{"id":158960,"date":"2020-04-29T16:06:09","date_gmt":"2020-04-29T23:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/?p=158960"},"modified":"2020-07-06T14:10:23","modified_gmt":"2020-07-06T21:10:23","slug":"gear-i-hold-dear-my-first-pack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/camp\/gear-i-hold-dear-my-first-pack","title":{"rendered":"Gear I Hold Dear: My First Pack"},"content":{"rendered":"

A version of this story appeared in the winter 2020 issue of\u00a0Uncommon Path<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

We had just made it to our camp above Crater Lake when large, wet snowflakes started falling from\u00a0the sky. My 8-year-old twin sister and I were on our very first backpacking trip, 3 miles from the trailhead,\u00a0and we didn\u2019t have long to gape at the impossibly blue, impossibly deep waters of the lake before\u00a0our dad put us to work setting up camp.<\/p>\n

We fished our foam pads out of our brand-new packs\u2014stiff and unworn, straight from our outfitting\u00a0trip to REI. Unfurling our bulky sleeping bags, we dove into the tent, embracing the safety that comes\u00a0when huddled in down feathers amid a muffled landscape. But it wasn\u2019t long before hot cocoa, steaming\u00a0from new enamel cups, and a campfire persuaded us back out into the snow globe.<\/p>\n

\"Red<\/p>\n

After that first trip, my sister and I spent the next few years trailing our dad through the woods and\u00a0meadows of the Pacific Northwest with our bright-red, boxy packs. Mine hugged me tight the first time\u00a0I glimpsed an ancient, moss-draped spruce in the Hoh Rain Forest and the countless times my dad\u00a0reduced my sister and me to giggles by popping around tree trunks on our treks. When we got too big,\u00a0we passed them on to younger cousins for secondhand memories before they, too, outgrew the straps.\u00a0Then our packs were lost to time.<\/p>\n

That is, until this summer, when my uncle discovered them deep in his attic. Tears of surprise welled\u00a0up in my eyes as I held one of the worn packs in my hands, wanting to keep it close so it would never get\u00a0lost again. It was the perfect size for my own 5-year-old daughter. Our first stop? The impossibly blue,\u00a0impossibly deep Crater Lake, of course.<\/p>\n

\u2014Nicole Smith, REI staff member, as told to Aer Parris<\/em><\/p>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A version of this story appeared in the winter 2020 issue of\u00a0Uncommon Path.\u00a0 We had just made it to our camp above Crater Lake when large, wet snowflakes started falling from\u00a0the sky. My 8-year-old twin sister and I were on our very first backpacking trip, 3 miles from the trailhead,\u00a0and we didn\u2019t have long to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":158970,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2005,1984,1934,2024],"internal-tag":[],"class_list":["post-158960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-camp","tag-gear-i-hold-dear","tag-issue-2","tag-uncommon-path","tag-uncommon-path-issues"],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/rei.com\/blog\/camp\/gear-i-hold-dear-my-first-pack","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Gear I Hold Dear: My First Pack","url":"http:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/camp\/gear-i-hold-dear-my-first-pack","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/camp\/gear-i-hold-dear-my-first-pack"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/04\/20191114132701703.jpg?resize=150%2C150","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/04\/20191114132701703.jpg?fit=2000%2C1000"},"articleSection":"Camp","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Michelle Flandreau"}],"creator":["Michelle Flandreau"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Uncommon Path \u2013 An REI Co-op Publication","logo":""},"keywords":["gear i hold dear","issue 2","uncommon path","uncommon path issues"],"dateCreated":"2020-04-29T23:06:09Z","datePublished":"2020-04-29T23:06:09Z","dateModified":"2020-07-06T21:10:23Z"},"rendered":"