It is a great art to saunter. The swiftest traveler is he that goes afoot. Most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts, of life are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind. Henry David Thoreau, USA
My favorite method of travel is not by train, bus, or hang glider, but by placing one foot in front of the other in an easy manner. With comfortable shoes, a light pack, and an interesting environment, this is a matchless pleasure. My eyes have the time to focus on anything or anyone, my ears to discern the many sounds, and my nose to smell what's cooking.
Walking takes you where the people are. Shopkeepers behind their counters. Children playing games or looking at you slyly. Weddings being wed. Happy people. Sad people. Brow-raising outbursts of emotion. Walking is travel on a human scale, where you see the slight upturn at the corner of a mouth, and have time to nod and smile back.
When you take your time people notice and respond--sometimes with a nod or a smile, and sometimes with a "How do you do," "Nice weather," or a Life's Story. Many times I've walked through villages with half-a-dozen children parading around me.
Photo: In this 3500 cubic inch (60 liter) internal frame pack I have a tent, sleeping bag, pad, stove, clothing, a day's food, a quart or two of water, and other necessities. Even though vehicles were only passing a few times per hour, I was nevertheless deliciously happy.
When your pack is light and efficient you feel happy and free. If you are on your way somewhere, perhaps to a hostel or a train station, and you spy a pleasant café you would like to enjoy for awhile--no problem! Or perhaps you would like to venture into a shop, watch old men play chess in a park, take a scenic route. Whatever you want to do, you can do. This is traveling at its best.
When your pack is heavy and cumbersome you are never a happy traveler. All-consumed with the singular desire to get you and your burden wherever you're going, you will not see or experience more than the ground in front of you.
Indeed as your shoulders ache from the cutting weight and the sweat pours over your face you will more resemble a godforsaken soul in a chain gang than a happy-go-lucky traveler.
But even this is not the worst-case scenario. Many travelers pack and accumulate so much their effective range is limited to about a hundred yards--and this only with bursts of superhuman effort. They sit waiting for time to pass and transport to arrive.
Perhaps someday as you skip through some faraway train station you'll come across one of these forlorn and weary travelers, and hear his or her version of the Heavy Packer's Refrain, which goes something like this: "I've got so much junk I'm always sitting around guarding it while everyone else is off having fun..."
Backpacks
For most budget travelers a backpack is the ultimate tool for carrying gear. A good backpack, well packed and lightly loaded, allows the traveler to traverse the world with her hands free and her head high. Women especially benefit from backpacks since much of the load is efficiently transferred away from the upper body to much stronger hips.
Conversely, duffel bags and suitcases inefficiently transfer 100% of the load to the upper body, which is tiring for everyone. Travelers who forego a backpack for a suitcase will end up riding expensive taxis and forfeiting a great deal of time and pleasure.
What Size Pack
The most useful idea this chapter can communicate is that you don't need a big, bulky backpack, because you probably don't need a lot of clothing or gear. Experienced travelers not only get by with less, they travel better and more comfortably with less. A light and efficient pack is freedom and flexibility for the traveler.
Although most travelers are aware of the "travel light" philosophy before they leave, few actually practice it.
It's difficult for the inexperienced to realize how little you actually need when traveling, and how important having a light pack is. The tendency is to think the things you use in ordinary life are necessary. After eight tours the barest minimum of gear is not only what I want, but what I need. Except for a few emergency items, I can't be burdened for months with anything that isn't useful almost every day. I know if a special need arises, I can always use lightweight money or duct tape to fix the problem.
My advice for most non-camping travel backpackers is to use a large daypack, rucksack, or small internal frame pack of 1800-3500 cubic inches (30-60 liters), which can easily contain two changes of clothes, a rainjacket, a pair of sandals, a few toiletries, camera and film, a few other items, and even a down sleeping bag, if desired. This is especially true for travelers who plan to always stay in hotels or hostels, who don't need gear associated with "roughing it," and who are going to be on the move a lot.
Of course if you plan on staying in one place for extended periods--meaning several weeks or longer--then you can use a larger pack and bring more without much hassle.
Do not make the mistake of bringing too much, and then vowing when you return never to overpack again. As a budget traveler you will be walking and carrying your pack much more than you realize--indeed for many Americans walking more than ever before. To a greater or lesser extent, the size, weight, and efficiency of your pack will determine how you travel, where you travel, and who you meet.
The three broad categories of backpacks are external-frame, internal-frame, and frameless. Internal-frame packs described here include travel packs and top-loaders. Frameless packs are comprised of rucksacks and daypacks. While duffel bags are technically not backpacks, they are often flung over the shoulder and used by many backpackers with great success.
