Great idea for a modular pack

If you spend any time reading here, you’ll soon figure out that I’m into making stuff, how to carry stuff and modularity.

I am forever working on ways to make the carrying of the stuff I take into the woods lighter and more organized, and somehow still be modular and durable.

I can’t recall if I’ve mentioned this here before, but after owning a few Kifaru packs for a few years, I’ve come to the idea to dispense with pretty much all of them and keep just the EMR frame. It is honestly one of the best things I’ve ever purchased. In lieu of a pack I think I might make three bags - very simple, no frills, roll top bags of varying sizes. Lash them to the frame and off I go. May even make them reversible with OD on one side and blaze orange on the inside. Hunting season or doing Search and Rescue, or heaven forbid, needing to be found, I can turn it inside out and be very visible. I love the Kifaru bags, but they are built like a tank. Great in some regards, but I think I could get away with something simpler and lighter, that I could lash to the frame. Just a few attachment points on the outside would suffice. Do away with the whole PALS matrix, all the zippers, the double layers of Cordura, etc.

The fine fellas over at Hill People Gear are thinking along the lines I am. On the one hand I’m tempted to just get what they have done. But...me being me, I’m tempted to make my own take on things.

But I’ve also been thinking of another approach. There are certain base items, ones that tend not to change much. It’s the amount of insulation and consumables that change. The hammock and tarp? Same whether it’s an over nighter or a two week canoe trip. Same with a stove and pot, same with a ground sheet, etc. But the temp rating on the sleeping bag might change depending on the season. If I’m off for three days, the amount of food and fuel I would take would vary. Also the type of trip would dictate a variation in gear. A hunting trip would differ from a photography trip would differ from a search for a lost child would differ from a wander to go hang out for the night in my hammock. Not having to do a complete strip down and repack of all the things I would need for each of those would be great. Having it so that certain things I would take all the time, and expanding or contracting the contents with the addition of modules would be great. And if it’s just a day time wander I could even dispense with that base module. Partly I’ve already gone in that direction with the Ouch’mups, Escape Pod and Slurp’mups. For just a day hike, that and a few other things carried in a waist belt or shoulder pack is all I really need.

But I think I will go further and have a base module, one bag with hammock, tarp, groundsheet, pegs, stove and pot and some fuel, days food, dry clothes, and likely a few other things that escape me right now, and the three afore mentioned modules, and then have other bags that contain more insulation, more clothing depending on the season, and more fuel and food, and then modules that are contingent on a given task. If I was heading off with a pal to hunt, a tree stand and dedicated camo would come into play. A photography trip would require the ability to strap Pelican cases onto the frame. If I was helping look for a lost hiker, more med gear or insulation or a means to evac the patient would be important. I keep dreaming about getting an Alpacka pack raft. On a trip where I might need to cross bodies of water it would matter, but on ones where I know my feet will never get wet, it won’t matter.

Another factor in my thinking is the ability to have two bags that could be used as panniers. I’ve been thinking of making two panniers that can be detached and attached to the Kifaru frame if I need to head away from the bike. Trips where the bike would get me to a certain point and from there I would have to head out away from the bike - climb the rest of the way, etc. Two evenly sized bags that could be stacked atop one another on the Kifaru Packframe would fulfill that requirement.

Anyway here is a terrific idea that has given me some fuel for thought.
http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=48577 

Of course some dipshit has to comment “Looks awfully heavy. But then, the heaviest backpack that I have used in a while goes slightly under one pound empty.” - completely unable to grasp the stated aim of what the maker requires this setup to do. Fundamentalism and dogma really chafes my taint.

Longkou Closure

I buy Longkou Vermicelli once in a while. As a camping food, it’s pretty darn good. Soak it in hot water and you’re good to go. Made with green beans, peas and water, so it’s also good for you. Good all around.

What’s also good is the bag it comes in and the little closure they use. The stretchy mesh bag I’ve used in my Swedish Mess Kit to hold a little scrubbing pad. Hang it up after doing a clean up, and the mesh allows the scrubber to dry. Less germs, smell, etc. A toiletry kit might also be a good candidate to be kept in here. Chance for the toothbrush to dry. A bar of soap as well. Hang it up to air out after use so that it doesn’t leave smears of soap everywhere. 

Just wish I could find these bags in some different colours. The neon pink is a bit much. Neon orange maybe not so much.

One thing I also dig is the closure they use.

It got me thinking whether this might also work on a silnylon bag. Finish it without drawstrings, or a roll top closure. Just fold it over a small ring, and then wind a hair elastic or some other sort of heavy duty elastic over that. A length of cord tied around it ought to suffice as well. Curious as to whether this sort of arrangement would be sufficient to keep the contents inside dry. I’ll have to do some experimenting.

One drawback I can see is the potential for loosing the ring and elastic, especially in an outdoor setting.

Also curious as to whether there is a proper name for this sort of closure. An old nautical rope trick dating back ages, with a colourfully descriptive name perhaps. Tried googling every combo of words I could think of, and no luck.

Witches Tit

Spent several nights out in the woods with minimal gear, trying to remain as low profile as possible. Partly as a way to test out some gear, partly just for, well I can’t say fun. Practice maybe. All I can say is, what essentially amounts to escape and evasion exercises when it dips to well below zero, sssssuuuck! 

I set up a very nicely hidden spot on this hill, and slept fitfully. In the morning everything was covered in frost. I had made tea the night before and had drunk it throughout the night in an effort to stay warm, I fired up the BushBuddy again and made some more tea as I packed up. No hammock on this trip, :-(  .

The view out of my little hidey hole.

Since it was as cold as the proverbial witches tit, I decided to christen this hill, the Witches Tit.

As cold as it was, nice view.

Even though a man rigs up his own outfit, he never gets it quite to suit him.

An acquaintance in Nova Scotia just apprised me of this great quote by Horace Kephart, and it would seem to describe me to a T. To me half the fun of getting out into the wilds is the preparation, the making of kit, the tweaking of kit, the seemingly never ending quest for the perfect set up.

“The only way to have it so is to do the work yourself. One can wear ready-made clothing, he can exist in ready-furnished rooms, but a ready-made camping outfit is a delusion and a snare. It is sure to be loaded with gimcracks that you have no use for, and to lack something that you will be miserable without.

It is great fun, in the long winter evenings, to sort over your beloved duffel, to make and fit up the little boxes and hold-alls in which everything has its proper place, to contrive new wrinkles that nobody but yourself has the gigantic brain to conceive, to concoct mysterious dopes that fill the house with unsanctimonious smells, to fish around for materials, in odd corners where you have no business, and, generally, to set the female members of the household buzzing around in curiosity, disapproval, and sundry other states of mind.

To be sure, even though a man rigs up his own outfit, he never gets it quite to suit him. Every season sees the downfall of some cherished scheme, the failure of some fond contrivance. Every winter sees you again fussing over your kit, altering this, substituting that, and flogging your wits with the same old problem of how to save weight and bulk without sacrifice of utility. All thoroughbred campers do this as regularly as the birds come back in spring.

And their kind has been doing it since the world began. It is good for us. If some misguided genius should invent a camping equipment body that none could find fault with, half our pleasure in life would be swept away.”