How To Make An Ultralight Backpack The Primitive Way

what if you're out for a Day hike and you don't have a backpack but you need to pack something out that you found or maybe you just need to carry a bunch of trash out that somebody else left there maybe you need to carry someone else's gear because they got injured so when you need to improvise a backpack frame all you need is three sticks and some cordage this is a backpack frame that you could make in less than half an hour if you need to and it could probably last decades if you make it right a Roy craft frame and this is how you do it so how you make this is you take one stick that is as long as your elbow to your fingertips and you take two sticks that are as long from your armpit to your fingertips and that's what's going to make the frame start by lashing together the top like this so start by tying a clove hitch on one of them and then you want to lash the two together so three wraps on one side and then three wraps the other way [Music] and then around and pull each one really tight when you go around it foreign and then you finish it off with a square knot on this side all right so once you get those two lashes together the next step is to take your crossbar and lash it right here and you want to leave a little bit hanging out on each side you'll see why so this is more of a square lash so you're going to go up and over and you're going to create what looks like a little square right here and for this I'm just going to go around twice and uh then I'm gonna wrap it around secure it this is called frapping and then finish it off with a square knot [Music] okay so this is the pack frame itself for the Roy craft pack frame now we're gonna put some toggles on it's actually gonna allow us to wrap some rope around and hold the pack in place okay so this is our toggle so all is a little piece of wood and I tied a clove hitch on it with an overhand knot to secure it and now I'm going to tie this onto the frame in several points Korean people have been making this type of backpack for centuries this is just a modified design on that this is the finished pack frame all we have to do now is add some of the shoulder and belt straps and we are ready to load this thing up so for the shoulder and belt straps all you need is a little bit of like sisal rope like this Sizzle sisal I don't know how to I don't know how you pronounce it whatever it's Sizzle it's natural fiber rope you can use any kind of rope I'm actually doubling these up to make them a little more comfortable otherwise it's going to cut your shoulders a lot so how I sized it is I just put it over my back right here where the pack frame is going to attach to it and then you just imagine it hooking onto the frame and then coming around and being able to tie it so we'll actually trim it for final length when we get it you know hooked up with the pack but this is a good start and then all I did was I just double it up and tied a figure eight knot in the top now let's get it on the frame so all I do is I bring it through the pack frame I hook it on the top and then I pass both ropes up through that Loop in the figure eight and when I tighten it down that Notch just kind of like buries itself right there and now this can go over your shoulders it'll be a lot more comfortable probably the hardest part of actually making this backpack is folding up the pack itself if you've got a big tarp um sometimes it can be really tricky in the wind to fold a tarp like this I like to get on the windward side and let the tarp act like a sail and fly out in front of me then I lay it down and I can fold it up a little bit easier if you're if you're trying to fold a tarp on the leeward side or the where the wind is going uh the tarp is just going to end up crumpling up and getting in your face and it's just not going to be good once you fold into your tarp down into a long strip put your stuff in the middle and then wrap it up slide it onto your pack frame and then begin tying it up you really want to make sure that you tuck the tarp in on the sides and make sure that nothing is going to fall out there's nothing worse than losing gear on the trail so if you have any small items make sure to tuck those down inside of the tarp because it creates a natural pocket in there all right so I make a loop in my bank line that I'm going to wrap around this whole thing to hold it together and I put it on the bottom toggle like this then I can just start crisscrossing back and forth until this thing is nice and secure so I just reach underneath and loop the bank line around the toggle and cinch it down and then I can go across and then when you get back to the end of it you just put a couple of half hitches in now we put it on all right so you just place it up onto your back get these straps up over your shoulders like so and then you reach back and you hook around the frame like this and cinch it up so it's riding nice and high on your hips just like a regular backpack so cinch it up and then go ahead and tie this belt in place I've improvised stretchers before I've improvised backpacks it's just a really good skill to have in your brain in case you need to make something out in the field in this age of Amazon and all these big box stores sometimes we forget that we can just simply make some of this stuff and it may not be the most comfortable thing it may not be the most elegant but there's a little bit of Pride involved when you've made something that works like this so why not give it a shot next time you're out in the woods I hope you found that useful or at least entertaining and we'll see you later [Music] thank you foreign [Music]