Timeline of my walking adventures….

            Walking with my parents in Stanley Park, Jan. 1980 (left)                        

Geocaching overlooking the Yukon River, Sept. 2019 (right)

This is a bag that I carry in the summer on my hiking/walking/biking outings. One of my favourite hobbies is geocaching, which is basically technology-based treasuring hunting. This bag is the pack I carry with me in the woods almost daily and it sits in my garage ready for a good walk whether or not I intend to find a cache that day or not.  The word ‘summer’ carries a different connotation in the North.  I live in Whitehorse, Yukon where we have short summers with an abundance of daylight and mosquitos. Whitehorse has so many trails and the nearest one is right out my back gate.  This backpack is a reflection of my love of fresh air and peaceful scenery. Why walk on pavement when the whole Territory is one big wilderness playground? Summer here rarely involves temperatures over 20°C and can be rainy; great for reducing fire hazard, but not ideal for heat-seekers like me.  I grew up in Vancouver where I spent my days in the family pool, loved the warm weather, being near the ocean and vowed to live somewhere tropical when I grew up.  See the painful irony of this bag for hiking North of 60° instead of lounging on a white-sand beach?  I use this backpack on our snow-free, above-zero summer days as it contains context-specific gear for being on the trails and geocaching.

I have narrowed these items to four ‘s’ categories: 1) safety, 2) sustenance, 3) supplies and 3) sanitation.

SAFETY

Safety first….seriously.  Even on a shorter walk with my 9 year-old son last night, there are reminders of being alert and keeping an eye for signs of animals, something we’ve taught our boys from a young age (also have a 12 year-old).  My backpack contains bear spray and a whistle.  I like to joke that my best animal deterrent is my singing and whistling on the trail.  But in all seriousness, being bear aware is extremely important.  The whistle is attached on the front of my left strap so I can use it immediately if needed, and I truly hope to never use the bear spray. My safety items speak as a text to the remote areas that I explore and where I live, but also my awareness for physical safety and security.

SUSTENENCE

Yes, I have a problem with carbs. No judging! I always carry a water bottle, but in this pack I have snacks, like sweet ‘emergency’ treats that get replenished more than I care to admit. At the time of the photo I have a chocolate mint Kind bar, a Mars bar and a Ziploc bag filled with Stone Wheat crackers.

SUPPLIES

Geocaching involves finding a hidden cache using the app or coordinates, so a phone or GPS is a must (known as TOTT or tools of the trade in geo-speak). I choose to carry my phone which also doubles as a communication device in case of emergencies if in cell range.  There is a large Ziploc bag that contains toys and items to leave in caches we find.  In my pack right now, there is an old Brett Hull hockey card that my son got from a cache last week.  We are a hockey family so my kids love finding the caches with hockey cards. In geocaching acronyms,  I usually ‘TN’ or take nothing, but my kids like to choose an item from the cache and we always leave some swag, no exceptions.  I keep some sort of toy stash in my purse too because you never know when you’ll be close to a cache.  It drives my family absolutely batty when I say, ‘hey who wants to go geocaching?’ or ‘stop the truck, there is a geocache near here’.  Insert groaning and complaining!

The culture of geocaching comes with its own lingo and acronyms.  For example, when I log a cache, I will type ‘TFTC’ (thanks for the cache).  My geocaching buddy and I were the FTF (first to find) a new cache in the fall, but we get annoyed when we have to log a DNF (did not find) that is accompanied by a blue sad face in our collection.  There is a power trail along the jetty at Iona Beach that I started on a YVR layover and am determined to finish when we travel restrictions are lifted.  The text technologies of geocaching come with their own use of multimodal language are captured in messages and logs on the app with other cachers, as well as handwritten log books left in each cache.

SANITATION

I am rarely without lip balm and Kleenex.  There are both in every bag, purse, desk, vehicle and coat that I own.  I think this speaks more to my need for consistency and routine.  And the fact that I live in a dry place where my nose runs almost 365 days a year.

Geocaching above the still-frozen Chadburn Lake on May 7, 2020

I didn’t realize how much this task would psychoanalyze my character.  It sure made me realize how static and stale some of my choices are!  For example, my bag.  Yes, I agree that it is ugly and my family has asked me many times why I don’t buy a new one.  It is bulky, hot on my back and I’ve owned it longer than I have been married (that was in 2001), so ergonomics have changed greatly since then. But although the carbs in my bag are dynamic, the bag itself is a symbol of my attitude towards change when I feel that something is working for me.  If it ain’t broke don’t fix it!  A throw back to my static nature…the bag contains the same type of crackers I loved as a kid.  I’m not much for change.  A theme I am noticing with my bag is the items speak to a dichotomy of change.  In one sense, I am a creature of habit and ‘like what I like’.  I stick to what I know works and what I enjoy from a sense of security and comfort. Like taking handwritten notes for my Masters in Educational Technology.  Yet, my backpack also represents a dynamic nature where I embrace physical activity with technology (two things that are often looked at as opposing in themselves).

Geocaching is about 20 years old, so my backpack would not have existed for the same purpose back then. It has been used for school, as a diaper bag, carry-on and for outdoor use in my pre-cell phone days, but not for geocaching.  I tend to think that text technologies morph in similar ways depending on their intended purpose, audience and outcome, especially since the introduction and increase of new literacies. On the other hand, an archeologist might one day unearth this old backpack and wonder about why humans carried canned pepper spray in a leisure bag.

My backpack paints a picture of an active person, but while this narrative is true, it also lacks my hidden ‘image’ as is quite common with ‘online persona’ versus ‘real life identity’.  I assure you, in real life I can be as lazy as the next person.  I love to read, do puzzles and stay in my house.  I am an introvert with the occupation of an extrovert. I have a large circle of acquaintances, but keep a small circle of people that I consider dear.  I enjoy geocaching because it connects me with two of those people whom I go with most often, my geocaching buddy, Lianne and my son Wyatt.  There is a LOT of verbal communication that happens on our adventures. On our walk last night, my nine-year old asked me how if there are ‘like 9 bazillion’ people on Earth, how did he get so lucky to live in such a cool place?  So true, son!

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