How do you carry your gear?

Dan Fromm said:

John, how do you transport all that stuff? I mean, stuff it in a car, not roll it over the ground. The baby jogger is very appealing, but I'm not sure it, my gear, my wife, and our luggage will all fit comfortably in either of our cars. The wife stays. Where I go, she goes.
Dan

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Dan,

Remember, I went from a Honda sedan to a full sized Toyota Highlander. My wife will work two more years while I am retired. This means during the day I may take the dog and hike in the Cuyahoga National park. It is five miles from home and loaded with trails.

Last May I went to WV for ten days by myself photographing weekend mountain logging train events and then mountain scenery on the week days. My wife is a teacher. May is Hell for her, then she has the summer off. I was in sales for 40 years so it was normal for me to leave Monday and be back Thurs.or Fri.

When alone all that stuff goes in the Highlander with lots of room to spare.
My wife and I are going on a three week trip this summer to ME. I’ll probably carry the baby jogger on the roof rack. Alternatively we are considering installing a trailer hitch type bike rack for easier access. Everything else is small bags and collapsed tripods.

John

jp80874 said:

Looks like we old boys have stayed in the game, but done it with comfort. At age 65 I also use a baby jogger http://www.babyjogger.com/ with 20” spoked wheels, sealed bearings, shock absorbers and 100# capacity.

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Can you upload a picture of you with the babyjogger + camera gear to the babyjogger's website gallery? Preferrably in running gear, while coming in first for some road runners contest ;-) ??? I'd enjoy that....

cheers,
medform-norm

John, thanks for the reply. If we didn't travel so heavy <g> it might all go in one of our Civics, but for some odd reason my wife wants to take 2x as many outfits as she'll wear and encourages me to overpack too. If only I make her grasp the concepts dry cleaners and laundromat! A baby jogger would certainly work in a Civic for a solo trip, though.

Cheers,

Dan

I use an old stripped down self-propelled brush mower with a hard case bolted to it. In it I can pack my 8x10, 4 film holders, 3 lenses, dark-cloth, filters and focusing lens.
I can go up and down trails if they are not to steep. I’m in my 50s so if the machine can’t make it up the trail I probably couldn’t hike it anyway. It’s mostly good for short jaunts of 100 to 300 yards but I’ve used this to hike as many as 6 miles in and 6 miles out. On the down hills or depending on the terrain you can shut off the engine and use your muscles to save gas.

When I first put this thing together I left the blade on it and it was handy for cutting my way though the brush in order to get to a better viewpoint or even exposing a viewpoint that wasn’t there before. But after a few run-ins with elitist hikers I decided to leave off with the brush cutting. You can pick up an old 6-horse power walk behind brush mower for just a few hundred dollars on the auction site. If you want plans I’m willing to send drawings of what I did for $5.

medform-norm said:

Can you upload a picture of you with the babyjogger + camera gear to the babyjogger's website gallery? Preferrably in running gear, while coming in first for some road runners contest ;-) ??? I'd enjoy that....

cheers,
medform-norm

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I wouldn’t want to embarrass the young ladies presently pictured.

JP

Just entering into ULF territory I immediately needed to find a method for moving about with all this much larger gear.
I found a messenger bag that is 3000cu. inches, waterproof, and very comfortable, the only modification I made was some light padding.http://www.chromebags.com This bag will hold six 11x14 holders and my folded Phillips explorer if necessary a set of straps on the bottom will hold my tripod and head if I have to do any serious hump'n.
I keep all my immediate necessities on a Lowpro S&F utiliy belt such as water, meter, loupe........this way I never have to set anything on the ground.
My whole system, tripod and camera is for the most part is carried on my shoulder, leaving more room in the bag for additional film holders.

Kelty

Sean said:

Has anyone tried tube framed backpacks? Supposedly they put a lot of weight onto your hips instead of your spine. I have a herniated disk in my upper back that gives me serious grief if it gets irritated. I'll need some kind of alternative to a standard pack. I've thought about making a lightweight all terrain hand truck type apparatus that I could strap my gear to. Something like a handtruck but with all terrain tires. I guess I'll look into it more when I actually make my jump to large format. If there are any members with back trouble who have found a good pack solution let me know. Thanks

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In my yonger days packing into the Sierra Mountain Range, I used a Kelty with great success. Yes, it puts most of the weight on your hips. I modified the pack arrangement for LF camera with a couple of lenses. The tripod was on top of the pack - so hikers coming around a sharp bend in the trail or a large rock, beware!