A friend requested this write-up. When I travel, I don't carry baggage. I wear all my clothes and carry my toiletries in a pocket. Here are the details. Top to bottom, I wear a baseball hat, three polyester shirts, a Gore-Tex rain jacket, Exofficio boxers, lined shorts, quick drying pants, a nylon belt, three pairs of smart wool socks, and Gore-Tex hiking boots. For toiletries, I carry a zip loc bag containing a toothbrush, travel toothpaste, hair gel, comb, Dr. Bronner's soap, crystal rock deodorant, and my meds.
I take three shirts because I wear one, wash one, and have one spare. I don't wash the socks unless I'm traveling for more than a week. I rotate the socks each day. I use Smart Wool socks because the merino wool doesn't smell until it gets very dirty. Cotton or capilene smells after one wearing but merino can be worn multiple times, maybe three times before it smells bad. Socks take a long time to dry. So unless I am able to wait three days for them to dry, I wait until I get home to wash them.
I use the Dr. Bronner's soap to wash the shirt I wore today. Then I wring it out well, roll it up in a towel and walk on it to get the majority of the water out, and then I hang it up to dry overnight. I use polyester shirts because they dry completely by morning.
I don't wash my pants unless they get muddy or I'm traveling for longer than a week. If I do need to wash the pants, I wear the shorts while I wash the pants. The pants are Rail Riders and they are quick drying like the shirts. The are lightweight nylon and the toughest clothes on the planet. Well, that's what the website says.
I wear Exofficio boxers because they can be worn the entire trip without having to wash them. Yes, they are that good. I do wash them if I stay gone longer than a week. In that case, I wash them when I wash the pants.
Other than that, I wear an Under Armour baseball hat, black. Goes with everything. And I wear a Gore-Tex Cabelas Rainy River jacket and Gore-Tex Salewa hiking boots with Montrail insoles. I don't carry extra shoes because my boots are that comfortable.
I wear the nylon belt because I don't have to remove it to go through security at the airport. Other than that, I have my watch, a pen, wallet, passport, travel documents, keys, change, phone and travel phone charger.
When I get to the airport, I put the toiletries bag in one jacket pocket and everything else except my passport and ticket/boarding pass in the other jacket pocket. On my last trip to Haiti, I was allowed to board the plane early because I had no baggage. That was cool! When we were studying what to take to walk the Camino in Spain, I read that we pack our fears. I'm here to encourage you to be fearless.
I first heard about traveling bag-less from reading about Rolf Potts traveling around the world with no bags. He used a Scottevest to pack his extra clothes and toiletries. I've just adapted his method to a Gore-Tex model and I wear my extra clothes until I get to my destination. Give it a try. You'll be freer than ever.
