From: jim.speirs@canrem.com (Jim Speirs)
To: dannys@iis.ee.ethz.ch (Danny Schwendener)
Subject: How To Pack Up Your Troubles
Summary: Are you someone who has trouble packing up your troubles? Do you
 always forget to pack something? What you need is a system.



Article #R162b.
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How To Pack Up Your Troubles
Colin Wallace
The Leader, May 1982


Are you someone who has trouble packing up your troubles? Do you
always forget to pack something? What you need is a system.


System #l--Pack Everything

Pack every single item you think you might possibly need, together
with everything listed in the Scout Handbook. Don't forget those
"essentials" like your 3-speed-8-rack-AM/FM-CB-blender. Weigh each
item individually and then pack only those whose combined weight does
not exceed 350 lbs. Be sure to include a hernia truss. A lightweight-
backpacking rule of thumb is that your full pack should weigh less
than one-fifth of your weight, stripped. This rule is best applied by
those of us who are built like linebackers.


System #2--Leave Everything

To decide what to leave behind, unpack after a trip and place all your
equipment in three piles:

- Pile 1: things you used several times;

- Pile 2: things you used once or twice;

- Pile 3: things you didn't use at all.

The engineer of this system fails to explain how to pack for the
initial trip. Moreover, if you find a deck of cards in Pile 1, or your
toilet kit in Pile 3, then perhaps you should consider:


System #3--Pack a Little at a Time

Often called "sacks in a sack", this system calls for you to make up
several small packs and stash them into bigger packs which you then
put into an even bigger pack. The drawback is that half the load is
nothing but containers.


System #4--Proxy Packing

Have your mother pack for you. There may be some small shame when
admitting to having used this method but at least, if anything is
forgotten, you will be blameless. Besides, of all people, your mother
knows that you're not nearly as tough as you think you are and,
consequently, will pack the extras that you would consider unworthy of
a backpacker with his own personal, hand-carved thumbstick.

In any of the above systems, please note that:

- Reference to your backpack as "luggage" will brand you as an
aristocrat or a tenderfoot. Either way, you're unlikely to be voted
"the best person to have along on an expedition".

- Regardless of the packing system used, all gear expands when removed
from a pack. Therefore, your original gear can never be repacked into
the same container.

- Any item needed first will always be packed underneath all your
other equipment.

- The most essential item will always be forgotten.

- You will not discover that you have forgotten an item until you
desperately need it.

- After you spend valuable time and effort to improvise or buy a
replacement, you will find the missing item.

- The pack itself should be reinforced, lightweight, waterproof,
adjustable, padded, multi-pocketed, protected by storm flaps, tough
and functional; very much like a Scouter.