How to Pack a Bagpack / Hiking Bag

Good arrangement of Backpack and comfortable Backpack will give you good and pleasant trip. It's important to know how to pack correctly. 

Equipments give you 30% and remaining 70% is your mindset and body.


A good packing will enable you to carry up 20kg easily. I used to carry 14-16kg weight with my backpack without becoming tired for hours.

It is not a competition to carry as much loads but to carry the least possible weights.

Below are back view of my Karrimor backpack :)Capacity 55-75 liter ... enough for 7-14days trip. Choosing a backpack depends on what you need.... Mine come with a very good support of back and waist.. I think the guideline to buy a backpack is :

• The capacity you need
• Comfortably
  
• Must have internal frame
• Most important is the shoulder straps must lie middle between ur neck and ur arms. Weight distribution must be equal- best position is right in the middle .
  
• Backpack must have the suitable length with respect to ur backbone. eg: the taller you are, the longer the backbone.... so choose a longer backpack and not short backpack....
• The place that you going to travel... Snow mountain or Rain forest ?
• For places where there little tree.... a big wide backpack is okay.... for rain forest, betta choose skinny bag... dun choose a wide backpack.. or else ur bag will end up interfere with ur hiking. Generally, a thin and long backpack is preferred by me.

Rain Forest usually full with trees and bushes..... haha - in other words... A lot of branches and thorns... so a thin backpack is the best.

Other specifications requirement varies with user. But those are main things to be considered. Most of the backpack come with similar features - waist support, sternum strap, shoulder straps, hip belt.

There are many ways to pack a bagpack / backpack / hiking bag / camping bag.

The basic concept in here is moment of inertia...or center gravity point.
Different people have different center of gravity.
Basically men has higher center of gravity compared with women.

Because males cannot go pregnant.. haha ... woman was designed to have lower center of gravity because they need to carry load at their stomach... that's the reasons why woman has longer legs and more beautiful legs..

Below are how to pack ..

Sleeping mat is important to ensure a good night sleep.
(as a bed on a wet floor, to avoid sleeping in the water when raining)



.... western people use to put their sleeping mat and camp outside the backpack, to save space.

However, whenever you are going for rainforest hike, you should not put ur sleeping mat outside...( preferably nothing outside )

reasons - due to many obsctacles along the path . .....eg : branches , thorns and etc

Solution, put your sleeping mat inside backpack. But after putting sleeping bag, there are not much space left... how ??

it's simple.... just put your sleeping mate as shown in the pic.

This enable you to have more space and by doing so.... the weight distribution will be even and ur bag shape will be nicer.

Followed by weight distributions.

The concept behind is to put the center of the weight as close to your center of gravity... so that you will be comfortable and able to move freely.

Basically, items should be put from lightest to heaviest weight. ( lowest to highest).

usually the distribution will be like :

1. sleeping bag is the lowest

Make sure you wrap your sleeping bag with plastic to avoid wet.
next will be your clothes... then heavier things such as cooking utensil... the top part will be things that fragile or heavy things that frequently used ( water bottles). small item that frequently used can be stored at side pocket... eg : first aid kit. torch light, sweets.

some camping tools picture :

rubber shoes that is cheap and water proof. The best candidate for Rain Forest Hike.
Best shoes. Can be bought at market at price ranged Rm7-10.

Because it is fully rubber, you need to wear stocking to absorb the sweat from your legs or else it will be very uncomfortable. Another rubber shoes is not a good heat insulator... so you need to wear extra stocking if climbing to cold area- Eg : Mount Kinabalu

Gas burner is the best while solid fuel come second ... Reason : gas burner is compact and faster and has controllable flame.Eggs are one of the fragile stuff that most of people bring to camp... Make sure you wrap all the eggs properly before putting into egg holder.
My clothes and pants.

• thick jacket (brown)
  
• polyester shirts ( blue color)
• polyester shorts (gray color)
• snow cap ( orange color)
• short & long tights ( polyester material - black)
• gloves (cotton - white , poly material - black)
• ********** polyester apparel dry faster and helped to avoid rapid dehydration by preventing loss of large amount of sweats. Cotton materials dry slower and always tend to absorb sweats and eventually cause loss of water from body. Very easy to cause dehydration. Thus, cotton is not a good choice for hiking.
  

My camping tools,

• Metalic mug - able to withstand fire.... can be used to cook or boil water.
• Fork, Spoon, Knife all made from stainless steal. - wont rust & can withstand fire.
• A whistle - for emergency communication.
• Solid Fuel - odorless, burns @1400F, 12-15minutes burning time, Non-toxic, No ash residue.
  
• Solid Fuel around RM5- RM10 .... comes with 8 tablets.
  
• Metal base to hold solid fuel for cooking.
  

First aid box,
Inside my first aid box , there are :

1. Pain killer - ZOFEN brand
2. Dettol - antiseptic
3. Panadol / Aspirin
4. First Aid - Handbook
5. Wool
6. Tissue
7. Super glue - fast bonding
8. Gauss bandage
9. Medical Tape
10. Oil
11. Salt
12. Muscle cramp reliever
13. Handy plaster
14. Yoko-yoko
    

My first aid kit.... Dettol.. bought last 2 years. Around MYR 20... comes with basic first aid items. As time goes by, I added some to suit my needs.


Binocular... not necessary ... haha, better get a camera with high optical zoom. What use you get a binocular and cannot capture nice scenery or wildlife ?

This binocular I get free when I bought a discovery Magazine... it has only 4 optical Zoom... while my panasonic DMC-FZ28 has 18X optical zoom.... which 1 betta ? Haha.. of course free item not good.

Remember to get a plastic when travelling. A sandwich bag will do the job.. It can avoid ur precious electronic item ( e.g. Phones, camera ) from getting wet. I bought it at RM8-9 @ Jusco. Come with 50 pieces of plastic bags.


My head lamp. Energizer - 3 AAA battery required.
2 modes - red light & white light.

It's relatively bright.. . My friend help me buy .... RM30-50 @ Jusco.. FUKING exp.... coz later I saw it at TESCO RM10-20...... same model and both has lifetime warranty. Despite, I no regret coz already buy and that time I dun have transport to go out buy things..... Just to accept ... haha.. in fact, I always do not have any transport ( Car or Motorcycle) ...haiz.. but nvm.. life still so great.

"Cheap things no good things, Good things no cheap things."
Mr. Ng @ SPI Englishman
I not sure whether this quote hold o not.. but 1 things I sure is Good things no Cheap things.

However, most of my tools are cheap things.... just that it really suit me.. and the best actually.
Just my bag expensive.. which I bought at RM830.00 @ TearProof - Times Square, KL.