Make Your Own Backpack

Grass Valley's Scout Troop 4 is planning an 2 week ultra light backpacking trek around Yosemite National Park.  As a part of their preparations, each member of their 10 person crew elected to build an ultralight backpack from kits provided by Quest Outfitters (www.questoutfitters.com).  With 4400ci of capacity, these packs will provide plenty of capacity for a backcountry trek with resupplys about 4-5 days apart.  This is a pictorial essay on their experiences in building these $40, 12 oz. packs.

A completed ultra light pack!

The pack kits come with detailed instructions and full sized patterns.

After checking each kit's contents, the Scouts cut out the full sized paterns, pin them to the correct cloth and start cutting.  Some of the materials have an inside & outside finish so it's important to attach the patterns on the correct side of the material. 

Each Scouts sews their own pack, with the help of a mentor.

Once they get the hand of it, most Scouts can manage the sewing themselves.  It takes about 2 days of work to assemble each pack.

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This page revised March 15, 2009