1 week out of town for work

[giuliof]

Today I'm going out of town for a week or so to work on a project. Since I’m travelling by car and I'm not moving around much once I'm there, I've decided to pack loosely and to bring both my A45 and my SA: I'm going to use the SA for gear and the A45 for clothes and other personal items.

What's going into the SA:

• 15" laptop (cache)
• mouse and power supply (mesh 3D op)
• Intuos 3 pen, pens and pencils (clear pen op)
• small electronics (clear mini op)
• iPod Shuffle with earbuds (pocket pouch)
• documents, cards and cash (clear organizer wallet)
• keys (Q-Kit)
• basic first aid kit (small op)
• tissues (upper modular pocket)
• torch (upper modular pocket)
• headphones (travel stuff sack)
• extension cord for laptop
• Intuos 3 tablet
• squared notepad
• sunglasses
• spare glasses
• phone
• 2 books

What’s going into the A45:

• 4 towels
• 2 pairs of trousers
• 5 t-shirts
• 3 long sleeved shirts
• 5 boxers
• 5 pairs of socks
• 2 heavy sweaters
• t-shirt and shorts for sleeping
• 1 pair of slippers
• 1 pair of shoes
• first aid kit and medicines (3D op)
• toilette stuff (side effect)
• electric shaver
• rainproof jacket
• folded Dailight Backback (it might be handy if I’m going out in the evenings)

The standard towels take a lot of space but it’s not an issue this time so I’m bringing them with me together with the travel ones (I like cotton towels more).



This time, while packing, I thought I could use a travel tray.

[moriond]

Nice packing list and photos, @giuliof. A few quick questions: when you travel with your Intuos 3 tablet, do you find that you need to use a cache, or does it carry well just bare? (Is this being used for graphics design work with your laptop?) Is that a Utility strap connected to your torch at the front of the first picture, beside the Wasabi keystrap? Nice use of the Steel/Solar PocketPouch for your iPod Nano and earbuds. Do you attach the Steel Q-Kit with your keys or carry it separately (e.g., in the Upper Modular Pocket of the Smart Alec?). By the way, is the UMP in Aubergine because of the recent limited availability in colors -- with Aubergine and Black Dyneema as the only colors, if your Smart Alec is a recent purchase)?

I don't know whether this is a useful tip for you, but you can transfer the Smart Alec Upper Modular Pocket over to the rail strap loops in the Synapse. The two center Gatekeeper clips attach nicely. This is more useful for the larger Synapse 25 than for the Synapse 19, both because there is more room in the larger bag to clip in the UMP above the interior pocket, and because the UMP hangs down far enough that it's not easy to access that pocket in the S19. Besides, if you use the Synapse to carry a laptop in a cache suspended from the rail loops at the back, there's not going to be much room for attaching a pouch as large as the UMP to the second set of rail loops at the front, above the pocket in the main compartment, in the smaller Synapse.

I like the notion of the Daylight Backpack going along as an addition to the regular travel bags. Oddly enough, I think this may be even more revitalizing for travel with the smaller Western Flyer or Tri-Star, because of the ease of slipping the empty DLBP into the (rectangular) zippered backpack strap pocket (vs. the hour-glass shape for the A45). A nice alternative for light backpack use to taking along a Synapse 19. Please report back on how you like this. Your burnt orange DLBP is very handsome!

moriond

ETA: In the next to last photo are those 1 large and two small Aeronaut 45 packing cubes along with an end pocket packing cube, and is the Iberian Travel Stuff Sack Size 3 or 4?

[GoStanford]

I really like your photos. The background is so spare and clean, and the pictures remind me of those by Ursus Wehrli: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/28/ga...anted=all&_r=0

It is very helpful to see how forum members pack for these trips. Thanks for sharing!

[luvdabags]

I agree--great pics. I really like all the colors offered, but there is something so nice and clean about two matching TB black bags.

[Darcy]

I'll be the fourth to say: great photos, giuliof.

[Pokilani]

I love how @moriond has a gift for asking more questions to extend the post.

[giuliof]

First of all, thanks for the compliments on the pictures. :-)

@moriond, I will try to answer your questions the best I can!

