Homemade Lightweight Backpacks

For the past 5 years, I have been married to this crazy, lightweight, camping gear fanatic. It all started after our first trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA). We had bought 2 Kelty backpacks that fit us and all of our stuff. Most of that trip was paddling a canoe. Luckily, we didn't do too much hiking on that trip, because our packs weighed around 40 lbs each. This trip only last 3 days at a base camp, hiking around the lake (without packs), and fishing trips in the canoe.

The next summer, we planned a week long trip to a different area in the BWCA. This trip was going to entail many short trips by kayak and just as many portages with the packs and kayak. When preparing for this trip, my husband started looking into lightweight backpacking. This included lighter gear, clothes, and food. Our backpacks weighed about 21 lbs each.

Some examples of things that changed were:

• Purchased 1st Aid Kit in a pouch --> band-aids taken out of boxes, medical wipes taken out of their boxes, wrap duct tape into a small rectangle instead of on the roll, and then all put into a small zip lock baggie
• Stove --> changed to a smaller light weight version
• Pots/Kitchen gear --> bring less cooking gear, cut cleaning sponge to fit into smallest pot, and put spices in container that fits under fuel inside smallest pot
• 2 person Kelty Tent --> Tarp tent - no poles, tied to tree, no bug net, and no bottom
• Packaged freeze-dried food --> All food in zip lock baggies, separated into meals, Lipton Alfredo mixes, chicken/tuna in a bag, ramen noodles, if a mix needed milk we would have powdered milk, mini packs of butter, jelly, and honey from restaurants, and single oatmeal packs
• Personal hygiene case --> cut travel toothbrush just long enough to hold, soap/shampoo sheets, cut bottom off travel deodorant container, contact solution put into an small eye drop bottle, and all items put into a zip lock baggie
• Jeans/khakis/cotton tee shirts --> lightweight, zip off leg pants, moisture wicking shirts, and lightweight running wind/rain jacket/pants

Our 3rd summer, we were off to hike over Sundance Pass near Red Lodge in Montana. Now we had learned what to pack and trimmed off a few more ounces with new gear (feather sleeping bags and a new tent), but I was now in charge of the pack. I found a pattern online for the G4 Lightweight backpack. Funny thing is I was not a very experienced sewer, but I was ready to make an attempt. So we went shopping for fabric that was lighter weight and water resistant/proof. I was pretty familiar with fabric, since I had worked at a few fabric/craft stores in high school/college. We started looking at ripstop nylon and had a sample cut. Then we took the sample to the restroom and tried to make a cup and have it hold a small amount of water. All of the samples we tried, the water soaked right through and dripped onto the floor. Finally, we went to Mac's and looked in their outdoor upholstery section. We ended up finding two different fabrics that would hold water - one was hunter orange and the other was a bright blue. I also used craft foamies for the padding in the shoulder straps and the hip straps. The frame of the pack is our Z-lite sleeping pad. The pack ended up weighing around 14oz.

The next G4 pack I made was for my hubby. We ordered sil-nylon from Seattle Fabrics. His pack was yellow and green with modifications. I added some straps specifically to hold the tent poles, changed some pieces from nylon to netting and vice versa, and changed some ripstop pieces to gross grain ribbon. This pack ended up weighing around 11oz.

When we left on the hike, my pack weighed a total of 14lbs and my hubby's pack weighed 18lbs. The weight of our packs made the trip climbing over the 10,000ft Sundance Pass much easier. Of course, their are still areas of the packs that need improvement, so my job for the summer is to make these updates to new packs.