Backpack Packing
The fun thing about backpacking is you are off by yourself exploring. But you have to carry everything you will need so minimizing weight (comfort while hiking) is of primary concern. This is what the two of us carry. When it is all packed up it will weigh about 26 lbs each!
In case you wonder what some of those items are, here is the packing list or you can skip to the next paragraph. Starting top left: Row 1 - two sleeping bags, two backpacks with rain covers, Row 2 - two Ur sacks (food storage) 1 cooking kit, Row 3 two cans of bear spray, rope, two cups, trash bags, water filter, smell-proof bags, two inflatable camp pillows, two water bladders, two inflatable sleeping pads, one tent with poles, small binoculars, 2 sets hiking poles, Row 4 - Trail spoon/forks, fuel, repair kit, salt/pepper/soap, first aid kit, Row 5 - food, more water bladders, two compression stuff sacks for camp shoes.
Not shown: clothes (If we are only out overnight or a couple of days we probably won’t take spare clothes but we will have coats, hats, gloves, rain wear plus, coffee, breakfast/lunch/snacks, toothbrush, TP, micro-spikes and camera gear.
All of this has to go in the two bags.
When you load a pack you want the heavy stuff on the bottom or near your back. But you don’t want hard things near breakable items. You also have to think about access. If you are going to need it while you’re hiking it needs to be near an opening. These packs open at the bottom so you can reach just about everything at any time but it’s nice if you or a hiking buddy can grab what you need without taking your pack off.
Lets go through the packs starting with his.
There is a top pouch with a zipper, This is divided into two sections. This is a great place for smaller items you might want during the day like lunch sun glasses, hats gloves, etc. There is also a zippered pouch in the back (see below) for larger items like rain gear, and coats. He keeps our first aid kit in here with his rope. Rope is good for climbing up steep slopes, lowering or raising packs over rocks and most importantly bear bagging your food.
Most of our stuff is in the main compartment. Most of this is the stuff we probably won’t need during the day. On the left side, the long thing is the inflatable sleeping mat, at the bottom is a sleeping bag inside a compression stuff sack. In the middle, in the two black cases are his lens and camera body. The mesh bag is the cooking kit. You can just make out a bit of white rope in the upper right corner. This is the rope for the Ursack. An Ursack is a Kevlar bag with super strength Velcro. You put your food in the bag, seal the Velcro, then tie it to your rope and suspend it between two trees. Even if a bear gets it out of the tree, it can’t get the bag open. Here is a video of different animals trying to get into an Ursack. If you don’t normally view the links, this is a long video but a good one.
The backpack looks full but there is more space at the top.
In the photo above you can see the mesh bag that holds the cook set. On top of the cook set, is a cup, fuel, and a stuff sack. I’m not sure what he is putting in the stuff sack, maybe his camp shoes. At the end of a long day hiking you really want to change shoes. We use the same camp shoes for both trailer camping and backpacking.
Below is how the cook set gets packed. On the left is all the items in the cook set. In the bottom of our pan, we place our camp towel, stove with lighter (the red box) the pan’s handle, and soap. Next, our two collapsible bowels fit inside the pan then the lid goes on. Stuff the cook set in the black bag with the trash bags. It’s compact and easy to find everything.
He has his pack rain cover in the top of his bag. There is more space here for his lunch, glasses, sun glasses, our Inreach, a map, etc.
As shown below, he has his micro-spikes in a side pocket. His personal items are in the other side pocket.
Before we leave camp we will put about one litter of water in the bladder in the back of our packs. There is a special pocket the bladder slides into. Then you can open the valve at the end of the hose and get a drink. You don’t even have to stop hiking.
Now for my bag. I’m carrying the tripod which is long so It goes on the outside of my bag.
I like to put my coat and rain gear in the back pocket along with the rain cover for my pack.
Inside the main compartment of my pack, I have my lens at the bottom because it is the heaviest thing I carry. The bag, just above my lens, is the tent. The bag with the red zipper is our water filter. On the side is my inflatable sleeping pad with the tent poles under it (not visible) the light blue bag is a repair kit. The big yellow bag at the top is my sleeping bag. As you can tell from the photo below, there is a lot of space left in my bag. I will put my camp shoes here in the top of the main compartment.
Above you see the top pouch of my bag which can easily be unclipped. It’s currently empty. I like to put our food in this section. I just have to unclip it and drop it in the Ursack when we get to camp. But during the day all our breakfast/lunch/snack options are available. In the past we have packaged our own dehydrated food into individual meals. With our homemade meals we have been able to get about a weeks worth of food in the top of one pack. For this trip we are taking commercially available meals. You just add water into their packaging so clean up is even easy and it might be lighter.
Micro-spikes are heavy and the spikes can poke holes in bags of food. If conditions are icy, we will need to take them but they will spend part of the hike on our feet. When they are in our bags, I like to keep mine in a side compartment as it is low in the pack and away from everything else.
Above you you might be able to see how the side pockets are arranged. They are actually part of the waist belt. I keep my cup, personal items, and my TP in one of the side pockets. There is one last item that we strap to the front of our packs.
It’s a bear-spray holder!
The packs currently weigh 24 lbs each. We need to add our breakfast/lunch/snacks (which is all the same thing - granola, nuts, dried fruit) one liter of water each, camp shoes, rain clothes, tooth brushes and sunscreen. So we will be adding about 3 lbs to each pack. With a little luck we will be able to leave the micro-spikes in the trailer.
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