What to put on top?

I've read several different ideas of what you should put in the top of your pack. One says that you should put your tent/fly on top so you can get to it without having to take everything else out of your pack. Another says to seperate the food you'll need for snacks or the next meal on top for basicly the same reason. Another says to put heavier weight on top if on trails or vice versa. What are some of your ideas on putting things on top? I pack like this: Put sleep pad in first, then sleeping bag, then hammock and fly, then cookset then clothes, then food. All the small things that I need go in seperate pockets on the pack. Maps and compass etc on top in the map pocket.

I once succumbed to the "put the weight up high" advice and nearly went over backwards! The heaviest items should be close to your back and just above your body's center of gravity. This works out fine for me at the beginning of my trip when the heaviest item is my food in its Ursack. By the end of the trip, though, there's no one item that is heaviest. Of course the pack is a lot lighter then, too.

Since I have full-length outside pockets on my Six Moon Designs Comet, I put my Tarptent in one of the side pockets and balance it with water, snacks and other misc. stuff on the other side. The tent is just over 2 lbs. so it's not particularly heavy. At the top of my pack is a dry bag with my insulating wraps inside.

If I didn't have the pockets (although I'd never buy a pack without ample outside pockets), I would have the tent where I could get at it in the rain without getting the inside of my pack wet.

I have a hip belt pocket for my maps and a shoulder strap pocket for my camera. My compass is on a lanyard around my neck, along with a whistle and one of those little keychain-type LED lights. I don't want to have to take my pack off to navigate or to take a picture.

I always make sure the top of my pack has my snacks, pot, ditty bag, (tp, water utificaiton, etc;) windshirt, and poncho tarp in it. Everything is capped off with my butt pad overtop. acting as a rainproof lid. Simply put I want everything to stop, snack, get water, rest, and deal with most changes in weather at the top of the pack. Everything else lives below. I don't care if that means I have to fish down one layer to grab tarp and hammock when setting up - (also why the poncho tarp is on top - realisticly I can wait out anything under that.)

Shelter. Be it a tent, tarp, hammock or just a bivy. It's the last thing I pack and the first thing I unpack. Lately when I'm using a bivy I just leave the sleeping bag inside and stuff the whole thing in my pack. Then I don't need a sleeping bag stuff sack.

If I'm using a bear canister I keep out enough food for the day's journey. Small stuff e.g. camera, GPS, MP3 player goes in shoulder strap and/or hip belt pockets.

For me, it depends on the weather and the pack. (Having said that, I'll add a general caveat that the lighter the load - say, under 25 pounds - the less the weight distribution matters, because there's just not that much weight.)

Weather: on a fine, sunny day my tent will migrate into the middle third of the pack, since it won't matter a whole lot if I have to take other stuff out to get to it. On a cold day, a jacket or other clothing I might want during the day goes on top. If it looks like rain, the tent will go just under the rain jacket.

Type of pack: If I'm using an ultralight pack (like the Granite Gear Vapor Trail or Virga), which usually has only two side pockets but no lid pocket, the tent almost never goes on top: rain gear and clothes, first aid kit, toilet paper, or water filter go on top since I'll need them during the day. The tent usually goes just underneath this stuff (which falls easily out of the way to let the tent out when its raining); lunch and snacks go in a side pocket with maps. If I'm using a more traditional pack (like an Aether 60), the tent is usually in the top of the main pack. Rain gear goes in the shove-it pocket; water, filter, and snacks go in the side pockets; and maps, first aid kit, toilet paper, and small clothing items like gloves and caps go in the lid compartment.

I also split my tent into two smaller stuff sacks, one for the fly and one for the body. This keeps a wet fly separated from the inner tent, and makes it a little easier to pack (stack them vertical, or side by side, as the mood strikes or logic dictates.)

I think that I will try just throwing every thing in there however it comes to me and work it out when I get where I am going...That's what it seems like after the first night any way. Don't seem like I ever get stuff back in there the way that I originally had them. Oh well. If I take a more serious trek I would spend more time arranging my pack and every thing in it too...sabre11004...

The first step that you take will be one of those that get you there...

