[pct-l] a little D3 story...and treating women right

[Reinhold Metzger]

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey Ned,
I still have 2 Kelty, 2 Jansport, and 2 A-16 (with the big metal wings) external
frame packs....they are heavy, but you can't beat them for heavy loads.
Use them all the time when I hike with my wife or the Scouts.
It's only on the JMT fast-packs, when I switch to my "UL" home made pack.

I cut off about half of a Jansport frame, and modified another "UL" external frame pack 
to fit the cut down Jansport frame and made a "UL" external frame pack for my wife.
Since I treat my women right and carry most of the gear, she does not need a big pack.
That is one of the reasons why my wife still hikes with me....I treat my women right.
Some of my buddies don't seem to understand that....they strap their women down like
mules, and then they wonder why they don't like hiking......some guys never learn.

Like Ned, I prefer the Kelty over the Jansport.....Seems like the Kelty is more 
balanced and reduces the rear pull against the shoulders by making the pack lean
forward against your back instead of leaning backwards and and pulling against 
the shoulders.

JMT Reinhold
------------------------------------

Hi, Yoshihiro!

You are very ingenious, indeed, and I hope your combination holds up well!

I am reminded of a pack-swap experience I had 36 years ago with one of my 
hiking partners on my PCT thru hike as we went around Mt. Hood.

Although I hiked from Mt. Lassen to mid-Oregon largely alone, one of my high 
school "best buddies" joined me at Santiam Pass and went the rest of the way 
to Manning. He was a "died-in-the-wool" Jansport fanatic and couldn't 
understand why I'd ever love the Kelty "bolt-on" suspension system like I 
did (and still do). We would often kid each other about each other's packs 
as we went down the trail.

Well, we made a pact with each other by the time we left Mt. Hood (and its 
"sea of humanity" swarming all over it because of a large Blue Grass 
Festival being held in its parking lot), we would swap packs to test what 
was so fantastic about each. We thought we would tolerate this for a 
half-day test, but it didn't last for even an hour.

Obviously, Mark didn't like the "bolt-on" aspect of the Kelty from the start 
and he didn't like the way it seamed so rigid against his back. I didn't 
like the way the Jansport suspension rode low on my lateral hips. This 
caused a disturbing side-to-side "rocking" motion of the entire pack with 
each step (when you stand on one foot, the other hip drops a bit leaning the 
pack in that direction, then you step on the other foot and the pack swings 
to the other shoulder, rocking back and forth like this as you go down the 
trail). I thought that I could manage this, but compared to the Kelty's 
predictable position against my back, this swinging back and forth drove me 
nuts in no time flat!

We agreed to consent to "To Each His Own" and stopped picking on each other 
for their pack preference....

Mtnned
-----------------------------------------
From: "Yoshihiro Murakami"


Dear ned and eckert

I must be the one of the worst and the dullest old foofs( I had
consulted with dictionary). I likes JanSports external pack. Recently,
 I was not able to act against the temptation of the sales of
backcountry.com. So I got new Carson 80.  The  form of waist belt and
shoulder yokes were improved, and fit well. The frame was smaller than
the old D3, but still it  was too large to hike at steeper mountains
in Japan. So I cut the lower frame and made a shorter one, and
attached the very old joints of D3 to Carson 80. Then, I sewed the
three plastic buckles to the packs. I am using a very heavy camera
Olympus E-3, about 2 Kg, simply because the focusing speed is  the
fastest, and almost waterproof.   It may looks like one of the
military packs.

The photos are here: I wrote captions in English but explanation in 
Japanese.

http://psycho01.edu.u-toyama.ac.jp/carson80.html

In future, I would  like to hike some sections of PCT.

-------------------------------------------------------


2010/1/13  <ned at pacificcrestcustombuilders.com <http://mailman.backcountry.net/mailman/listinfo/pct-l>>:
>/ Hey, Carl!
/>/
/>/ I'm still using mine and quite happy with it. I use internal frames for my
/>/ Search and Rescue work because I don't need the volume of the Kelty.
/>/ Regarding mobility with the Kelty, I used one to ski the CDT back in 1980
/>/ and didn't have a problem....
/>/
/>/ Ned
//----------------------------------------------
/>/ From: "Carl Siechert" 
//
/>>/ Thanks for that link, Eckert!
/>>/
/>>/ It's true; Kelty packs were bombproof, even the ones that weighed less
/>>/ than
/>>/ 6 lb 10 oz. I used the pack I carried on the PCT, which weighed "only" 4
/>>/ lbs
/>>/ 10 oz, for another 28 years of one-two week trips. In fact, aside from 
/>>/ its
/>>/ weight, there's nothing wrong with it and I'd still be using it now if I
/>>/ hadn't shed a few pounds and switched to Six Moon Designs packs a few
/>>/ years
/>>/ ago.
/>>/
/>>/ Cheers,
/>>/ Carl
/>>/ 1977 PCT Kelty Kid
/>>-----------------------------------------------/
/>>/ On Fri, Jan 8, 2010 at 7:09 PM, eckert <jape1 at cox.net <http://mailman.backcountry.net/mailman/listinfo/pct-l>> wrote:
/>>/
/>>>/ I was looking up an author of an old field guide and ran across a pdf of
/>>>/ a 1979 Backpacker magazine. Enjoy the ads.
/>>>/
/>>>/ http://tinyurl.com/yl7syko
/>>>/
/>>>/ The link is somewhat convoluted because of my search query, and begins
/>>>/ towards the back of the magazine. Just scroll up for a treat. On page
/>>>/ seven (for you PCT buffs) see why the Kelty Kids held that name.
/

<http://mailman.backcountry.net/mailman/listinfo/pct-l>