• Yes, I use the Intuos 3 for graphic design work. I don’t feel the need to protect it with a cache as it’s a very solid product with basically no moving parts.
• Yes, it’s a utility strap.
• I usually attach the Q-Kit to an O-Ring in every bag I use. In this case I’ve attached it to one of the O-Rings inside the UMP.
• My SA is a recent purchase (I needed a smaller bag than the A45 but bigger than my Synapse 19 and I was undecided between the A30 and the SA. In the end I chose the SA because I can use it for hiking too). A couple of months ago I received a Clear Organizer Wallet in Aubergine and I really liked the colour. So when I had to choose the colour for the SA I considered the possibility of getting the Black/Aubergine/Wasabi combination. However in the end I chose the Black/Black/Steel combination, but I still liked Aubergine, so I grabbed the modular pocket in that colour.
• Thanks for the “UMP in Synapse” tip.
• Regarding the DLBP, I noticed it’s getting a lot more use recently than my SCB, so it was definetely a good purchase. It’s still extremely light, it packs small and if I’m going out in the evening it can take a jacket and a small umbrella, which the SCB cannot.
• Yes, the packing cubes you see are one large and two small A45 cubes, plus an end pocket one.
• The TSS is a size 4.

Nice packing list and photos, @giuliof. A few quick questions: when you travel with your Intuos 3 tablet, do you find that you need to use a cache, or does it carry well just bare? (Is this being used for graphics design work with your laptop?) Is that a Utility strap connected to your torch at the front of the first picture, beside the Wasabi keystrap? Nice use of the Steel/Solar PocketPouch for your iPod Nano and earbuds. Do you attach the Steel Q-Kit with your keys or carry it separately (e.g., in the Upper Modular Pocket of the Smart Alec?). By the way, is the UMP in Aubergine because of the recent limited availability in colors -- with Aubergine and Black Dyneema as the only colors, if your Smart Alec is a recent purchase)?

I don't know whether this is a useful tip for you, but you can transfer the Smart Alec Upper Modular Pocket over to the rail strap loops in the Synapse. The two center Gatekeeper clips attach nicely. This is more useful for the larger Synapse 25 than for the Synapse 19, both because there is more room in the larger bag to clip in the UMP above the interior pocket, and because the UMP hangs down far enough that it's not easy to access that pocket in the S19. Besides, if you use the Synapse to carry a laptop in a cache suspended from the rail loops at the back, there's not going to be much room for attaching a pouch as large as the UMP to the second set of rail loops at the front, above the pocket in the main compartment, in the smaller Synapse.

I like the notion of the Daylight Backpack going along as an addition to the regular travel bags. Oddly enough, I think this may be even more revitalizing for travel with the smaller Western Flyer or Tri-Star, because of the ease of slipping the empty DLBP into the (rectangular) zippered backpack strap pocket (vs. the hour-glass shape for the A45). A nice alternative for light backpack use to taking along a Synapse 19. Please report back on how you like this. Your burnt orange DLBP is very handsome!

moriond

ETA: In the next to last photo are those 1 large and two small Aeronaut 45 packing cubes along with an end pocket packing cube, and is the Iberian Travel Stuff Sack Size 3 or 4?

[moriond]

First of all, thanks for the compliments on the pictures. :-)

@moriond, I will try to answer your questions the best I can!

• My SA is a recent purchase (I needed a smaller bag than the A45 but bigger than my Synapse 19 and I was undecided between the A30 and the SA. In the end I chose the SA because I can use it for hiking too). A couple of months ago I received a Clear Organizer Wallet in Aubergine and I really liked the colour. So when I had to choose the colour for the SA I considered the possibility of getting the Black/Aubergine/Wasabi combination. However in the end I chose the Black/Black/Steel combination, but I still liked Aubergine, so I grabbed the modular pocket in that colour.
• Thanks for the “UMP in Synapse” tip.

Here's an example of the way the UMP attaches to the rail strap loops of a Synapse 25. Note that the bottom of the UMP hangs below the top elastic of the internal pocket for the Synapse in the main compartment:


Of course, you can also move the UMP to the same loops inside your Smart Alec, if you want to place the UMP inside the bag for safekeeping, but if you're using the SA to hold your laptop with a cache with rails, and the bag is very full, you might not be able to do this. This ability to stow the UMP this way inside the SA has been pointed out before, elsewhere in the forums. Having the UMP accessible outside the SA is one of the improvements over the older design of the Smart Alec, since you can access the UMP contents without having to open the bag, and the arrangement does not impact your ability to slide the SA under the Airplane seat in front of you (assuming you have one where the space is not impeded by a large A/V box). This is unlike the case for the Lower Module Pocket, which sticks out from its attachment point at the front of the bag.

