After going through a whole lot of high-end gear, I've pretty much come back to the basics. Maybe it's Army training that influenced me, but I think the ALICE Load Bearing Vest (LBV, is probably the best way to carry essential gear.
The dummy in the pics is wearing it WAY too high.
Not shown is the loops on the bottom attach to a GI pistol belt.
Here's how it works:
You pout most of your heavy gear on the belt. The belt rides on your hips (which is why the ALICE pack
doesn't ride on your hips) and bears the weight. The shoulder straps hold up the magazine pouches and stabilize the belt.
"But I don't carry an M16 in the woods!" 'Tis OK asshopper. The chest mounted magazine pockets are sized to hold one M16 magazine, so they aren't too big or bulky. In one goes a first aid kit. In another, your fire kit. The third holds your survival kit (see Ron Hood's "mini kit", or the kit described in Six Ways In and Twelve Ways Out), the last holds trail snacks.
The grenade pouches are a good place to hold your compass, and the other can hold a compression bandage (in case you cut yourself real bad trying out some of the crap we talk about here), or additional firestarting gear, first aid gear, lipstick, whatever.
On the pistol belt goes a couple of canteen kits (pouch, canteen, cup and stove, all nested together), knife, gun (if you carry one). You can also add SAW magazine pouches to hold extra gear to be kept at hand. On the back can go a buttpack to carry extra food, hygiene items, etc. Or you can put your Ranger roll there (Poncho and Poncho liner -- the shelter of choice for the "Travel light, freeze at night" types). You can even strap the Ranger roll to the buttpack. Or you can put an e-tool back there, all kinds of possibilities.
Pretty soon, you find for warm weather camping, the LBV is all you need for a weekender.
