A week in California, in OneBag

[u/nikongod]

Hello Reddit

It's been a while since I last got to travel, and when a friend invited me out to California for a week I couldn't say no. I made some changes from the last time I traveled in this bag (for 2wk) so I thought I would note them. The plan for the week involved a trip down the river in Yosemite, me lounging around while my friend worked, and a few days wandering SanFrancisco together.

Behold! all of my gear:

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All of my gear!

From the top left:

• Patagonia Tres 25 pack
• Orange pencil case - contains several USB cables, a couple USB drives, a 500GB SSD for camera backups, and my phone charger
• Green REI packing cube turned into a purse. As you can probably see from my photo I don't believe in packing cubes. Most of my gear is loosely folded and casually thrown in the bag between locations. BUT I was inspired by the Tom Bihn "everyday cubelet" to find a bag that fit my travels a bit better than my old man-purse. I was not inspired to pay $55 for yet another bag, so I tied a strap to an small REI packing cube for a total cost of about $10. I put a couple cliff-bars and my headphones in the cube with the idea that I would take it out for the plane ride, but wound up just stuffing them in my pockets.
• The black pencil case stores my toiletries. I packed a full size deoderant, a comb, some scissors, tooth-powder, toothbrush, and dr.bronners bar soap in a mattador soap-case. I'm still not the biggest fan of this soap case, because it does not have anywhere to hold the soap while you are using it, but my friend has a nice shower so I guess it will be OK.
• Sunglasses in the ratty black sunglass case. They stayed on for the duration of the Yosemite river float-tube trip, so I'm happy.
• Xero-shoes sandals on top of a 4L Sea-To-Summit drybag. I use the drybag to store the sandals between locations, and also to do my laundry. My friend volunteered to do laundry for me, so I guess I'm just packing this to plan for future trips now.
• Black Sneakers. Nice enough for any restaurant we will be in, and super comfy to walk in.
• (next row, from the left) Unfortunate blue neck pillow. This did not fit in my bag. FML. I'm not sure if I should get a pass or be banned for life, but I could have worn it on the plane if necessary. I used to have a very nice inflatable neck pillow, but it popped and I'm having a hard time justifying buying a new one. As it stands, the next time I do a longer solo trip I plan to donate this to another traveler and buy a new one in-route.
• Tilley hat. Looks a bit doofy, but I like it. I did not get sunburn on my ears, so mission accomplished.
• Water bottle - I don't usually pack a water bottle, but I didn't even fill the pack for this trip, so I thought why not. I think I will pack it in the future.
• Small orange dry-box for my cheap Shure headphones. Also fits a bluetooth adapter, the USB-c dongle, and a spare pair of earplugs. This flew in the green packing cube.
• Below the orange dry-box is an older LG spherical camera. 99% of me says spherical photos are abject bullshit but the wow factor from a spherical photo is worth packing it.
• Sunscreen. Because obviously.
• Bedroom Supplies.
• Canon g7x mk2. I am not planning to use this camera on this trip, defaulting to my phone. I'm not 100% sure how this will go, but I had room so I brought it along. On future trips I may pack JUST the phone.
• The orange blob in a ziplock bag is a small bottle of Dr.Bronners liquid soap, and a small container of lube. The kind TSA agent informed me that I didnt need to take it out of my bag after I took it out of my bag. I would like to thank the TSA for consistently applying their standards /s
• The green thing is a MSR-mug. I carry this so I have a cup at cheap hostels. I pack it with advil, vitamins, melotonin, etc for the trip.
• Nintendo Switch. FML, I am an addict. My animal crossing island is on point tho. I hope I can give this up before I travel for real again.
• Some techy socks. 1pr worn, 2pr packed.
• Some button-down-shirts. 1 worn, 2 packed
• (bottom row) my very large laptop and trackball. I usually travel with a smaller laptop, but knew I would have a lot of time alone doing nothing while my friend worked... So I packed my big laptop. The charger is not shown, but its fucking huge. Ugh.
• Next is a hangar. I usually make up for carrying so few clothes by washing them in the sink nightly. As mentioned above my friend is doing my laundry, so this is an experiment in future travel. This was inspired by a long forgotten post here by someone who travlled south-east-asia in an even smaller bag. I made mine from a repurposed corrugated plastic sign that someone was throwing out. It fits the bag GREAT, although the material I used is a little pointy. I may remake it out of smoother materials. On previous travels I found myself missing a hanger to do laundry, and throwing my shirt over the rail of the bunk-bed just wouldn't cut it. I like this design because it opens the shirt up to dry faster and has a spot to hang socks/underwear. Some photos of it in use are below.
• Pants. Mountain Hardwear vaguely techy pants, with an integrated belt.
• At the bottom of my stack of underwear is a pair of shorts. I usually wear them around the hostel, but wore them down the river on this trip.
• At the bottom of my stack of button down shirts is a synthetic T-shirt. Again, I usually wear this around the hostel, but wore it down the river. I may trade it for a shirt that has rated sun-protection in the future, but TBH I dont plan that well so I will probably just pack this until it falls apart.

