[x-factor]

1) A couple of people have mentioned medical kits, but I think that bears emphasizing. Antibiotics would be critical considering the likelihood of infection spending so much time in the wild and crossing so many ecosystems.

2) I agree that its wise to be cautious about too much reliance on technology, but I would never, ever dream of attempting this without a laptop computer. The utility to weight ratio seems to me to be pretty high.

I'm sure that says as much about my field inexperience as the value of the computer, but nevertheless. If the premise is that you're going to overcome physical hardship with expertise, then why would you not want to have as much knowledge at your fingertips as possible? Furthermore, I want my mind focused on situational awareness and key decisions, not trying to remember minutia like what species of berry is good and what is poisonous.

In addition to carrying the wealth of map and historical/anthropological data already mentioned, you can carry:

- maps/geospatial data (discussed earlier)

- language/cultural guides (discussed earlier)

- medical guides (obviously you don't want to be looking at a computer screen while trying to perform trauma first aid, but for things like toxicology, pharmacology, nutrition, etc. it wouldn't hurt to have a reference manual and not have to rely solely on your memory)

- survival guides (obviously if you don't already know most of this by memory you shouldn't be on the trip, but it still wouldn't hurt to mitigate the risk of mistake by consulting the book every now and then...for example, shelter construction techniques, guide to wild fruit, animal anatomy for field cleaning/cooking, etc)

- ecology guides (like the medical, there's no reason to overburden your mind when you can carry the data with you at no added weight...this is especially true since you're going to be crossing through so many different ecosystems and no one in the world can be expected to master them all from memory)

- games/mental diversions (keeping a diary, playing a little chess, watching a movie, etc would help keep the mind fresh)

- record keeping (if one of the purposes of the trip is collection, as opposed to just personal challenge, then you're going to do a much better job if you've got the tools for the job...plus you're saving weight on paper and other such record keeping supplies)

3) The northern route through Canada is very tempting to me (even though I'm from Florida and hate the cold). By 1700 French fur-trappers had been running those woods as far west as the Dakotas for almost 100 years already, so there are going to be human networks to leverage: trails, rendevous points, established Indian alliances, etc. Plus, it seems to me that modern technology mitigates the cold problem of the northern route a lot better than it mitigates the desert problem of the southern route.