Story Break
On Pack Convenience.
Thimk
What do you want in a pack? Think about it.
I'll tell you what I want, everything else being equal. I want convenience.
Sure, I want a pack that's the right size. I'm not too big, and I'm a woman. That matters to me, and it should matter to my pack too. I'm not some big guy, and I don't want to be. I don't want to pretend that I am, or be forced to act like I am.
I'm who I am and that's fine with me. The rest of the world will have to work with me here. Otherwise I'm not interested.
So I'm not too big and that's that.
I am strong enough for who I am and what I do but I'm never going to be scary strong. I won't be growing hair on my chest or letting it come out my armpits. I'm not going to get into flexing contests about who is stronger than what or has more muscles. Leave that to the boys. I'm who I am and I get by just fine.
My pack is the right size. Like most women I have a shorter torso than men of my height, with wider hips, narrower shoulders, and longer legs. I can't carry huge weights, which is one reason lightweight backpacking appeals to me.
Luckily, these days, there are plenty of choices. Nothing is perfect, and no individual is either, so the point to me seems to be getting as close as possible and not worrying about the rest.
My pack isn't too big, or too small or too light or too heavy. It's just right.
If I had a bigger pack I could carry more except that I can't carry huge weights and don't want to try, so that works. I'm good all around.
But I like convenience.
I don't go backpacking to suffer, and I don't go backpacking to get frustrated. I can do that at home.
On the trail I like to have what I need, and when I need it, and I like getting at it without messing around.
Light or even ultralight backpacking helps a bunch.
First - I go lighter.
I don't have to carry that much weight. That helps me a lot.
I can walk many miles in a day, especially later in the season after I've gotten in shape. Walking isn't the problem that carrying weight is. But the less weight the better.
So going light means less weight to carry and more ground covered in a day.
Second - I pack fewer.
Going light means that I have fewer things. Going light is partly about taking lighter things, but the easiest way to go lighter is not to take something in the first place.
Say, for example, that I want to eat.
Probably.
Fine then, so what do I do about eating?
Say I can get an old ratty, noisy, big, heavy mess kit. Like something left over from an ancient war. A lot of what you see in backpacking started out as military equipment, and then the Boy Scouts picked it up and did their thing with it, and then the camping companies did, but with their brands on things, and later on they called it backpacking equipment, and after a while they called it ultralight.
You know what though? It was all the same stuff, made in the same way in the same factory out of basically the same raw materials.
Maybe at first it was steel, then stainless steel, and then came an aluminum version, and later on again, after the price came down to only a hundred dollars a pound or so they made exactly the same thing out of titanium but it was all the same, and if you wanted the cheapest version you stuck with steel.
So there you are.
Let's look at part of it. Not a table setting for sixteen, just some utensils for one. Just as an example.
What do you have? you have a knife and a fork and a spoon. Since you are going camping or backpacking you skip the salad fork and the soup spoon and the butter knife and stick with only the three — knife, fork, spoon. How smart is that? Is it smart at all? Does it help if they're all titanium instead of steel?
You have to think about these things.
No.
The answer is no.
I found that out by trying things. It gets easier after a while. I try things and then I decide how I feel about them, and see if I'm better off one way or another. With utensils, I started with an official camping set that clipped together.
There was a table knife and a big spoon and a fork.
The bare minimum.
They were all steel, and I knew I was supposed to use them as a set because they had that funny clip thing where one piece has a knob on it and you put it through a hole in the other pieces and squeeze all three together and hook the knob and let go and they all stay together.
OK, fine.
After a while you get used to it. It's not like being at home. This is more like car mechanics or something. You know you want to go backpacking and experience nature and then you find out about all these strange special tools.
You have flatware that's more like a set of socket wrenches and screwdrivers, and that's what you need to have if you want to eat.
But it isn't.
They say so but it isn't.
You see these things and it's all weird, and then you learn that you have to have it and you use it all, and later on if you think about it you decide that it's all a joke.
I said that going light means having fewer things. That's where I'm going here. It doesn't matter how light my fork is and how light my spoon is and how light my knife is. I'm lighter with only one of those than all three, so now I use a single plastic spoon. No metal at all, and only the one thing.
I don't have a tub of butter to dig into or a big slab of steak on a platter so why should I have a knife and a fork? And if I have a spoon why not have a tough but lightweight plastic one?
So I only have a spoon. The plastic is light but so is having only one thing. I don't have to count past one, either. That makes it easier.
I like easy.
So first, go light, and second, don't take so much.
Third - I multiplex.
Now we take another step. This seems like a bigger step but it isn't. Not really. If you can, just take things that do more than one job.
It's not hard.
I have a spoon. I use my spoon to eat. It does the job of a spoon and a knife and a fork.
You can do that with a spoon but you can't with a knife or a fork, so a spoon is good. You can cut mashed potatoes or couscous or rice and beans with a spoon, even soft meat if you happen to have some. You can't eat soup with a knife. OK. Or a fork. OK again.
You can go out a little farther and talk about sleeping. You want to sleep comfortably. So do I. Everyone does. There are some tricks though.
Let's say you have a sleeping bag. That's good. And let's say you don't want to get cold at night. Getting cold is bad.
So you have a choice, and the choice is get a light sleeping bag and be cold or get a warm one and be heavy. But you have another choice, and that is to get a light sleeping bag and use it with the warm clothes you're already carrying.
