OK guys - You being one of the most creative bunch of people I've ever met, at least when it comes to great solutions to gear problems...
I need some help brainstorming some ideas. I decided this weekend that the only real solution I'm going to find to the pack delimma caused by my shoulder problems is an external frame.
I'd love to have a LuxuryLite pack, but it's just too far out of my price range. MedicineMan, feel free to chime in here I'd love to see some action pics and/or descriptions of your LL and its cylinders.
Anyway, I've got this old frame pack that I've had for YEARS. That's what I took this weekend on the Uwharrie trip with Slowhike, and I had no shoulder problems at all. Even though both the hip belt and shoulder straps on the thing are so ancient that the padding is all forms of stiff.
I've removed the pack itself from the frame - this is easy to do and isn't permanent, so I can put it back together if I need to - and I'd like to find a lighter way to make a workable pack based on the frame alone.
I'm already in the process of making new shoulder straps and hip belt; that isn't the problem. I'm trying to get some ideas on a lightweight way to attach my gear to the frame. The only restriction I have at this point is that I don't want to modify the frame itself, in case I need to use the pack as is. I may try to find an aluminum welder around here at some point later and modify/lighten the frame, but with the Mt. Rogers trip coming up so soon I don't want to get stuck without a working pack
Any ideas? I've been thinking in two directions - either a gearskin type taco attached to the frame in a couple of spots, or maybe a series of stuff sacks like the LL. I just haven't been able to conceptualize a good way to accomplish either of these.
Any thoughts? Other design schemes would definitely be welcome, too...
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