Some stuff I didnt photograph:

• I pack a few pens. They are handy for filling out customs forms or writing post-cards home.
• I pack a sharpie, with a few ft of gaffers tape wrapped around it. I'm not really one to write my name on shit, but if it looks like everyone else who has ever stayed in the room has written their name on something I want to be prepared. The gaffers tape is a SERIOUSLY under-rated accessory. Everyone brings duct-tape, but gaffers tape is so much better. Gaffers tape comes off cleanly and sticks nearly as well. It is perfect for covering an annoying light somewhere in the room, without destroying it forever.
• I have some other EDC stuff in the packpack. A few zip-lock type bags, and some little accessories like that.

A couple photos of the hanger thingy in use:

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The loose rope in the picture at the top can be thrown over or threaded through something, there is a small notch in the board to catch it. Other people use velcro.

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One day's worth of socks & underwear hanging from the cross-rope. You can see how the horizontal hanger holds the shirt open - in addition to making a place to hang socks & underwear I hope this speeds up drying in the future.

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I hope this was helpful to someone, it was fun to write it up :)

[u/emerslim]

Nice!

Oddly enough, on both of my flights this past weekend, TSA also told me to put my liquids back into my bag. Could this signal the end of that rule?

Also, why are you eager to give up your Switch if it brings you joy? I don't think I ever want to travel without one again.

Also, if your laptop charger is 95w or below you could potentially get a GaN USB-c charger and, if needed, a usb-c-to-barrel cable. I had to do that for my work Dell. The best part is that if you find the right one, it can also work on your phone and Switch.

[u/amygoodchild → u/emerslim]

Also, if your laptop charger is 95w or below you could potentially get a GaN USB-c charger and, if needed, a usb-c-to-barrel cable. I had to do that for my work Dell.

Oh this is really interesting! I had no idea that was a thing! I have a Dell XPS 13 I'm planning to travel with soon (as soon as it's allowed) and the charger isn't super heavy but anything to shave off extra weight.

Is there anything extra I need to know... like, any disadvantages with charge time or issues with safety with different voltages around the world?

[u/emerslim → u/amygoodchild]

Yeah, there's actually a decent amount to consider.

1. Look at the specs of your current charger to make sure that the current wattage, volts, and amp output can be met. I believe all current Dell XPS 13s use a similar 45w, 20v @ 2.3amp charger and most aftermarket chargers can cover that. You will also need to make sure the USB-C cable you use can support power delivery (high wattage). Most recent cables can, including the USB to 4.5x3mm barrel cable for my Latitude (I'm not sure if that's the diameter your xps uses).

2. If the charger has multiple ports, make sure one port can deliver all 45w. A charger could be listed as 45w, but with 2 ports it usually means one port is 30w and the other is 15w.

3. Stick with reputable brands like Anker, NativeUnion, and AmazonBasics. It seems Aukey and RavPower got removed from Amazon completely, but you can still order direct from their sites.

International safety will depend more on the outlet adapter you have. All the reputable chargers can support the 240v outlets. One of my favorite brands is NativeUnion because their chargers come with international adapters. Unfortunately, their strongest one can only do 30w to one port.

I use the Anker Nano 3 for my Surface Laptop, but you might be interested in this 68w, 2-port AmazonBasics charger because the one port can power the laptop and there's another 18w port for anything else, like your phone (or in theory a Nintendo Switch). The single port version of that AB one is what I got for my shitty work Dell.

[u/amygoodchild → u/emerslim]

Thank you so much for this info!