However, one of the conveniences of using accessories like the Side Effect is your ability to transfer your packed contents between bags that are conveniently designed to hold that accessory. (I'm thinking especially about the way the Pilot and Co-Pilot compartments are laid out). So I just wanted to point out thay this is also possible with the UMP, and that you can also make use of the rail loops in other bags designed for vertical caches, but with some caveats. The UMP is large (2.5 liters capacity compared to the 1.5 liters of the Side Effect that is 60% of the UMP size, and which itself is 50% larger than the 1 liter capacity of the 3D Clear, Fabric, and Mesh Organizer Cubes). It is closest in size to the 2.7 liter Clear Quarter Packing Cube. So it only transfer conveniently to other larger bags. A Brain Bag would probably work well, but I don't have one of those to try.

In the Synapse 19 that @giuliof has, the UMP might block easy access to the internal pocket, as well as take up too much room for easy carrying of laptop plus most of his priority contents. This is likely to work better for a Synapse 25 or a Brain Bag.

For the Synapse 19, I find using the 1 liter 3DOCs in the second set of rail loops more effective. There have been a number of discussion threads about using keystraps and other devices to secure these accessories, but I've liked using wrist straps (aka handle loops), whose webbing width is exactly sized to be passed through the loops..

Here's an old example posted in the Going marsupial! thread. You can use either a Double Carabiner clip or a Mini Biner (as in this picture) to attach the Cube's O-ring to the Handle loop. The other O-ring clips to the Snaphook:


That used an old version of the handle loop with snaphook without the slide adjuster. If you use the current version with slider, you can use the slider as a stop when you unhook the cube:

In this case I slid one end of the handle loop through the left rail loop and the other end with snaphook through the right rail loop, so that slide adjuster was in the center:


If you detach the mini biner or double carabiner clip from the end, the slide adjuster will keep the pouch from slipping off the other loop


I was also experimenting with using Grimlocs on the other rail loop to secure things. Sorry, this got attached by mistake, but you can seen that the the adjuster stopped the handle loop from falling on the right side:


The Grimloc is serious overkill for use here (attaching a Chico Bag) with it's 80 pound breaking strength --a better solution for external webbing attachments. By the way, all these last pictures were taken showing a Synapse 19, but will obviously also work for larger bags with rail clips. And the 3D Clear Organizer Cubes (in Indigo and Plum Cordura) are all the old versions before they added the hanging hook. I use these because they all also use the non-sticky Urethane.

HTH mpriond

[GoStanford]

You made it on the blog! Way to go!

[Pertinax]

Great pics and decor, giuliof. In fact, is that an NHT Super 8 I spy in the background, with the hint of a Super Zero? I get great sound out of mine.

[giuliof]

Thanks!
It's a subwoofer by Indiana Line. :-)

Great pics and decor, giuliof. In fact, is that an NHT Super 8 I spy in the background, with the hint of a Super Zero? I get great sound out of mine.

[giuliof]

A little report on my last packing list…
As expected, I didn’t use all the stuff I brought with me. :-)
Since I have to get back for another 3-4 days to work, I’ve decided to only bring the SA this time and to see if I can pack everything into it.

---
(some things on the list are not in the picture)
---

• 15" laptop (Cache)
• mouse and power supply (Mesh 3D Organizer Pouch)
• pens and pencils (Clear Pen Organizer Pouch)
• small electronics and earbuds (Clear Mini Organizer Pouch)
• iPod Shuffle and earbuds (Pocket Pouch)
• basic first aid kit (Small Organizer Pouch)
• first aid kit and medicines (3D Organizer Pouch)
• toiletries (Side Effect)
• DSLR spare battery and small accessories (Mini Organizer Pouch)
• spare glasses
• external battery for phone
• rainproof jacket
• Small Cafè Bag

In the UMP:

• tissues
• torch
• sunglasses
• documents, cards and cash (Clear Organizer Wallet)
• keys (Q-Kit)
• lighter
• pocket knife
• mints
• lipstick
• phone

In a WF Large Packing Cube:

• 1 pairs of jeans
• 1 heavy sweater
• 2 Icebreaker long sleeved t-shirts

In a WF Small Packing Cube:

• 2 Icebreaker t-shirts
• t-shirt and pants for sleeping
• 3 boxers
• 3 pairs of socks