Replacing Ziplocks with Stuff Sacks Critique Requested

Forgot to mention:

1. Dry bag 14L: food, toiletries (in the ziplocks mentioned above), hang kit

The Schnozzle also keeps my sleeping pad and pillow.

You seem to be moving in the opposite direction I did when lightening. I ditched my stuff sacks for freezer zipper lock bags. Like you, I don’t like the regular zip locks and the weight difference is negligible. My FAK is in a zipper lock and is protected from moisture and easy to see contents through  the clear plastic. I also use a zipper lock as a ditty bag for all my little stuff like  headlight, tyvek wallet, ect..  I do have a tiny MYOG, made to fit stake stuff, for poke proof protection. My bear bag kit consists of a tiny MYOG stuff that is just big enough to hold and appropriate sized rock and the line to hang with. The line is integral to the stuff to cinch it so it is always attached no separate stuff needed. I use a 1 oz nyloflume bag and all my stay dry stuff goes in that and anything that doesn’t need to stay critically dry like rain gear or already wet shelter lives outside of the liner. TP goes in a zipper lock and if I choose to take a camera, gps, delorme inreach they all get a small zipper lock. So far no problems. My lightweight silnylon dry bag holds my food during the day and gets hung or put in a bear box at night. The beauty of shaving down items carried is that you just don’t have that much to bag, keep track of or carry. So leaving stuff sacks behind actually shed weight and with the zipper locks things are probably better protected than stuffs. I put bulk FD or dehydrated meals, hot chocolate, snacks ect as well in zipper locks for food organizing and wash them when I get home. They really are pretty resilient.

No offense but I just cant see spending a lot of money on CF bags. Putting that money toward a CF shelter? Yes.

Also you carry soap so IMO leave the hand sanitizer home. So many sources saying soap and mechanical action of washing is the key to keeping clean Much better than sanitizer for the bacteria we are encountering on the trail.

Thank, jimmy b. Interestingly for the size and material sacks they either weigh the same or are lighter than ziplocks :) I at one point had ziplocks for the charger, PLB and notebook all of which I can eliminate if I replace the stuff sack with a dry bag as I mentioned so I should actually be dropping weight overall and removing layers of bags to have to go through.

Re soap my process is do the deed, wipe, sanitize, burn tp where appropriate and move on. I agree with hand washing being as or better than sanitizer but its much less practical in the field. As a bladder user I’d have to figure out how to dispense water (even with bottles I’d be touching things before washing my hands), not to mention using my drinking water to wash my hands…

One of my very favorite finds on this site was in the outdated user gear review section….A little silnylon personal pouch from a company called Equinox. Maybe 9″ x 6 “,  lots of zip pockets with mesh see-through fabric, the pouch zips up nice and tidy, at a whopping 1.6 ounces. I store my ultralight and repackaged toothbrush, toothpaste, soap bottle, deet bottle, various medications, flashlight, repair kit, sewing implements, SAK classic, spare batteries, first aid kit for 2, toilet paper…..all in, all out, and all organized and secure at about 11 ounces total.

http://www.equinoxltd.com

Monarch Ultralight Travel Bag (Original, small, UBG130).

I’m in no way affiliated but a great product and fine company.  Better than a ziplock.

As for your other concerns, I’m happily using a Zpacks cuben dry bag for clothes and another one for my quilt/sleeping pad, a small cuben ditty bag for esbit/alcohol stove/pot, a small cuben ditty bag for Steripen and water bags, and a Sea to Summit Ultrasil or Zpacks cuben  foodbag/bearbag. Play around to get the sizing right, depending on length of trip.

Some will say to skip some of these altogether but it works to keep me organized.

I hope this helps.

I use CF stuff sacks I have acquired used or on sale, but I also use ziploc freezer weight bags if I want to see what’s in the bag.  I like organizing gear so when I unload at the end of the day, it’s easy to get what I need as I set up camp.  That said, I had a friend who used to just stuff things in his pack, seemingly at random and at the end of the day, emptied his pack on the ground and (in his words) “just sorta nudge things with my toe to find what I want.”

.ON THE SUPERIORITY OF TARGET BRAND FREEZER BAGS OVER ZIPLOCK: A PHOTO ESSAY .

Here is a very good VIDEO SERIES by Mike Clelland on lightening up including everything in his pack watch all of them, he discusses stuff sacks as part of it.

I do not understand the fascinaton with ziplocks. They always seem to have trouble with the zips, sometimes even tearing off the bag.

Me, I use MYOG silnylon stuff sacks, for everything. In the case of clothing which must stay dry, I line the silnylon stuff sack with a standard issue plastic bag. I have a box of them, but supermarket veggie bags are also fine.

And yes, I KNOW  what is in my stuff sacks, although some of them have labels on the outsides: marker pen on silicone adhesive tape.
YMMV

Cheers

Thanks for the additional feedback folks. Good to know there are alternatives to the Ziplock brand, unfortunately there are no Targets in Canada but I suspect that there may be other brands available with that unique construction detail and now I know what to look for.

I appreciate the link to Mike Clelland’s video series, looks great and much can be learned there for sure. I am a softy when it comes to sleep however, I suspect I’ll never be able to give up a proper pillow and full length mat vs the ziplocks in a net bag and the franken mat… I can’t see wanting to get to that level. Also why have a wind breaker and a DriDucks jacket, the Driducks works great as a windbreaker, given his extreme measures in other ways I was surprised to see both in his pack.

Re his stuff sacks we’re not much different I’m simply wanting to take all the same ziplocks and get rid of them in lieu of as light CF stuff sacks.

I just want to express my awed admiration for the guy who carries a “bear bang kit.”

Respect.

@Dean F. :) Well this trip on the NCT fortunately did not require the use of it. However on a bike packing trip from Cape Scott to Cumberland (a 5 day 585km trip) we ran into 8 Black Bears a couple of which were big boys and the bangers were used several times. On this trip we did meet a lady who did have to make use of a banger only moments after we traversed the same Nels Bight to the CST cutoff section, where she caught up to us. There are over 7000 Black Bears on Vancouver Island most of them are central to north island!