Thought I would share a favorite piece of gear - more to the point, a method of staying organized that works for me.

I got tired of digging in different places for pieces of gear. While it can make sense to keep your spoon with your stove and cookpot, you will still need a lighter, maybe a knife, soap etc. And some stuff has multiple uses - where best to keep it, and who hasn't lost track of those items?

Years ago I bought a silnylon organizer from Equinox, now sold as the Monarch (46 gms). I didn't use it much, almost ditched it (weight penalty), but now that my gear is dialed in I find it works really well keeping things (me) organized. It has multiple pouches, as opposed to say, one big ziplock full of stuff. Been using it every trip for the last year. Link below. Sorry, don't know how to make it a hotlink.

http://www.equinoxltd.com/the-gear/ultralite-gear/monarch_ultralite_travel_bag.cfm

This kit comes out at most stops. I usually hang it on a small broken branch right up against a tree trunk. It comes to bed with me. Use something andput it back; each piece of gear always goes back in the same section of the kit. It's second nature now.

GMS. OZ. ALL-IN-ONE KIT
46 1.6 Kit bag Equinox Monarch
45 1.6 Lamp Zebralight H31 / clip
20 0.7 Knife Victoronix Classic
17 0.6 Lighter/ducttape BIC mini, 2" duct tape wrap
20 0.7 Soap Dr. Bronner's / mini-dropper
10 0.4 Sanitizer Purell / mini-dropper
5 0.2 Scrips - daily
6 0.2 Toothbrus child-size
14 0.5 TP tight roll - Coleman
8 0.3 Spoon MSR plastic folding
54 1.9 Burner SnowPeak Lite Max
24 0.8 Stakes x 4 MSR CarbonCore 6"
-backups-
28 1.0 Papers ID, cash, credit card, key
4 0.1 Cord, 20' Dynaglide stiff, 2 x 10'
23 0.8 Fuel tabs x 2 Esbit
10 0.4 Striker/tinder Exotac
17 0.6 Battery - spare CR123A Li
20 0.7 First Aid bottle Antihist, Aspirin, Codeine,
needle/thread, leukotape wrap on bottle
7 0.2 Water pure tabs Micro-Pur MP-1

378 13.3

Other optional items go there too. Cigars, small lure box, etc.

I spend less time grubbing around and it makes camp a little more relaxing. I don't like things messing with my Wa (和)

***and if anyone can suggest how I can space the grams - ounces? - looks good in setup

Edited by PaulW on 10/28/2012 10:44:36 MDT.

I use a small silnylon ditty bag, with a smaller ditty bag inside of it for daily use hygiene stuff.

Some of the first aid stuff I keep in a plastic bag inside that, to keep it clean. A few other tiny thin bags hold the spare parts etc.

I hadn't thought to weight the total of all the little bags, but it's certainly less than 46 grams for all the little bags. The main silnylon bag weighs about 5.5 grams. I made a smaller mesh bag that weighs 3 grams out of .9 oz/yd noseeum, if you used 0.7 oz stuff it would weigh a fraction less, the rest are plastic bags. I make the little mesh bags when I'm bored at night. That mesh is pretty easy to sew by the way, to make the edges, I just double it over itself then sew a seam down that doubled connection, seems fine.

I use a separate silnylon stake sack that goes in my pole bag, and if I were using trekking poles, it would go in a side pocket of the backpack. That weighs about 2.5 grams I think. But having it all in one place like you do is also a fine idea.

On boring evenings I'll trim a few more grams off the thing, but I think this is about as light as you can go and still be functional.

However, I'm also now aware that things are really not going to get any lighter, it's just what you like at that point, and one ounce more or less will certainly never impact any backpacking trip anyone will take, or shouldn't.

I don't worry about the weight of the individual stuff in the ditty bag, I just weigh the whole thing and then see if I have too much of something packed. It's now at about 12oz, including some poison oak remover stuff, which is 2oz. I guess I could put the stakes in there too, there's room, though I think they are little too long for it, and I like to keep them somewhere they are sort of held in place, either by tent pole or in a side pocket by water bottles etc, that way they don't do any mischief. You can attach the tent stake bag cordlock/cord in the pole bag cord lock cord so it's easy to get out when you stop to camp.

Have fun. Your thing sounds nice though, I bet it could be made for less weight with a mix of mesh and silnylon and no zipper., maybe around 20 grams I'd guess, give or take.

After looking at the pics from the site, I realized, there really are not that many solutions to the same problem when it comes to gear, that's just a slightly neater and slightly heavier solution than what I ended up doing. personally I don't like zippers on stuff, it's something I've grown to want to move away from, but that's just a taste thing. Drawcords with micro cord locks are just so easy to maintain and replace, and weigh nothing.

Edited by hhope on 10/30/2012 14:06:48 MDT.

"I bet it could be made for less weight with a mix of mesh and silnylon and no zipper., maybe around 20 grams I'd guess, give or take."

Harald, what I do like is that most pockets are mesh so you can see what you're after - that's where the frequently used stuff goes. And half the pockets are velcro. Especially when cooking, you can see everything and grab what you need with one hand, keeping the other free if needed.

Granted it is a little heavy and realize most people probably wouldn't go this route - I guess one of my guilty conveniences. And as you say, to each their own.

As far as not weighing each item - well I bought this d@**n scale when I was laid up with a bum achilles and everything got weighed and put into spreadsheet. Now it's an OCD thing.

I use two small cuben stuff sacks. One for FAK and other stuff I hope not to need and another for the rest.

Paul, I can see why you like that thing, what struck me is that, when it came to solving the problem, there aren't that many solutions, after weighing and looking and rethinking, that's what I came up with too, more or less, only a bit less organized, and more modular, Nick uses another flavor of a similar solution, but they all come to using some separate small bags/pouches to separate the stuff, like what you are doing. 40 grams is not a lot of weight really, especially not with a zipper and velcro. But I am liking my little mesh stuff sacks, they are convenient, and really can't be lighter unless you do what nick does, go with cuben, and even then it's not a lot lighter, might even be heavier than 0.7 oz mesh depending on what cuben is used. I think over time, and boredom permitting, I'll end up sewing more and more little bags out of light mesh to replace the ziplocks I use, of varying sizes. There's almost no weight difference between a light ziplock and a light mesh bag, including drawstring / cord lock. Unlike silnylon, by the way, sewing mesh is really easy.

I hear you on the achilles/weighing thing, I've done a similar thing this year for different though similar reasons too, it is a nice hobby I have to say, compared to some, when the body insists on healing itself.

I bought a shorter spoon so it fits in my pot. I keep a knife, chapstick and hand sanitizer in my pocket. Everything else goes in a tiny little mesh bag.