Three-Bag Packing System

Ultralight hiking packs have an tendency to morph into uncomfortable bulging blobs when they’re not packed well. For this reason they tend to need a little bit of skill to use. After a bunch of hikes I’ve settled on a system that works well for me.

Calling it a system is a little grandiose. It’s a simple idea. My gear is divided between three stuff sacks which fill out the main compartment of the backpack. Each stuff sack is earmarked for a particular type of gear. This make packing and organisation very easy and add some water protection at only a small weight penalty. It’s a sweet spot for efficient.

You’ll have to experiment and see what works for you, but this system is a good jumping off point for anyone getting into hiking.

The Three Bags

The bulk of my gear gets divided up into three separate stuff sacks, one for soft goods, one for food and one for other gear. These three bags stack on top of each other in the main compartment of my backpack. I don’t typically access them during the day. Items I expect to use like my phone, snacks or a rain jacket get stashed in the outer pockets of my pack.

The bottom bag of the three is reserved for clothes and bedding. Things that you want to keep clean and dry. These are also the bits of gear which are bulky yet compressible. Placing them at the bottom of the pack allows the weight of the rest of your gear to squish them. No need to bother with a compression sack, let gravity do the work for you.

The middle bag is for food. Food is usually the densest stuff you carry. Placing it in the middle compresses your soft goods while keeping the weight low enough to balance the bag. It’s nice to have your food in a separate bag to keep it sterile and to have the option of hanging the bag away from vermin and other animals during the night.

The top bag is for ‘other gear’, things like cooking equipment, shelter, a first aid kit and the like. Usually this is less dense so we want it at the top of the pack. It’s also the type of gear we’re most likely to need to break into during the day, say to pull out a first aid kit or a torch.

What Sort of Bags?

I’ve ridiculously over thought the bags that I use for each of the three purposes. The most important restriction is that the size of the stuff sacks should perfectly match your pack interior. This way they’ll slide in and out easily. Finding perfect bags is much easier if you make them yourself!

My clothing sack is a home-made drawstring bag constructed from Silpoly offcuts. Using a drawstring closure means that air can escape the bag as its contents are compressed. The bag is ‘waterproof enough’, it will keep everything dry in a storm but wouldn’t hold up to a river dunking. When wading through deep water there’s always the option of tying the drawstring around the neck of the bag to make it completely watertight.

For food I use a commercial dry-bag. These are super waterproof and even do a good job of trapping odor inside. Presumably this helps keep pests away. A roll top closure also provides a strong point to hang the food bag from.

My miscellaneous gear is kept in another homemade drawstring bag, this one made from thin mosquito netting. Since this bag is only used for organisation it may as well be as light as possible. It’s also nice to be able to check with a glance that all my gear is present.