In response to a Facebook post by Carl Herrman wherein he realizes he can pack things in his pockets.

My secret to "traveling light" is wearing a hoodie with a front pocket (change, mp3 player, random stuff I don't want to hold onto) and a jacket with big zippered pockets (phone, wallet, travel documents, everything you'd traditionally put ...in a purse or murse). And then a laptop backpack for my work-stuff (computer, keyboard, accessories like monitor stand, books, etc) and a carry-on luggage for clothes and toiletries and anti-RSI massage tools[0], plus playing courier for friends and family who ask me to bring things around for them.

That, for me, is "traveling heavy," and I do that during trips like this one when I'll be away from my home base for more than a few weeks. I prefer to "travel light" and skip the luggage altogether, put work stuff into the laptop compartment of my laptop backpack and clothes into the non-laptop compartment, and use my jacket as a "purse."

Not much space to put a towel, though. I think the travel towels would be absorbent enough to manage if you only took a hand-towel size, so that's one potential solution.

I'm starting to get a sense for the sort of travel I like. Wilderness camping is, in general, a no - though I wouldn't be opposed to dropping my things off at someone's place and then borrowing equipment from there to go on a temporary camping trip, I'm not going to travel only to camp, and do need electrical and internet access in general - but within the constraints of what I want to do and have with me, I try to be as minimalist as possible.

[0] This sounds like a lot, but it's not; I have a portable set of massage tools that gets pretty much everything while taking up less space and weight than a textbook. And it's important to me to keep the RSI at bay at all times.