Wednesday, December 8, 2010 Packs! Packs! Packs! or The First in a Series of Hopefully None-too-Boring Equipment Based Posts

My first focus in planning my cross-continent walk has been the pack I will be living out of fer the majority of a year. That seems like a decent place to start in my reckoning, and I've been assaulting myself with information on a plethora of packs, large, small, and ridiculous alike. 

Modern packs are amazing. In the mid to late 80's, almost everyone abandoned external, traditional frames fer much more structured, capable, and above all comfortable internal frame designs. Internal frames allow fer greater capacity, better weight distribution, increased load stability and capability, and generally decreased pack weight. I will be focusing on internal frame packs, though there are many people who prefer the fit and feel of externals to this day. In general, it's not a good idea at all to go completely frame-less.

Step One: Figure Out What You Need!

The first thing to consider when looking into a serious pack fer field travel, werk, or life, is size. How long will you be in back-country before you can restock yer supplies? Will you be able to comfortably carry those consumable supplies and any other equipment necessary? What is the expected climate? Cold weather gear is a great deal more cumbersome and heavier than hot weather gear. There is a current trend away from larger packs, what is known as ultra-light hiking. The theory behind this practice is that by reducing load and pack size along with it, we are able to move faster, over longer distances, decreasing our time between restocking to make up fer our decreased capacity in the field.

I personally see several flaws in this logic, though as always, I remain steadfastly in the camp of everyone having their own methods. The first flaw I see is that any pack should be comfortable. Fit is foremost, and there are many packs designed fer a massive capacity and load range while maintaining a surprising level of comfort. The versatility of being able to carry any load you or others may need you to seems you outweigh personal agility in almost every instance.  There is no such thing as being over prepared. That said, my second major misunderstanding with ultra-light hiking is that again, it bases its logic on another, more general hiking rule of thumb, in that anything you have in yer ruck should be essential to a worst case scenario situation over the time you'll be in country. To cut anything from this list adds an unnecessary degree of danger, which leads me to my third point. Ultra-light, as much as I respect it, seems to have an element of extremism to it. Yes, man was able to survive hikes and migrations with even less, but with modern innovation in pack design, it would be illogical to regress. So, fer my purposes, I'll be looking at packs towards the large to huge end of the spectrum.

Sizing: Now In Completely Random Units!

Backpacks are measured fer internal capacity in units of either liters (L) or cubic inches (in3) depending on country of origin, personal preference fer remembering, or, as I've seen in my research, totally at random. Most of the packs I've short-listed lie between 75 and 85 liters, or 4,500 and 5,200 in3. This is generally agreed on to be a decent size fer a week-long period, though some within this range are able to hold much, much more. The largest packs on the market generally top out at around 120L or about 6,337 in3. Enough fer the baby, the bathwater, and the kitchen sink, without a doubt!

Major Features

Other important features to consider in a pack are the access points, hydration system compatibility, what kind of lid it has, compression strapping, and hip-belt/suspension/quick release. Access points are crucial to maintaining organization and ease of loading/unloading yer pack as needed daily. Most decent packs have top openings with sand/snow "spindrift" collars, mid-level main-compartment side or front access, and either a completely separate sleep system compartment with its own access or quick-access to the bottom of the main compartment.  Many packs on the market today are also compatible out-of-the-box with a hydration system, usually composed of a bladder (1.5-3L), tubing routed through the pack, and a mouth piece which rests on the shoulder strap fer ease of use while the pack is on. This blows my mind, personally, but I'm easily amused. And a fan of not dehydrating. Am I right? 

Lids are another matter, entirely. Any decent pack has a removable lid, most of which serve as small day packs in their own right. A good solid, weather-proofed lid, preferably with top-compression straps to the rest of the pack, is a must. Extra storage, necessary protection, and a neat fanny pack. Two of these factors make a good lid a must.

Compression straps are exactly what they sound like. They make it easy to cinch the pack up, which not only stabilizes the load, making dangerous and annoying shifting during a hike less of an issue, but also draw in the weight of the load, redirecting and balancing it, which makes a world of difference in comfort of carry. These do not negate the benefit of "stuff sacks" with their own compression straps fer items like clothing and sleep systems/sacks.

Hip-belts are another necessity fer spending any real amount of time living out of a pack while on the move. After the compression straps draw the weight of a load in, the heavily padded oh-so-cushy hip belts on modern packs redistribute it over a wide surface area over your hips, keeping even a hulking pack properly situated fer maximum carrying comfort.

Military versus Civilian

Military surplus is a great way to save some cash, liberate some equipment, and get bomb-proof, high-capacity packs in the process. The general downside to this is that military packs are themselves generally much heavier than their civilian counter-parts, and also set up to allow fer the effective use of firearms. This means that the load is bottom heavy, and tapers toward the top of the pack, which many people find less comfortable than civilian packs with an opposing load theory. 

Excellent examples of military surplus rucks are the ILBE by Arcteryx/Propper International, the Gregory UM21, and the British Army's Bergen 120L Ruck. The UM21, with a capacity of 6,330 cubic inches is generally agreed on as the best out of the three listed, though weighing in at thirteen pounds, there is still some consideration to be made. The ILBE, while on the smaller side, at 75L, is a great middle-of the road tank of a ruck, capable of a 120 pound load.

