Gear Selection

Selecting Gear for Life Abroad

Packing light and traveling light is a wonderful mantra for any traveler. Selecting gear becomes a balancing act between the quality of life and the quality of journey.

When traveling, it’s important to minimize the amount of materials brought along as much as possible.  A single check-in bag can cost a traveler hundreds of dollars during a flight.  That same bit of luggage must be lugged around every stone, hill and stretch of road in a vast world.

Careful selection is key. The gear that is brought on a journey can help a person survive, thrive and fully enjoy portions of the world to a much greater degree.

Located below are the simple secrets to traveling well with gear. Traveling light ensures easy motion, better security, more mobility, cheaper transit, and an unstrained spine.  

Best regards and excellent trails.

Old Sean


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One sturdy Osprey Backpack and its owner have gone around the world a half dozen times. Read about it here on the Leftfade Trails Blog


Old Sean Thoughts

One of the funniest things I’ve learned in life is the incredible capacity for downsizing.

When I started my various solo journeys around the world, I would cram a vehicle full of camping and survival gear, setting off towards mountains and sunsets.

Years later, during tours of Europe and the Caribbean, I would load up with fancy gizmos that stayed in the haunted, slightly musty depths of my backpack. A had a tri-folded solar panel which didn’t see the light for the entire time I owned it.

Then, upon moving to China, things began to shed away. A single backpack and humorously functional sleeping bag were brought to Chongqing: Fully modern supercity which absolutely didn’t need me with any camping gear.

Onward and onward. Less and less.

By my early twenties, reality had asserted itself. My intercontinental footprints are shallower and more numerous as I’ve gone further than I could ever imagine.

Pack light. Wander far. Wander well.

No matter how many times it’s said, people always try to overpack until they realize how free and light life can be.

Best regards and excellent trails,

-Old Sean