Grand Canyon: Entry One

This Thanksgiving Break is going to be a bit different than my normal one. Instead of going home tomorrow, I'll be staying at UConn getting ready for my week-long expedition from Connecticut to the Southwestern United States. Instead of eating Thanksgiving dinner over my Nana's house, I'll be in Las Vegas. But the main focus of the trip is the four days of backpacking inside the Grand Canyon.

A friend of mine, Craven, lured me into signing up for the trip and I'm glad he did. We're headed to the Canyon with 10 other students and faculty through the UConn Outdoor Center.

This will be the first of several entries covering my trip (likely one for each day). However, they won't be posted until I get back to civilization as I won't have a computer (or a cell phone for that matter). I'll be taking tons of pictures to document the experience and I'll post some here.



Above are all the items in my pack. I've got the following:
underwear - 2 pair
spandex - 1 pair
socks - 3 pair
shorts - 1 pair
running shorts - 1 pair
t-shirts - 2
long sleeve shirts - 2
fleece
rain coat
hat
winter hat
gloves
water bottle
Camelbak
headlamp
bowl
sunglasses
sunscreen
camera
contacts
moleskine
toothbrush/ paste
IPod
On the Road - Kerouac

This is my full pack:

I may have to do some rearranging as I just realized the fine print on my itinerary: "Only sleeping pad should be outside pack." Wretched. That's going to be tough to fit. Once we get to the Canyon, we'll go shopping and I'll have to fit some food in there too.