While hitch-hiking in my younger years, I used a frame-less medium ALICE ruck. It was horrible on my back, neck, shoulders, knees, and feet. Following the logic river, it was just as bad or worse on my morale at times. Looking back makes me smile at my inexperience

There are also many great, economical packs offered privately by companies which have put in a great amount of research to maximize comfort, and minimize unloaded weight. The Osprey Aether 85, fer example with a spacious 5,200 cubic inches, weighs in at a mere four pound, fifteen ounces. Unfortunately, many examples of civilian packs have more durability issues than their mil-spec rivals, due to cuts in production cost, in spite of increases in retail cost. The most gritty, durable civilian packs include those by makers such as Kifaru, though the price tags associated place them easily outside the range of almost anyone.

There is definitely a lot to consider when looking fer the perfect pack fer you and yer situation, from a bug-out or emergency kit, to a thru-hike, to living in the field. As the current market goes, expect to pay between $80-$150 on a decent, durable pack. While it may seem like a steep price to pay fer a bag, the investment in quality gear will pay off time after time. Of course, if you find a way not to pay a damned dime fer a pack which suits you and yers just fine... well- Let me know!

As always, if you have any questions, or experience with any of these rucksacks, feel free to comment or e-mail me directly.  

Tuesday, November 30, 2010 Who Does This Kid Think He Is?

From here on out, you'll notice I write in dialect. I apologize in advance if this makes "reading on" more difficult, but much the same as we'll see in other facets of life, language should be reclaimed and renewed (though I worry about the direction even this has taken in the over-culture.) Either way, my dialect will make an easy distinction between what's mine and what I drag over here from other folk with better ideas than my own.


So let's get down to brass tacks: Who the hell am I? My name is Brandon. I'm twenty-four years old. As I write now, I'm based out of Columbia, Missouri, where I've been fer the past five or six years. While I've been here, I've spent my time working fer various non-profit organizations, apprenticing and working as a tattooist at an amazing shop with great folks, and generally trying to find a comfortable niche as a productive member of society, while maintaining my sanity and self.

Let's start back a little further than that fer our purposes, though.

The Wonder Years.



I was fairly lucky growing up, when I look back on it. We weren't well off, but we always had a roof. I had both parents around until I was twelve. The things I am most grateful fer, and will always remain to be remembered as such were my father's work ethic, and constant camping trips over the spring and summer.

My father worked produce in a grocery store, and later, distributing from a warehouse, and when he wasn't doing that, he did just about everything else one could imagine. He was, and continues to be, an amazing hobbyist carpenter, electrician, reconstruction specialist, mechanic, roofer - the man has figured out and carried out more and better work than any twenty men who dedicated their lives to these trades. He taught me to consume information, to apply it, to always work, and that the result would be the actualization of any aspiration.

I remember, once, after my father’s truck's bumper was left beyond repair, he built one - out of oak. With the right amount of work and thought, anything can be built, anything can be accomplished. Even if that were all I had to thank him fer, I am forever grateful to him.

As I’ve mentioned, another huge aspect of my early life was camping throughout the season. The spring and summer trips, weeks and weekends alike, blurred into an amalgam which to me then seemed as though half of life was spent out doors, where work even early in the morning 'til well past sundown was transformed: no longer something forced and contradictory, but an honest endeavor, a simple and unavoidable fact, its results immediate, its effect evident. And best of all, as the work gained these qualities, it no longer felt like work. It became something else entirely. Aching muscles, cuts, bruises, and all, the end result of a day in the field was still more real to me, even then. In Scouts, where I continued to learn skills and theory about sustainable life, we were taught that such a life was best; most beneficial not only to self, but family, community, and even country. It was most patriotic, most understandably and logically "American" to have at hand the tools, skills, and knowledge to be complete self-sustained and sufficient, and as such, enable ourselves to dedicate our surplus time, effort, and resources to helping all those around us achieve the same. To this day, regardless of constantly being told my political beliefs lie contrary to the idea, I consider this the definition of our nation, and the capability of its people.


Growing Pains.

Like most American households, my parents divorced. I lived with my mother and sister, as supervised visitation with my father fell to the wayside, and eventually I heard nothing from him at all. Somehow the state determined that while these visitations weren't worth upholding, I was in need of someone to talk to, which I came to realize was in fact someone who would attempt to prescribe me a solution to what were viewed by and large as my issues. I was prescribed (though I didn't take) a beta-blocker to "slow-down my thoughts and allow [myself] to filter my actions," (a heart medication I would ironically later be honestly prescribed fer my heart) prescribed fer psychotropic side-effects after a single session. I would continue to be bounced from one therapist to the next psychologist to the next psychiatrist until I was sixteen years old.

