Walking and carrying your entire worldly belongings on your back is incredibly daunting. Every item must be exactly what you need, it should be as lightweight as possible, and it should be high performing. Plus, I want it to look good too. I’ll probably tell you more about my choices but for now I want to talk about my waterproof jacket.
Last spring Glen had a conference in Paris and I wondered into an Eddie Bauer store looking for anything but a raincoat. The first sales clerk who saw me asked if I had seen their new line of raincoats. Hey I didn’t know what I was looking for, why not look at raincoats?
I tried on this little black trench coat and found it to be amazingly light and it looked really good on. It would look good with jeans or a dress. So I bought it and I absolutely love it.
For the Camino I knew I would need a rain jacket. It needed to be absolutely waterproof and wind resistant. After much searching I settled on an amazing electric blue rain jacket. Enter credit card info and addresss, press “place order” and my new jacket was on its way.
When I first tried it on my arms slid into the sleeves and the jacket was roomy enough for a couple of light layers. Ahhhhhhh and such a pretty color 😊. I wore my new jacket a lot. It was great in the rain; it kept me very dry. It also stopped the wind from getting through. It was also a veritable sauna. I was dry from the outside elements but I was drowning in my own sweat. Even the pockets were waterproof. One day in the rain I realized I forgot my gloves so I just put my hands in my pockets to keep warm. Pretty soon I noticed that puddles were forming in my pockets. Not good.
My enthusiasm for my gorgeous blue jacket waned. I really disliked putting it on. Every time I looked at my rain jacket it seemed like it was mocking me.
Thank goodness REI lets you return items, no questions asked, up to a year after the purchase. So I took it back. And guess what? A few weeks later I was in an Eddie Bauer store and they had these great little rain jackets made with their water shedding technology, pit zips and ventilated pockets. This jacket even weighs a few ounces less than my other jacket and it was cheaper. I’ve worn it in the rain several times and it does what it promises. The color isn’t so exciting, but hey, dry and comfortable beat color any day.
One day I decided to go for a walk... 