This is a weird little thing I did that others might like to employ.
I have said before that anywhere I go, my go-bag is with me. that's roughly a 35L pack that is tool-heavy and contains all the stuff I need to have a decent go at it in the woods, to include roughly 3 days worth of Mountain House... Dry, it weighs in at 28 pounds or so.
I have taken the outside pockets off of it for the time being, leaving me at a bit of a loss with where to put the stuff that usually resides in them - Most importantly, my military canteen... but bear with me.
I have another pack that I usually transfer into in the winter - It's roughly 55L, and a typical load-out will be somewhat heavier, but not terribly so, because what I need the extra room for in the winter is generally clothing but the extra space is necessary.
As you can imagine, it is a HUGE PIA to transfer everything over into that bag, and back again, and also, I am left with a rather large pack which is less than useful for scouting, and no real place to put all the crap I have to unload from it in order to use it to scout.
So the reason I am trying to live without the outside pockets on the go-bag is that I have obtained a dyneema compression bag for it... If I compress the go-bag, it's carriage is drawn tight to the pack, and the pack size itself loses about 15% of size... it's tight, but I can fit it laying down in the bottom of that 55L without changing a thing, and which leaves about half of the pack for the winter adds....
Additionally, I can also hang it on top of the 55L pack, making a massive 90L pack - though this is rather top-heavy unless I hang my winter sleeping gear off the bottom of the 55L... which in turn, leaves way too much room inside, but it balances nice.
Anyway, it's a way to have my cake and eat it too. It is a bit of a sacrifice, because the weight of the go-bag itself would not normally be included, and that's a few pounds.
But I think it's worth it once I throw a camp, and have my go-bag available for scouting.
Just a thought.