Logical Conclusions

Still following the standard fer a young American male, I was looking forward with great anticipation to my sixteenth birthday- not, however, fer exactly the same reasons. While my friends were preoccupied with cars,  sports, and girls, I became heavily involved in politics, local and national, and theoretical. After 9/11, I could see the writing on the wall. While most everyone in my class could barely understand what had happened, I could see what would. High school, and the diploma it would result in seemed vastly insignificant to the storm brewing on the horizon. After reading The Teenage Liberation Handbook I settled on dropping in: reclaiming the remaining three years I'd otherwise have spent bored and regurgitating through school. I'd use that time traveling, helping out where I seemed needed, wherever a call went up against the horrors developing internationally.

As such, the time remaining until I could legally leave school became a primer course. I spent it investigating my local school board, following threats to teachers fer speaking up about the actions of the board. Tax fraud and corruption were rampant. I disseminated as much information about them as I could to everyone from students to the local media, and as a result of attempting to open a discussion, was threatened with expulsion.

I remember one time when the first lady visited, and I wasn't even allowed on the school grounds, with absolutely no justification given fer my ban from my right as an American to a public education.

I learned quickly that merely asking questions is generally taken by most with authority as a singularly hostile action, and reckon most of us who have stood up and asked an honest question have experienced the same. I don't know how to solve all the problems. We didn't know how to make lasting change and accountability a factor in our representative leaders, much less end a war which began to spread around the world like wild fire. We had our small victories, and continue to, to this day. However with as many rallies, boycotts, mass arrests, police brutalities and misconducts, investigations and infiltrations of civilians; however many rights we "lose" or "freedoms" we "sacrifice in the name of security," we seem to be stuck in neutral on an incredibly steep incline.

I've seen parks larger than Central Park covered in a thick cloud of mace. I've seen riot police battalions in full gear, mobilized and mowing through generally defenseless crowds of peaceful protesters- picnickers, even- in the name of security. I've seen piercings ripped out, heads wedged under car tires, brutal beatings, blatant theft, and trumped up charges enforced to silence innocent voices not even of dissent, but merely of questioning. Regardless of our political orientation, hell, regardless of my own, then or now, we know this is a symptom of something deeper. 

I registered to vote when I was seventeen and a half. I have yet to vote in an election. I maintain that this is the true majority of any American election; by not voting, a vast majority of Americans have solidly, resoundingly, and deafeningly demanded something else entirely. At the very least, something more than the mere illusion of choice.

After several years of fighting tooth and nail with every resource available, in defense of what I knew and loved as singularly and wonderfully American, the respect and reverence fer all human life and thought, I could only see the same course being ground out by our leaders and those in control of the means of production all the same. Fer everything that we did, there were a thousand more reforms to be made, all just as important as the ones before and after. Every one of a million individual causes, each as vital as every other. 

Realization

The one thing that became apparent through it all was this: We all have our own decisions to make, and we are the only ones making them, in the end. Thus, the change we need, the change we've all wondered about, the change we've been promised, was ours all along, and remains so. The only thing we need elect is to make that change a reality fer ourselves. 

This is not to say there isn't an inherent need fer community within the human spirit and our very core. Indeed, we are social creatures, and our ability to work together, even with different ends in mind, is unsurpassed, and nearly capable of anything. Even loosely bound, we, as humans quickly become nothing short of incredible in our capacity to overcome anything at all. 

Opting Out

Now, as I work in a matrix system of markets upon markets fer a representation of productive time which can be exchanged meaninglessly fer almost nothing that truly effects the quality of my or any other life, I can't help but wonder why, or even how. How it could possibly be easier fer a cabbage to travel hundreds or thousands of miles fer us to consume it , as opposed to us growing or foraging the same, or whatever else is still abundantly available or readily produced. Our nations and indeed our worlds farmers are over burdened, under paid, constantly under threat by corporate powers, and should their breaking point be reached, we will all realize the true costs of what is not truly convenience. Or, we can participate. We can end our passive roles in our own lives, our false representation by not only our governing bodies, but also our economic ones. If the idea behind a dollar can be socio-politically charged, so can its very denial. This is the basis fer my interpretation of what has become known as "permaculture."

[pur-muh-kuhl-cher]

Coined by Bill Mollison, the term is defined as a system of cultivation intended to maintain permanent agriculture or horticulture by relying on renewable resources and a self-sustaining ecosystem. (dictionary.com)

To explain further, permaculture can be practiced anywhere, to any degree, from a box garden in a window, to a back yard orchard, to a fully self-sustaining tract of land capable of continuing to produce more than enough necessary fer those living on it, fer as long as desired. What I'm planning, and offering an open and permanent invitation to, is the latter, while providing enough information about my efforts and those of others to accomplish anything in between.

My personal solution fer overcoming the obstacles we currently face is simple: to opt out. While retaining the beneficial aspects of technology and modern human achievement, I plan on cutting out all excess. The final goal of all of this is to acquire enough land to sustain myself and anyone who decides to visit. My ranch will be entirely self-sustained, and with any luck, in fact produce a surplus which will allow fer donation to those in need in the surrounding communities.

That said, I hope as many people as possible get involved in their own projects, in their own communities and neighborhoods, or (if I should be so lucky) in the construction of the ranch I have planned. I hope my experiences, as related here, and any information shared on these virtual pages serves to help someone else realize control over their own lives and their ability to uplift those around them, even to reverse destructive consumer culture in the process.