I usually tend to put the heavier stuff in the bottom. The heaviest stuff pretty much being my sleeping bag and pad, and really those aren't heavy. Really, there shouldn't really be anything so heavy in your pack most of the time that it really doesn't matter where it is in your pack as long as the weight is evenly distributed. I doubt you probably have any one thing over 3lbs except maybe water depending on how much you're bringing along.

For me, my packing is easy because everything in my pack isn't going to be varying enough in weight. Usually my sleeping stuff is in the bottom, followed extra set of clothes, cooking stuff, then food with other smaller stuff I may need in side pockets for more accessibility. I only really ever open the main compartment of my pack. Pretty much just mornings when I wake up and am getting ready to head out and then the evening when I'm settling down for the night. But of course all of this depends on how you backpack.

Yeah, I think that pretty well nails how things actually work out. The way I pack at home is usually different than the way I pack the first morning, which is different from the second morning, which...

I'm a photographer (an actual professional one) and I pack my camera gear into the top of my pack, and it also happens to be my heaviest gear. My tent is strapped onto the bottom of my pack on the outside.

I put my blue foam pad in first, like a vertical tube. The last thing is this rectangular light clear plastic box that just fits inside the blue foam and forces the top of my pack a nice rectangular shape. I put small items in the plastic box.

Heaviest items for me (apart from water and food supply at start of journey) are tent, stove, bag. The sleeping bag is the only thing I carry in the bottom of my pack. Besides keeping it well covered, this makes for a softer area next to the 'tailbone'.
My tent is carried in a stuff sack that is permanently secured outside, lying across the top of the pack lid and close to the back of the pack. (right behind my head) This way I find I can deploy my tent immediately and also stow it last if breaking camp in rain.
Food (in particular lunch food) is first thing under the pack lid, shared sometimes with waterproof jacket when not wearing it.
After that, all other items, in order of heaviest topmost.
Items that may be needed immediately for whatever reason, are of course stowed/carried easily accessible.

About half of my hiking is off-trail, so I plunk most of the weight down low for stability: food on bottom, then compressed bag + tent, compressed clothes, and smaller items on top or used to fill the spaces; a pair of water bags go in the low mesh side pockets; sleeping pad gets strapped on vertically on the back. I try to put raingear, map, water tablets, and TP on top, and keep a compass around my neck.

I used to pack the weight up high like most people recommend, and had the pad lashed sideways on top like I'd always seen it. The pack felt too tippy while scrambling, and the pad kept getting caught on brush.

My next pack is going to have those handy pockets on the waistbelt. Bear protection (spray or handgun) gets attached there right now, the handiest place I can think of.

I think the up high idea might work for skinny people with heavy packs on fairly smooth trails. It might get the weight on the hips with less forward lean. I usually load it in the order I need it out. Blue foam first, then bag and bivy, then food bag, then extra layers not used that day, then my little rectangular box for small items. Stuff needed while hiking is in the back pouch or side pounches or pockets.

Thanks for all the info. So it seems that I'm pretty much packing the right way. I do use the pad as a tube in the pack and then put everything else in and try to distribute the weight evenly. The compass will go around my neck and my new GPS will get attached to the top of my pack or shoulder strap in some makeshift fashion. The hipbelt pockets on my REI UL60 are handy but small. I keep a petzel headlamp in one and the other is for firestarting items. Basicly the heavier stuff is closer to the bottom but the 2liter bladder is in the provided pocket next to my back. All in all it's a decent well thought out pack. So far so good...

The "weight high" concept is from the days of external frame packs. My Kelty has an extender bar that actually curves in over my head so if weight is put up top, it is very close to my center line. The weight is mostly on my hip belt. However, the upper weight has to be balanced with some lower weight. With an external pack this usually means sleeping bag, pad and tent in the bottom. This works very well on trails, less so for off-trail travel. I doubt anyone would notice a great difference until you get up to about 45-50 pounds or more. I still like the "weight high" when I have a very heavy pack. I have primarily used this when climbing and have to carry in almost 30 pounds of technical gear.

In most internal frame packs the top pouch actually bends outward away from your head. In this case, high weight would actually pull you back severely. Bottom line, the weight should be close to your centerline and center of gravity and each pack is slightly different regarding the best location.

Not only was the weight high concept from the days of external frame packs, but we women have always had to pack the weight lower due to our lower center of gravity.

I always put the most needed items on top..raingear and wiskey, of course

BF