Found a backpack on the curb. Looks solid.

SCORE! Not even a month after we decided to start planning our grand adventure, my dad found an awesome vintage Jansport backpack on the curb that one of his neighbors was giving away. It seems like a solid piece of equipment, although I’m not familiar enough with backpacking to know how much of a difference the advancements on the new models make. I was at my old neighbor’s apartment the other day and he showed me his backpack that he bought recently – it is not as big as the one I have (pictured) so I don’t think it would work for our trip, but it certainly was nice and made me ponder the advantages/disadvantages of the backpack that fell into my hands.

EDIT FROM 2024 Are you against dumpster diving for gear? We like really nice stuff now but back then it was whatever we could get.

Any thoughts? It is so fun looking back at old versions of yourself. Questioning the things we did, knowing why and wondering if there was any other way. We ignored a lot of people’s advice to get where we are now, and I can’t help but be happy that we did that.