How did you or will you pack your backpack?

[GreatDane]

Most of the time on my camino I was only using about 80% of my Mammut pack and it always seemed to overstuffed. I used a few stuff sacks; sleeping bag, clothes bag, electronic stuff bag, first aid bag. And everything else I tried to fill in the voids with. I only used my front pack pocket for my sunhat and didn't use my side pockets. I'd like to go to an under 32L bag next time.

But I kept watching as people with smaller capacity packs kept pulling more and more items out of their packs like it was Mary Poppins magic satchel!!! One thing I think I noticed was no use of stuff sacks. Maybe that fills those voids better?

So how do you pack? Carefully? Shove it all un-stuff sacked? Things hanging off the exterior??? Do you find your method allows for more in your pack?

 

[Tia Valeria]

Carefully!!!
No stuff sacks and we roll everything up. It seems to pack tighter and also crease less. Poncho (folded) goes in the top pocket not the main one, waterproof trousers in one side pocket. My pack has two side pockets so to keep it balanced I put towel and toiletries in the opposite one to the w-proof trousers. Water bottles (2) in mesh side pockets. Nothing hanging off the pack although I did pin a pair of damp socks there one day.
Smaller packs don't necessarily weigh less so I suggest that you check the actual pack weight with your present pack. If you need a sleeping bag the 32lt pack might be a little small. About 35lt might be better.

 

[Scott Sweeney]

Myself I use an Exos 38. Like Tia I roll everything up and then put them in stuff sacks. Sleep Sack on the bottom stuff sacks of equal weight on both sides. Small bag with personnel things on the top and poncho on the outside pocket. It's is only a pain for about the first four days, things in then out and than you realize something was forgotten.......
hmmm

 

[NicoZ]

Some of this will depend on your pack.

A top loader with no other access will limit you. There are things you want/need easy access to. If you've only got that one access point those things end up in one place.

OTOH if you have a pack with many pockets and access points the choices are wider.

I'll also say this . You want the weight packed in ways that make it easier to carry the pack.

Dry bags are nice for keeping your clothes dry. You can also use them to sort dirty clothes and keep them from soiling your clean stuff.

 

[nidarosa]

Last two walks I have used a zip closure 35 litre pack - great for access and very easy to see what's where. But on the last walk I started keeping clothes and sleeping bag in drybags, squeezing the air out, saving lots of space. Next time I intend to carry a 30 litre top opener, since I only have a few items in the pack anyway - one drybag with sleeping bag, one for clothes, one for underwear and socks, small hanging toiletries bag, medicine and sundry bag, sandals down the side. My Altus goes in the top pocket for immediate deployment, a bottle in each side pocket, and buff, scarf and other small stuff in the stretch kangaroo pocket. Empty contents on bed on arrival, let down bag out to puff up, grab wash bag with towel inside and sarong for wrap-around, hit the shower, change under sarong, do laundry, hang to dry, go have vino and a meal. Easy peasy!

 

[Bajaracer]

I used some thin dry sacks, bag one for toiletries and to take to the shower with me, bag two for clothes, bag three for rain jacket, merino wool zip up. Kept things organized like using packing cubes.

 

[Dave2525]

I ended up using ziplock bags for most items. My sleeping bag had its own compression bag.

 

[Dutch]

Roll clothes, towel ect up and fill up the holes with small items like underwear. Its just clothes, sleepinggear and toilletrybag in my main compartment. The only thing that i put in a seperate bag and on top in that compartment is a clean shirt and underwear plus my towel, so that when i arrive in an albergue i can go take a shower straight away without having to go thru all my stuff first.

Things i (may) need during the walk, like other pair of socks or first aid kit, i put in easily accesable side/top compartments.

I never leave anything dangling on the outside. I find that really anoying. The most i would hang on the outside with a safetypin would be a pair of sock that i changed along the way, to air them out.

 

[nidarosa]

One heartfelt plea though for people reading this: Please, please, please don't pack your stuff in noisy, crackly, rustling shopping/plastic bags! They are so loud in the dorm in the morning! If you have to pack in those, please do it the night before or quietly take all your stuff out of the dorm and into a different room to finish packing. (Rant over.) Thank you.

 

[Scott Sweeney]

You're such a hater! .

 

[sjhannes]

Most of the time on my camino I was only using about 80% of my Mammut pack and it always seemed to overstuffed. I used a few stuff sacks; sleeping bag, clothes bag, electronic stuff bag, first aid bag. And everything else I tried to fill in the voids with. I only used my front pack pocket for my sunhat and didn't use my side pockets. I'd like to go to an under 32L bag next time.

But I kept watching as people with smaller capacity packs kept pulling more and more items out of their packs like it was Mary Poppins magic satchel!!! One thing I think I noticed was no use of stuff sacks. Maybe that fills those voids better?

So how do you pack? Carefully? Shove it all un-stuff sacked? Things hanging off the exterior??? Do you find your method allows for more in your pack?

Everything in a plastic zip lock bag, gallon size, and the pack itself lined with a large plastic garbage bag. Nothing got wet. I carried another large plastic garbage bag to put over my pack in the rain. Related items were consolidated in their zip lock bags so packing and unpacking was easy. My pack weighed 12 lbs.

 

[tploomis]

Down sleeping bag at bottom of pack compressed with compression sack and in a ziplock bag to ensure waterproofness. Clothing in second ziplock bag next to sleeping bag at bottom of pack, each clothing item rolled up tightly to minimize wrinkles and for compactness. Third ziplock bag for dirty laundry as next layer up with fourth ziplock containing grooming supplies next to it. top of pack has lightweight Patagonia Torrent hardshell rain jacket and Patagonia NanoPuff jacket ready for easy access if cold or raining. Waist belt pockets used for sunscreen, sunglasses, reading glasses, Ibuprofen. Pack net shovel pocket for snacks, water bottle, drying wet clothes, first aid supplies in ziplock. Total weight last time: 15 pounds. Total weight next time: 12 pounds.