The main advantage of externals is they transfer nearly 100% of the load to the hipbelt. Most externals also have an aluminum extender bar which allows a great deal of load--typically sleeping bag, tent, and/or pad--to be lashed above the pack, which in normal walking mode brings it almost directly over your center of gravity. This is the lightest place to carry a load--note the many peoples who balance baskets and vessels on their heads.
These are outstanding features for hiking on trails, across deserts, or on any relatively good path. However, for going over, under, around or through obstacles--such as embarking a crowded bus or train, battling lines at American Express, or anything in the urban jungle--an external is not the ideal load-carrying machine.
A large externally-framed pack with its ominous metal bars always strikes a measure of fear into pedestrians and shopkeepers. People instinctively dislike this hard and dangerous thing careening toward them. They will pull their children closer, shake their heads, and whisper as you go by.
Of course if an external is what you have this doesn't mean you can't take it traveling--I did on my first backpacking trip. It's just that external packs are further from the ideal than other choices.
Photo: My first $2 external frame pack with $10 NATO-issue sleeping bag tied below.
The internal frame pack was born about thirty years ago when some enterprising soul fastened two aluminum stays inside a rucksack. This transferred more of the load away from the shoulders and onto the hips. Today, as one examines the walls of a good outdoor shop, the internal frame industry is testament to free-enterprise. Dozens of pack makers compete for market share with technology, value, fashion, and hype.
The vast majority of travel backpackers use internals. This is due to their more streamlined profile and their absence of a large and frightening external metal frame which might knock out some innocent's teeth. Internals are blessedly easier to maneuver onto buses and trains, and in the everyday urban environment. Walk into a china shop with an external and you will feel like an 800-pound gorilla. With an internal you're merely the hunchback of Notre Dame.
Travel packs are built specifically for travel. They are made of heavy duty nylon, have a zip-open main body for easy access, and have several external pockets for frequently used items. Most have a "hideaway" suspension, where the hipbelt and shoulder straps can be tucked away behind a thin nylon panel. They also have a handle and/or shoulder strap for carrying as a suitcase.
Since these packs have less sophisticated suspension systems they don't carry a load as well as their internal cousins. Because they open via a zip-open panel they must be larger than a regular top-loading internal to contain the same amount of gear. (Top-loaders are the most efficient at packing gear into the smallest possible space, since you can stuff and stuff a top-loader, and then stuff it some more.)
Some travel packs have a zip-off daypack which attaches to the front of the main pack. While these are popular, I prefer to use a simple, lightweight daypack which I keep inside my main pack. For my taste zip-off day packs make the main pack too bulky and heavy since they place the load too far from my center of gravity.
Travel packs are very popular with American backpackers due to their suitcase-like convenience, and because they are usually priced less than a same-size top-loader. Many American backpackers say they really like their travel packs, and the good ones seem to work out well.
The main reason I prefer top-loading, internal-frame packs over travel packs is their design enables you to pack your gear into the smallest possible package. This makes it easier to walk onto buses and trains, to sit down in cafes, and to browse through shops. Also, since they are better than travel packs at distributing load to the hipbelt, they weigh less heavily on the shoulders. In short, these packs deliver the maximum in walking freedom. The majority of European backpackers use top-loading internal-frame packs.
Top-loading packs have a hood with a pocket or two which clamps over the top of the pack. Here is where you put items you use often, such as toilet bag, camera, map, guidebook, etc. Some of these packs also have a bottom sleeping bag compartment with zippered access. In addition to your sleeping bag, there is also room here for items you might want in a hurry, such as a rainjacket, sandals, etc.
Rucksacks (which are similar to internal frame packs but don't have an internal frame) and daypacks (student book packs) are also great for traveling if you can go ultra-light. With these packs all the load falls on the shoulders, but this isn't a problem if you keep the load to twelve pounds or less. Everyone will say how smart you are for traveling so light.
I carry a very light (seven-ounce) nylon daypack from Wal-Mart in my regular backpack. I use this to hold a jacket, camera, food, etc., for exploring during the day. This is a convenient and common practice among backpackers. Do not start off your travels, however, with your backpack and your daypack full of gear. It's much better to have both hands free.
The only time I used a duffel instead of a backpack was on a month-long hitchhiking tour from Anchorage to Seattle. It was inexpensive, made of nylon, and had five zippered compartments. It was light and convenient to use, although I was fortunate the hitching was excellent. (In Toke, Alaska I had to wait only four hours--the average wait at that junction is two days.)
