This is the other half of the Odigan-inspired pack assembly I've been working on, finally assembled today into a functioning piece. I've already thought up a few improvements/possible changes to the pack straps themselves, but here it is as a starting point, anyway.
Tolkien was kind enough to write backpacks into his world. I've been stubborn for several years now in wanting to maintain everything in an over-the-shoulder configuration, and I've finally had enough of it. It just simply doesn't distribute the weight evenly, wears on you after awhile, and actually prohibited me from carrying some potentially important things like a tarp, in the name of appearance.
Well, I'm done.
This is an insanely cheap way to tote everything, done for about twenty bucks plus one incredibly simple leather project. ANYONE on this forum, even if they've never done a single leather project, can assemble this.
For starters, you need a 9x6' 8oz canvas tarp, purchasable at Lowe's for $10 in the paint department with the dropcloths. In addition to this, pick up a 50' coil of 3/8" twisted manila rope for $8. I cut off an 18' section of this to use for this specific pack, and the rest will find a use eventually.
There's a quiver sitting there also, and a pair of leather straps. All that these are are backpack-strap shaped strips with a 1" loop stitched onto each end. Insanely simple. Takes less than ten minutes.
Lay out your tarp, and place your bedding materials (in this case, a wool blanket and a canvas groundcloth) in the center, folded into a rectangular pile the shape of a small pack.
Now fold it in sections as wide as your bedding, like rolling up a burrito, first one side over all of it and tucked in, and then rolled all the way across the other side.
This next bit is optional, but very handy in my humble opinion. This part was inspired by an old pic of Pete Remling's backpack, which had a sword and quiver strapped to the sides. A quiver with a somewhat standard single strap can be placed around the "burrito-ed" bedding in this current state. If your strap is too long for this, you can always add an extra buckle hole along the strap where it's needed.
Now, fold down the top end over the quiver strap and along the whole shebang...
...and follow that up by wrapping the bottom end around the whole thing.
^^^That is the OUTside, not the side that will be up against your back. Plan this carefully, or the quiver will be on the wrong side for you to draw an arrow while wearing the pack, an error I made the first time I rigged this, which was annoying to say the least.
Next, we have some wrapping to do. I keep a loop tied on one end of my rope permanently to speed up shelter set-up, in the same way it will be used here...thread the free end through the loop, and you save yourself a knot you have to tie and untie repeatedly. Only catch here is that you have to thread your backpack straps through the rope as you do it for this first bit, like so:
Once you have this loop cinched around the top of the pack, start working your way down, wrapping it around the pack to the bottom, where you'll again thread it through your backpack straps at their bottom ends, and then tie it off on a previous wrap.
Now that the rope has been knotted, you can change the direction of your wrap 90 degrees, and wrap the pack lengthwise. Twice is all it should take, and you can place these vertical wraps to the inside of the backpack straps to keep them separated and prevent them from sliding around. Tie this off one last time to a convenient wrap...somewhere that won't rub on your body as you wear it.
I take my excess rope and wrap it loosely vertically around my quiver and its little pouch. I tuck the loose end in securely, but don't tie it off. The less I have to untie, the better. At full assembly, there are only two knots to undo.
So now, we have a backpack with straps...
...and a quick attachment of my portmanteau dry goods pantry leaves my food ready-to-hand, and my cooking utensils, pipe, and tobacco are all in the pouch on the quiver, so everything is available without breaking down the pack...only the bedding material is out of reach, so the pack can stay completely intact until it's all needed.
Later today I should have more pics of assembling this pack into a "standardized" shelter style that is doable in nearly any conditions with minimal material, using the rope that the pack is tied up with.