You know, you always want extra warm clothes, in case.
Mornings are always cooler, and sometimes you get chilly around camp in the evening, so instead of having a bunch of warm clothes and a heavy sleeping bag that's too warm for you to wear your clothes in, get a lighter sleeping bag and wear your warm clothes to bed.
That works.
See? The best of two worlds.
You're going to take both kinds of things, so maybe take a little more of the warm clothing and a little less sleeping bag.
That way you'll be sure to stay warm in bed, and if things get chilly when you're not in bed, then you still have plenty of clothes to wear.
You get the idea.
Washing up vs. hosing down.
For another thing, say you want to stay clean but you don't want to go stand in a creek and get all cold, let alone be naked out there for anybody to see. So you take a plastic bucket along, and a sponge, and maybe a plastic jug to fill up with water, and you use these to take sponge baths. And a full-size bar of soap, and a washcloth, and a towel.
That's fine, but you can simplify.
Like this — leave those things at home.
Take a square of synthetic fleece cloth. Maybe you can cut up an old worn out shirt, or at worst buy half a yard of fleece at a fabric shop and cut out a piece. You already have some way to carry water so you don't need an extra jug, and in place of the bucket you have a cooking pot.
This is gross. No, it isn't.
It seems gross but it isn't, not really.
Here's why.
What do you do with a cooking pot then? You cook in it.
It's fine if you rinse it out after your bath, and then heat water in it. Or boil water to cook with. That both cleans and sterilizes the cooking pot, and your little square of fleece is just as good as any sponge or a washcloth, and it rolls up or folds up and even dries out completely if you give it a chance, and a sponge won't.
So there. You've eliminated a bunch of things that you don't need to take along, and you're clean and happy.
Smaller, lighter, simpler, more compact, easier.
And besides, you don't even need to use the cooking pot either, just a water bottle and a piece of fleece. The fleece works as a towel too, and you can take a little bottle of liquid soap.
Use that same piece of fleece to wipe off your face during the day, like if you get sweaty, or come to a creek and just want to freshen up with a little water, OK?
Now we're getting close.
The idea is to go light, and leave behind everything you don't need, and make everything else do at least two jobs. Once you get to that point you can really start thinking about your pack.
Now we're getting down to the wire. We're getting close to what convenience means.
Once you have only what you need then it's a bunch easier to keep track of it. You stop worrying, and you stop hunting for things buried in your pack.
This makes your life on the trail so much easier, as far as it goes, and it goes a long, long way.
And the next step is...
The pack.
Yes, the very next step is the pack.
This is more individual. A pack is a lot like a purse, and a purse really depends on you. Who you are, what you're up to, how you want to live. Go for it. There are hundreds of them out there (packs, that is), and you'll find one that works.
Personally, I like mine as simple as possible without being any simpler.
Too simple for me is having a pack with no pockets, one that's all sewn up tight and smooth, and too fussy for me is a pack that has pockets and zippers all over, everywhere — on the sides, the top, the front, the bottom, the shoulder straps, the hip belt, pockets on top of pockets, so many I can't even remember how many I have, let alone what's in which one.
I don't need a cell phone pocket, or a pocket for any kind of pod. Not an iPod, a jPod, or a kPod. No pods. At all. I'm a hiker, not a pod person.
I like some pockets but not pockets all over. That's part of keeping it simple. Too much convenience makes things inconvenient.
Maybe a couple of side pockets, and maybe a top pocket with one zipper will do, to hold a windbreaker.
Sometimes a small pouch on a shoulder strap or hip belt is fine, for sunscreen, a notebook, a map.
However the details work out things should be handy. Handy in that things you need during the day and that you want to have handy are handy without you having to tear open the whole pack, but that's really about it.
Pockets and flaps and straps and buttons and zippers and drawstrings don't make things handy just because they're there, they make things handy because they're there in the right places in the right numbers, and because you have only what you need, and because it works. For you.
The most important things for me during the day are food and water.
Next come a watch and a map.
After that, everything is optional. Sunscreen, insect repellent, lip balm, aspirin or prescription medication, gloves, windbreaker, wading shoes, and things like that. Camera. And my little square of fleece. And toilet paper. Sometimes that isn't optional, and it's good to know exactly where it is. And be able to get at it.
Most of the small items fit into a little pouch, or a ziplock bag that can go into a larger pocket that holds the food, the water, and the clothing that I need during the day.
How it all works out exactly is not important.
I try to keep each thing in the same place all the time so I don't have to hunt. I said try. I get close, and it helps, though I never quite make it, but I try. I am just close enough to perfection to be amazing without being intimidating. Or arrogant. (Too arrogant.)
Most packs these days have outside pockets, and they hold my food and water.
A top pocket is great for emergency clothing, like a windbreaker, or a hat and gloves. You can keep your little things there too, especially if you have a separate small bag for them.
I look at the map a lot, and my watch, so I want them out where they're handy.
For food, I stop once or twice during the day, so I don't mind unloading the food and maybe my tiny stove and so on.
Some like to snack all day, and they pack a little differently. It's all personal, but for me just a couple of larger external pockets works, with a place to put my smaller things and keep them both safe and handy.
That's convenient for me.
What do you think?