Why use a rucksack that isn't big enough?

I once met Jamie McDonald who started a walk across Canada with a backpack. Not long into the walk (from memory) have bought a baby buggy, put his pack in that and pushed it across. I see the fellow, Karl Bushby, who has been walking around the world for 27 years ended up pushing a kind of buggy. The trouble is if you want to go up steep hills a buggy isn't an option.
 
TinTin said:
I once met Jamie McDonald who started a walk across Canada with a backpack. Not long into the walk (from memory) have bought a baby buggy, put his pack in that and pushed it across. I see the fellow, Karl Bushby, who has been walking around the world for 27 years ended up pushing a kind of buggy. The trouble is if you want to go up steep hills a buggy isn't an option.
Click to expand...
Sherpa?
 
TinTin said:
I once met Jamie McDonald who started a walk across Canada with a backpack. Not long into the walk (from memory) have bought a baby buggy, put his pack in that and pushed it across. I see the fellow, Karl Bushby, who has been walking around the world for 27 years ended up pushing a kind of buggy. The trouble is if you want to go up steep hills a buggy isn't an option.
Click to expand...
This guy pulls a buggy on trail (google translation):
erakarry-blogspot-com.translate.goog

Uusi Eräkärry

Tästä blogista löäydät kaikkea hyödyllistä tietoa eräkärryilyn maailmasta
erakarry-blogspot-com.translate.goog erakarry-blogspot-com.translate.goog

 
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Johnny3000 said:
This guy pulls a buggy on trail (google translation):
erakarry-blogspot-com.translate.goog

Uusi Eräkärry

Tästä blogista löäydät kaikkea hyödyllistä tietoa eräkärryilyn maailmasta
erakarry-blogspot-com.translate.goog erakarry-blogspot-com.translate.goog

Click to expand...
That had me thinking how you might cobble together a similar contraption from an old external framed rucksack, a kids bicycle wheel and a backpack (sans the sack bit) ...??

Climbing barbed wire /deer fences might be an issue :banghead:
 
Mole said:
Prompted by the discussion above...

Why do you/they do it?

Just get a bag which is actually sized for your gear? Or get more minimal like a true ultra lighter. Surely if it won't go in your pack, your pack is too small?

I know it's just a preference HYOH etc - just intrigued at the reasoning behind it, it just looks awkward, restrictive and counterproductive to many of us.


If your UL pack is already brim full and/or there are overlarge items of gear stuffed in side pockets or hanging outside as well. What are you going to do if you need to load up a bit more food or do a dry camp where you need to hump three litres of water? (Apart from faff and suffer).
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I have never understood it either, if the kit doesn’t fit inside, the pack’s just too small.
 
Run_Hike_Meat_Repeat said:
For multi days, I can see an argument in favour of a pack that's low volume, and then for example, a bulky dcf tent being carried outside it until some of the food has been eaten, then carrying the tent in the top of the bag to streamline it later in the trek.
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I'll do similar, for example cook kit in the front pocket until it will fit inside the pack, and fleece tucked under the lid until there's room inside. But I don't like it if there's anything dangling or moveable.
 
Stuff outside a pack can be dangerous.
Met a hiker last summer who told me about a woman who had stuffed her boots under the brain of her pack while fording a river, carrying a small dog in her arms. The dog panicked and she fell. She and the dog got out, but her boots fell off the pack and were washed downstream towards a canyon. This happened about 20km from the nearest road. I went across the same ford the previous day, and it's not the kind you want to go in to chase after stuff that's fallen in. The person who told me didn't know for sure but suspected she had to hike out in Crocs, unless she met someone who could spare better shoes her size. I reckon this can easily happen to tents, bottles and sleeping pads, too.
 
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Hmm, I never put my tent under the lid but I do put it in the front pocket. Wondering now if I should secure it in some way? In fact once when I had tent and small bottle in that pocket (can't remember what was in the side pockets, but something) the tent did fall out. But that was on the way home, on a train... So nothing lost on that occasion!
 
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