Walking for long periods with a duffel slung over my shoulder caused problems with my neckbone, and also severely handicapped my grizzly-detection capability on one side. Nevertheless, it was much easier to carry and sling around than a standard suitcase.
If a duffel is all you can afford, it will work fine. In fact, small duffels are the bag of choice for many British hitchhikers inside their own country. They connote a certain professionalism to motorists. I would not hesitate one second to travel if a duffel was all I had. I would, however, be doubly certain my load was as light as possible.
You can get nylon duffel bags with several zippered compartments from discount stores for $15-$30. These are much lighter and more efficient than Army-style heavy duty canvas duffels, which will drive you crazy with their inconvenience and huge size.
I'm afraid you're not really travel backpacking if you use a suitcase, but you still may buy up to a dozen (12) copies of this book for gifts, with my compliments.
Every backpack salesperson has heard complaints about packs being torn or broken by baggage handlers. Usually this is less the fault of the handlers and more the fault of Improper Preflight Pack Preparation.
Backpacks have numerous dangling appendages, such as shoulder straps and hipbelts, which have innate propensity to catch on mechanized roller-type machines and be chewed to bits. External frame packs are vulnerable to their frames becoming overstressed by funloving baggage handlers. A few simple precautions will reduce your chance of arriving in London or Bangkok with half a hipbelt, or minus one shoulderstrap.
1. Preferred method is to have your pack small enough to carry on. Airlines generally allow one carry-on article with total dimensions of forty-five inches (height + length + width). A 3000 cubic inch pack will just meet these requirements. You may be able to get by with a little more.
2. If your pack is too large to carry on remove, tuck away, or tie-up all straps, belts, and appendages. Do not leave anything dangling which can get caught in mechanical devices. I put a raincover over the back of the pack (covering the shoulder straps and hipbelt) and then tightly wrap the pack with twenty feet of cord. I have done this for a dozen flights and never had a problem.
3. Lock, tie-up, or conceal all zippers on your pack, so prying hands can't make a quick snatch.
4. The cargo area may be unpressurized and very cold. Cheap shampoo and other bottles may explode and cause a mess. Segregate them in plastic bags.
5. Stove fuel such as white gas, kerosene, and butane canisters are not permitted on any airliner.
- Packcloth
- A medium-weight nylon traditionally used on main body and low abrasion areas of packs. Very strong and light, but not as abrasion resistant as Cordura. My packcloth backpacks, however, have held up well.
- Cordura 1000 and Anso-Tex
- Very heavy duty nylon used on packs. Very abrasion resistant.
- Stays
- Usually thin aluminum bars fitted to the backside of an internal pack which transfer weight to the hipbelt. Aluminum stays can be bent to fit the contour of your back, which may make a dramatic difference in comfort. While wearing the pack have a detail-oriented, non-inebriated friend mark where the stays should be bent. Then remove and bend them slightly over the edge of a table. Repeat as necessary. Several small bends are better than one big screw-up. Someone at the outdoor shop where you bought the pack should know how to fit stays. Most stays come pre-bent and may already fit your back perfectly.
- Plastic frame sheet
- Supplements or replaces aluminum stays. Improves load transfer to the hipbelt, and prevents sharp objects from poking you in the back.
- Foam back panel
- Supplements aluminum stays by preventing sharp objects from poking you in the back. A recommended feature, but not absolutely necessary with careful packing.
- Pokes in the back
- To be avoided.
- Hipbelt
- Wraps around hips and takes most of the pack load. Made of several layers of foam to pad hips and hold the load. Web hipbelts found on some rucksacks and daypacks only hold the pack close to the back.
- Lumbar pad
- Back portion of the hipbelt which fits into the small of the back, taking a significant portion of the load. Most travel packs don't have this worthwhile feature.
- Delta straps
- Attach from either side of the hipbelt to the side of the lower, sleeping bag area of pack. When cinched they pull the load into the small of the back and hipbelt; otherwise the load inefficiently "hangs."
- Shoulder straps
- "Anatomically curved" shoulder straps on better packs are a good feature, as they curve around the neck. Adjusting the straps lower on the pack increases pack stability and load on the shoulders. A higher adjustment takes weight off the shoulders and reduces pack stability. Salespeople will probably adjust them for maximum pack stability, which is necessary for mountain climbing and skiing, but not so important for travel. I always adjust mine high so there is little or no weight on my shoulders.
- Load lifters
- Straps running from shoulder straps to top of pack. When cinched they take weight off the top of the shoulders and transfer it to the upper chest and upper back.