 

[sjhannes]

Down sleeping bag at bottom of pack compressed with compression sack and in a ziplock bag to ensure waterproofness. Clothing in second ziplock bag next to sleeping bag at bottom of pack, each clothing item rolled up tightly to minimize wrinkles and for compactness. Third ziplock bag for dirty laundry as next layer up with fourth ziplock containing grooming supplies next to it. top of pack has lightweight Patagonia Torrent hardshell rain jacket and Patagonia NanoPuff jacket ready for easy access if cold or raining. Waist belt pockets used for sunscreen, sunglasses, reading glasses, Ibuprofen. Pack net shovel pocket for snacks, water bottle, drying wet clothes, first aid supplies in ziplock. Total weight last time: 15 pounds. Total weight next time: 12 pounds.

Yes, don't forget the a ibuprofen, but buy it in Spain. It comes in 600mg there. Buy it before you need it, and you will! It got me from Leon to Santiago!

 

[Anemone del Camino]

Most of the time on my camino I was only using about 80% of my Mammut pack and it always seemed to overstuffed. I used a few stuff sacks; sleeping bag, clothes bag, electronic stuff bag, first aid bag. And everything else I tried to fill in the voids with. I only used my front pack pocket for my sunhat and didn't use my side pockets. I'd like to go to an under 32L bag next time.

But I kept watching as people with smaller capacity packs kept pulling more and more items out of their packs like it was Mary Poppins magic satchel!!! One thing I think I noticed was no use of stuff sacks. Maybe that fills those voids better?

So how do you pack? Carefully? Shove it all un-stuff sacked? Things hanging off the exterior??? Do you find your method allows for more in your pack?

I first walked with a 36l Ospray with a zipper all around. 6 years later they make much lighter ones, and this time, walking del Norte if September and not the Frances, I thought I would bring a sleeping, so now I have a 40l Osprey that fills from the top. I didn't think I would like filling from the top but I used nylon mesh bags (they don't wake people up) and unpack my back very quickly.

The top compartement has two pockets. On the large outter pocket I put rain gear and sun hat: Altus, plastic pants and rain/wind jacket. In the inner pocket goes the passport, money, etc. Sleeping back (selfcompressing) goes on bottom and then the nylon bags: one for laundry (including pins, plus and soap), one for bed time: frontal lamp, eyeglass case, pjs, earplugs. Then there's my small hanging toiletry bag that has 3 compartments: one for meds, one for foot care, one for the rest: soap, deodorant, etc. Clothes go in filling the gaps as do my small and light Crocs I wear at the albergues.

I wear pants with cargo pockets, so lipbalm, iphone (I photograph pages of the guidebook) and money for the day go in there.

What I need to find a solution for is the small extra backpack I carry and use when arriving and leaving Spain (I fly in from Canada) and need more than just my cargo pant pockets when on the flight or staying over a day upon arrival or before leaving in the city where the airport is located.

I learned the hard way not to carry water bottles on the side because as you empty one you end up carrying weight unevently and can cause injury. I do carry a metal water bottle but it's to fill on site and drink out of, packing it when empty again. I carry a Camelback.

Hope this helps.

 

[Al the optimist]

Backpack? Who needs one? (I like to think outside the box)

 

[hunsta]

Great advice here. Will be my first in may 2015 Andi can't figure how anyone gets it all in a 35l bag. But I'm sure they do. I've done 2 preliminary packs so far. Got it down to just under 8kg and a 45l twin compartment pack was full. And that was 1 1/2 changes of clothes for a 7 week trip. Using very light drybags. Using a twin compartment so I only have to roll sleeping sack and put it in in the morning so as to not disturb others with a full pack repack.

 

[Deleted member 39006]

I use a top loader backpack (Osprey Exos 38) and like most people have separate drybags for sleeping bag and clothes. What massively improved my daily routine was to make a bespoke 'mini duffel bag' the exact width of the bag and about 6 inches deep, into which I packed all the smaller bits and pieces so the whole pack/unpack thing daily only involved 3 bags.

I made the mini duffel out of a piece of old shower curtain, with a top zip and two loop handles so it was easy to pull out. Even for a bloke as cackhanded as me, it only took an hour or so with the sewing machine (OK, plus an hour to learn how to use the sewing machine, plus a few minutes to learn some new swear words) and the shower curtain material is pretty good for making a 'nearly drybag', plus it slides in and out easily and weighs just a few grams. (I've learned that nothing weighs nothing... especially when you add up all the 'nothings').

Once you have a packing system which doesn't include any rustly plastic bags, you can quickly hone your routine to have a place for everything and everything in its place, which is very helpful for slick arrivals and departures. It also helps getting over the odd panic attacks of 'did I remember to pack x?' without having to empty every single thing out of your pack...

Oh, and I made a very lightweight drawcord bag out of the same material for my sandals to live in during the day, at the very top of my backpack. I noticed that after a few evenings wear my sandals weren't quite as fragrant and delectable as when I first started, and it stopped the dust and odour contaminating the insides of my pack.

 

[pobrien]

Strong elastic bands!!! I rolled up my tops, bottoms socks and any other pieces of clothing with elastic bands- made finding stuff much easier and a stroll to take out and repack I'd necessary during the day.