Stuff It!

“Do you use them or do you just cram everything into your pack? Ever since I switched to a smaller pack I have trouble fitting all my gear in (yes, there are some things I could leave at home) and I know there are some advantages to omitting the stuff sacks, I just like to feeeeeeel organized. Thoughts? Recommendations? Ideas?”

“Food sack for hanging

I like all my cooking gear in one sack.”

“I use a small sil nylon stuff sack (it's actually the stuff sack for my therorest sleeping pad) for those small items I don't want to have to search all over for, such as my headlamp.”

“I use stuff sacks for nearly everything. They're all different colors, so I know what's in them. Some stuff sacks serve a purpose, such as protecting my headlamp lens. Others keep stuff organized, such as my "everything" bag (needles/thread, patch kits, matches, filter o-rings, etc.). I have sacks for fishing gear, clothes, food, first aid. I'm sure all the little bags add up to a half-pound or something, but they keep my stuff organized, make it easy to dump items out, sort gear, etc. Most of my bags aren't even silnylon, just regular nylon, so I could probably get some weight savings there. I've tried going without before and while it may maximize space in the backpack, I find everything's a jumbled mess.”

“I have a stuff sack that is fleece lined on the inside. Turn it inside out and poof, instant pillow.”

“I use Waterproof stuff sacs for my bag and clothes. so if caught in the rain im ok. plus a ditty bag for cooking and hygene stuff.”

“I usually have 2 or 3 of them along. I bear bag with one and usually keep my sleeping bag and tent in 2 others - then the sleeping bag sack is packed with clothes and used as a pillow and the tent bag is used to organize odds and ends in the tent when it's pitched.

If you can't fit your stuff in your pack grab a couple compression sacks for your clothes and sleeping bag - they can save you a lot of space.”

“This past weekend I opted to pack the tent without the stuff sack and it seemed to open up a little space. My fear with going that route is having to pack a wet tent with everything else.”

“Bring a trash bag for wet a tent and, oh yeah......................shove it.”

“I use ziplocks. I don't carry a lot of stuff to stuff.”

“MArko's trash bag idea is good... I carry one medium granite gear for smaller items and to use as a pillow.. fleece raingear, soft shells etc get shoved into pack...

That why the granite gear lattitude series of packs is so cool...

front zippers open from top or bottom...

'32oz”

““This past weekend I opted to pack the tent without the stuff sack and it seemed to open up a little space. My fear with going that route is having to pack a wet tent with everything else.”
Nonconformist
12:35:08 PM

That's why the first thing that goes in my pack is a large plastic garbage bag liner that everything goes into. Not only does it help keep everything dry, but also makes it easy to seperate wet things from dry things.”

“You know of course that you should not run around with that bag on your head, Conk.”

“My son took my GG Nim.Lat. and left for me his GG Nim.Ozone, where's my zippers?”

“If you mean compression sacks, I use one for my sleeping bag and one for my tent. They're very useful in an internal frame pack, IMO.”

“sil nylon stuff sacks. One for food, one for clothes. One for the sleepy bag.”

“i used to stuff everything into the pack, which i felt gave me the most utilization of the pack. now i put a few things in stuff sacks. specifically my quilt (a water resistant one) and tent... poles removed and packed separately. the inflatable sleeping pad gets a rubber band. also, i keep my raingear in a waterproof bag so i can put it back into the pack wet without getting everything else wet.”

“BTW, since you are a nonconformist are you really getting an idea on what Not to do? If so, ahem... dont use stuff sacs they suck.”

“Listen to the wise guy.”

“Noncon you are now officially on my ignore list...only a cretin would ruin a perfect trolling board with inane babble about backpacking......consider yourself banished, don't bother with a snide comeback, I'M NOT LISTENING! LOL.”

“No Stovie, no me. This is a like a Clipper Bassetball game.”

“Stuff sacks are tha shiz nizzle, I always say.....”

“I like stuff sacks but I like them bigger than what I need. A tightly stuffed sack doesn't conform to the shape of the pack as well as a loose packed sack. No dead spaces. I want to get some of sil nylon sacks.”

“I'll have to try the loosely packed stuffed sacks next time before I ditch them completely.”

“that's what she said”