- Compression straps
- Wrap around the sides of the pack. When cinched they compress and pull the load onto the internal frame; otherwise the load inefficiently "hangs."
- Sternum strap
- Connects the two shoulder straps across the chest. Increases stability of the pack, and may slightly improve load transfer. I rarely used mine, so I sold it to a Mayan shopkeeper for one quetzal (about twenty cents.)
- Sleeping bag compartment
- Bottom, zippered portion of some packs. This is where you stow your sleeping bag and other light but bulky items such as a rainjacket. See Chapter 20 Organization and Packing for more on packing.
- Extended
- Top-loading packs often have extra gear capacity by "raising the hood," which makes the pack taller.
- Packcover (raincover)
- 5 oz., $15-$20. Essential piece of nylon to cover the backpack in rain. Otherwise in a long downpour the backpack will leak through seams and zippers. Also useful for wrapping a pack before checking it on an airplane. A plastic garbage bag substitutes for many backpackers. My packcover has proved a worthwhile investment.
Backpacks Compared
The following are representative of suitable backpacks for travel. Similar or better packs should be available from your outdoor or travel retailer. Decide on your method of travel and what you are going to take before selecting a pack. Some retailers allow you to take a pack home to see how your gear fits into it. Otherwise bring some of your stuff into the store.
Kelty Red Wing
- 2.6 lbs., $90. Two sizes, 2400 and 2900 cu.in., panel loading. Twin aluminum stays with foam sheet. Two side pockets and two front pockets. Beefy main zip. Biggest-selling Kelty pack. Simple, convenient, no-nonsense design is excellent for ultralight, non-tent-carrying travelers. I might lop off the side pockets to make it more streamlined. (Click image for opposite view.)
- Jansport West Indies
- 3.5 lbs., $90. 3577 cu.in., panel loading. Twin aluminum stays with padded back. Two side pockets and two front pockets. Made of heavy duty Cordura nylon. Has a handle for carrying as luggage. Hide-away suspension panel. This is a good, mid-sized travel pack similar to those used by many American backpackers.
- REI EveningStar
- 4 lbs., $140. 3500 cu.in., two panel-loading compartments. Twin aluminum stays. A good pack for travelers with a lot of gear, such as a tent, sleeping bag, stove, juggling pins, etc. I used this pack for a few months in Central America, but sometimes it had to go on top of the bus, where it was looted once. I don't recommend attaching an add-on pocket as it will flop around and considerably increase bulk.
- Vaude Rock-Tiger
- 2.2 pounds, $125. 2400 cubic inches. No aluminum stays or framesheet. A top loader with one top hood pocket. No sleeping bag compartment. This is a typical pack for many ultralight European backpackers. Despite its small size you can stuff a surprising amount into it. I highly recommend this type of small, light, simple, sturdy, and inexpensive backpack for hostel-hopping and other ultralight, non-camping travel. Your retailer should have a similar pack.
- Lowe Sirocco
- 5.5 lbs., $225. 3700 + up to 600 extended cubic inches. Twin aluminum stays. A standard top loader with a top hood pocket and a bottom sleeping bag compartment. Should straps and hipbelt are sized specifically for women. An outstanding pack from a top pack maker.
- Lowe Sundancer
- 5 lbs., $220. 2800 + up to 900 extended cubic inches. Twin aluminum stays. A standard top loader with a top hood pocket and a bottom sleeping bag compartment. Sized to fit people 5'4" inches and shorter.
- Jansport World Tour
- 5.5 lbs., $140. 6575 cu. in. Twin aluminum stays with padded back. Has two panel-opening compartments, two side pockets, and a zip-off day pack. It's huge. This pack is for helicoptering into the Congo to set up base camp, or for Schwarzenegger-types who want to show off.
- Daypack/Bookbag
- 1 to 2 lbs., $25-$50. 1800-2600 cubic inches. Panel or top-loading. One or two backpockets. Has shoulder straps only. If you pack carefully enough, this is a cheap, convenient, low-profile, and recommended way to travel.
He who sits still in a house all the time may be the greatest vagrant of all; but the saunterer, in the good sense, is no more vagrant than the meandering river, which is all the while sedulously seeking the shortest course to the sea. Henry David Thoreau, USA
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In the afternoon, from the summit of a commanding ridge, I obtained a magnificent view of blue, softly curved mountain scenery. John Muir, USA and Scotland, from A Thousand Mile Walk to California
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On a long journey even a straw weighs heavy. Spanish proverb