navigate to a camp spot, set up camp and undertake a night navigation. As we hauled our heavy rucksacks out of the vehicle, one of my fellow trainees commented on my rucksack. Mucky and faded, he said something about how it must have been on lots of adventures.

It got me thinking about the stories my rucksack could tell.

I'm trying to remember when I got it, but I'm not sure. I'm pretty sure my parents bought it for me as a Christmas or birthday present. Perhaps it was before the trip to Iceland, where 3 of us toured the ring road looking for waterfalls for the boys to canoe off. It certainly accompanied me on some fun mini adventures in Scotland.

Singing Sands, Scottish Highlands

The rucksack definitely accompanied me to New Zealand. With university done and dusted, Ben and I took off to the other side of the world in search of Middle Earth, the Kiwi lifestyle and the one and only "vanlife".

Abel Tasman National Park, NZ

Yet I'm sure most of my rucksack's faded age and muck came from our two months trekking and exploring in Nepal. For a whole month, the rucksack and I were like one entity. I was like a tortoise, carrying my life around on my back. After a month of clipping the belt around my waste, I suddenly realised there was a patch of skin on my left hip that had gone numb. It took months for it to feel normal again. You can read more about our Nepal trekking adventure here.

Trekking in Nepal

My rucksack has been to Canada, where it enjoyed relaxing in the canoe as Ben and I paddled around the Bowron Lake circuit. It bumped around on my back anytime we had to portage. It accompanied me up on the Skyline Trail in Jasper National Park, and then got all soggy as we bailed from the route due to poor weather and descended back to the highway through the misty woods. My rucksack clung onto my back as I sang "Bear Necessities" the whole way down because I was so scared of bumping into a bear. 

Skyline Trail, Jasper National Park, Canada

Where will my rucksack go next? The Tropics...

My rucksack is a Lowe Alpine Annapurna 65:80.
All photos by Ben McKeown https://www.thebigbluetree.com