Packs & Projects

It had been a little bit, aye.

My Ranger fitness now consists of weight training three times a week, four sets of 25 repetitions each of about ten exercises. Then, when weather allows, swimming, and again, when the weather is cooperative, hiking. Sometimes Mother hands out a mandatory day off, so to speak, but mostly this is the routine I follow.

I have been experimenting with packs, as I have mentioned in the past, and one thing has become very clear; I must have a frame. The misalignment and displacement of my left shoulder and clavicle have sufficient impact that this is necessary. It has to be done carefully; testing of various sorts of packs and methods have revealed these points;

There must be a frame.
The shoulder straps must be both wide and thickly padded
The shoulder straps must be 'women's' shoulder straps, that is, made to accommodate the breasts.
There must be a waist strap/belt along with lumbar padding
There must be a breast strap

Sounds like a lot, yes? It isn't really. However, these features pre-exist in only certain types of packs; the old military ALICE packs and civilian backpacking packs...with women's straps added in as an option. Right then, these are modern packs, and they work just fine as they were intended...but they do not work for a Ranger in Middle Earth.

For one thing, they are made of cordura...a very tough nylon fabric used for most such gear these days. Totally not ME in substance but aside from that, if one is at all attuned to the wild, they make very distinctive and easily detected noises when going through the brush where natural fabrics do not.

So what solution have I come up with? Simple really. I am going to use the ALICE frame and build my canvas, wool, and leather pack around it. Using wool for the padding of lumbar and shoulder strap pads, canvas for the bulk of the pack, and leather for reinforcement and attachment points. Doing it this way also allows me to color it as I wish and in this case that will be shades of grey, with perhaps some dull green in there too.

Why grey? Because that color, above all others, is all but invisible to most folk. The eye tends to slide over it, leaving the wearer of it a fuzzy memory in the mind's eye. It also works in any season, unlike most other colors.

So, brothers and sisters, this is the path I have chosen for a pack. I know that for the most part we choose frameless bags as packs..but I cannot for physical reasons. The tendonitis I have had trouble with this year began when I stopped using frame packs on the hikes. Since I started again it hasn't even shown a whimper. There's just too much pressure on the clavicle and nerves there if there is no frame with waist band. What Rangers do well, or would do well to strive to do well, is to Adapt, Improvise, and Overcome when confronted with obstacles.

How else shall we take on the enemies that lurk around the good free folk who are our charges? The path of the Ranger is not an easy one...but it has its rewards, aye it does.

I know it is customary for we Rangers to wear no fair thing save one, but I think on this pack I will work into it the design of our Forandiri in subtle manner. I do not think this will violate the usual lack of decoration as it will be neither gem nor precious metal...merely a design worked into the making of the pack. The fir tree and seven stars of six points is the design of my Folk here in the North and I would that it be somewhere on my person; the pack is the place.

The pack frame will be essentially hidden from view...mostly; there will be a point or two that has to show, such as the place where the shoulder straps fasten to the frame, but on the whole I think I can engine it to hide the actual frame itself. It will look more like a Mountain rucksack than anything else. I will design them with lash points for added pockets or other bits of gear...this came about in part due to a thought that I might be able to make the canvas parts reversible and so 'camouflage' one side and have grey or white on the other...but the idea to make it essentially grey and dull green trumped that. Or it has for now.

In other project work, I have to split off the cherry grip on my Elven hunting knife Gûdagnir, (Foe-Bane). Two things I wish to do for it; firstly, add a bronze ferrule to the blade end of the grip, and inlay some silver into the grip itself. Then I will add a pommel cap, probably in the form of a leaf or perhaps a deer's cloven hoof. Then I must craft a suitable sheath for it. Then will it be ready for service and better pictures.

I need to sit down with Uitirith (Ever-Guard), my sword that was the DelTin version of Glamdring and polish the blade. A leather covered wooden sheath for her would not be bad either. Nor would a decent new belt.

There is still the spine tester to build; perhaps I will get down to the hardware store to get the final pieces today. After that, much arrow building to do, of course. There's also the bowyering projects under way, and the string making. Never mind the leatherwork.

Plenty to do and the season of the Hunt begins very soon.

Nai i-Valar tiralyë!

Eledhwen