I'm flying Miami> Heathrow > Madrid and have an osprey kestrel, so I could potentially use my pack as carryon, but I'm concerned about the Swiss Army knife and the walking poles. Is there a possibility of sending these objects in advance to SJPP? If so where? To the passport office? Any ideas?
I recommend you check your Kestrel rucksack with the knife inside. Be sure you have a small bag to carry all your electronics, medications, documents and other things you will want enroute into the cabin. Anything, even a reusable / disposable plastic grocery shopping bag will work. But, I use a 20 liter Sea-to-Summit UltraSil day pack. Check it out here:
http://www.seatosummit.com/products/display/86. You should be able to find it locally at an REI store, or online.
In Spain,
Altus (
www.altus.es) also sells an excellent and comparable day pack. See it here:
http://www.altus.es/ficha_prod.php?idioma=2&idartic=5020032&posi=v
When stored, the UltraSil day sack is the size of a tennis ball and clips to my shoulder harness. Attached there, I can get it fast to use as a shopping tote, day pack or laundry sack, when the larger (48 liter) Kestrel is not desirable). It does excellent double duty as a carry-on for airplane use.
To protect my Osprey rucksack when checked, I usually use a 24 inch Eagle Creek (EC) duffel bag to hold my walking poles (collapsed) and the 48 liter Kestrel when checked as baggage. See the EC web site here:
http://shop.eaglecreek.com/no-matter-what-flashpoint-duffel-m/d/1272_c_114. The bag is available less expensively online.
It is a tight fit, but that was the intention. Osprey makes a range of nylon "Airporter" duffels to do exactly the same thing. They cost less than the EC but can only be used to transport the rucksack. But, the EC duffel can be used as a piece of luggage when I do not need it to ship my rucksack. I had one of the Osprey sacks last year and used it between Washington, DC and Paris. My sole issue with the Osprey travel duffel is that there is a lot of extra material left that can get caught on airport luggage machinery and snag. I wanted a tighter - most custom fit. Hence the EC duffle.
Since returning home, I also discovered that the fully loaded 48 liter Kestrel rucksack fits nicely into an XXL sized, heavy duty, Hefty-brand Ziploc clothing storage bag. These bags are available in the U.S. at grocery stores, Wal-Mart, Target, etc. They measure 2.0 feet (24 inches) wide x 2.7 feet (33 inches) tall. The quoted volume is 20 U.S. gallons, or about 75 liters.
There is a handle. But the handle will not carry the weight of the loaded rucksack. On the other hand, the bag weighs only 3.8 ox (107 gm) when empty. Here is the web page with everything you might want to know about these bags:
http://www.ziploc.com/Products/Pages/BigBags.aspx?SizeName=XXL
My thought would be to use one Hefty Ziploc bag - TSA will like it as they can see what is in it - instead of the much heavier duffel bag. I would seal the "zip seam" with duck tape, and use duck tape to reinforce the handle. This way, the bad might snag, but it can be easily repaired with duck tape (which you should be carrying anyway).
The sack folds and stores very compactly. You could either use it as a rucksack liner to keep stuff dry, a seat for damp places, or anything else you could think of to use the mother of all Ziploc bags for. The bags come three to a box.
On arrival, I shift the carry on items appropriately, collapse the day pack unless I will need it enroute to my starting point, shift the collapsed poles to the outside of the rucksack and collapse the Eagle Creek duffel bag. At the first post office in Spain, I mail the duffel bag and anything I decided in the walk over the Pyrenees that I will no need until Santiago, to Ivar Rekves' office in Santiago. I usually send things like house keys, my flying compression socks, and depending on weather, any additional travel clothing I have. From Pamplona, you can send about 2 - 3 kg of stuff to Santiago for about 10 Euros. The post office "Correos" has boxes for sale.
I hope this helps.
