How to Make a Backpack: The Alaskan Packboard And All-Purpose Packsack

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Construct the packsack companion to the packboard.
Construct the packsack companion to the packboard.
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Make a backpack with this Alaskan packboard construction diagram.
Make a backpack with this Alaskan packboard construction diagram.

It seems only a few years ago that the famous Trapper Nelson pack (or Alaskan board) was the only kind of pack you would ever see in the woods. Before the advent of the aluminum-magnesium frame and the whisper-light nylon pack, it was the toughest, strongest, most practical rig to be found.

You’d think that the coming of the lightweights would bring about the demise of the old boards, but in the miner’s camp or the trophy hunter’s bivouac the Alaskan pack is as important as ever. Granted, it’s no fun to wander down the trail with 300 pounds of supplies strapped to the old-fashioned board, but it’s a darned sight better than trying it with one of the modern, tubular-frame packs!

You construct the pack’s frame out of hardwood stock, the straps out of nylon webbing, and the cover portion out of heavy cotton canvas. When installing the straps, remember that the crossmembers eventually will be situated away from the wearer’s back. When completed, the canvas cover will be stretched tight across the open part of the frame as a back support.

The Alaskan packboard may not be as sleek or comfortable as the modern frame pack, but if the load is large — or if tradition is your forte — it’s a heavyweight classic of the wilderness trail. (My father, for example, once packed a cast-iron stove into a lookout shack with one of these contraptions, and other equally stalwart outdoor people have performed similar feats for generations. It certainly illustrates the enormous capacity of this marvelous packboard!)

  • Published on Mar 1, 1984
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