Backpacks

[Laurie Reynolds]

When I read Russ's e-mail about his problems with light backpacks several
weeks ago, my heart sank.  I'm preparing to leave for my second camino, and
I had just purchased a light pack with the same kind of belt he described,
and that weighed about 2.6 pounds.  That's very different from the 6.5
pound Lowe Alpine pack with heavily padded belt and internal frame I walked
the Camino with in 2000.  I had determined, though I had no trouble with
the Lowe Alpine, that I would do everything in my power to get my total
weight down in the 13 pound range.  The weight is just an energy-sapper.
My new pack (a Mountainsmith Ghost) is light, and I have been training with
it loaded on my back.  I, too, developed a pain in the top of my shoulder
area, near the blades and noticed, just as Russ described, that the belt
kept slipping down below my hip bone.  After a long talk with the
Mountainsmith customer service guy, I got a lot of great advice I'll share
it in case any of you are in the same situation -- first and foremost,
loosen all straps before putting on the pack.  The first strap to tighten
should be the waistbelt.  Lay it straight across the hipbone, click, and
tighten. Then, the shoulder straps to get the pack comfortably positioned.
Then, he told me, comes the most important thing -- there are two sets
of "Delta straps" both of which connect to the waist belt, and both of
which pull the weight of the pack toward the lumbar region.  Tighten first
the lower two (one on each side), then the upper two. And he also
emphasized that loosening all straps and readjusting every time I take off
the pack and put it back on is really important.  I have followed these
instructions religiously for my last several training walks of 20 miles
each, and have not had a drop of pain on my shoulders or in the neck area.
Sorry to have gone on so long, but I just wanted to chime in that in my
opinion it is worth it to get the pack as light as possible, and if it's a
good brand like Mountainsmith, for me at least, it seems to have been just
a question of learning how to use all those many flapping straps.  Buen
camino, Laurie

I was *too* weight
>conscious and bought a backpack that weighed 2lbs 7oz. It was supposed to
be adjustable to keep the
>weight on my hips, but experience proved otherwise. The belt around the
hips was kind of a web type
>design (to keep the weight down), and no matter how much I tightened it,
it would slide down and
>transfer most of the load to my shoulders and the top of my spine. After
two weeks of walking with
>this I developed a flaring and burning pain at the top of my back that
finally wouldn't even go away
>when I took the backpack off.
>
>In hindsight I now realize that a backpack with a good thick and sturdy
waist belt, even if it
>weighed an extra pound or two, not only would have prevented this, but I
wouldn't even have noticed
>the extra weight. Try on the backpack in the store with the approximate
weight you plan on carrying
>and walk around as much as you can with it. Jump up and down with it too.
After you've done that,
>you should still be able to insert your thumbs between the top straps and
your shoulders with almost
>no resistance. Like I said, this is all in hindsight [sigh].
>
>Russ