A good use for a frame pack
Musings
My first sewing experience involved making a daypack, a knockoff of the classic
teardrop popularized by Sierra Designs in the 1970's. I had just purchased a used
sewing machine, a rather vintage thing that was made in the time when sewing
machines first became electrified. It had a bolt on motor that drove the main wheel
by a friction wheel. It was also milled for a leather drive belt so it was compatible
with treadle mechanisms. I bought it for $17.50, a rather good deal I thought.
My girlfriend said what are you making? When I told her and she looked at the
pieces she noticed that I was planning on sewing curved zippers for my very
first sewing project. She promptly decided to leave the house for the day. Upon
her return she was surprised to find me with a new daypack. Auspicious beginning
to a new found love for sewing gear.
In my college days I was around people who made their own gear so I grew up thinking
it was a rather natural thing to do, besides in those days gear selection was very limited
and even more expensive than now, relative to income, or so it seems in hindsight. Rivendell Mountain Works came into existence while I was in college and many of us were intrigued by the frameless concept of the Jensen Pack. Several of my friends bought
Jensen Packs and a few years later I purchased one as well. Once you have used a "soft pack", there is no going back to frames. Ok there are a few uses for them as you can see
from the photos.
I used that Jensen Pack extensively for about 4 years easily logging 1000 trail miles and
numerous climbing trips. That pack was on my back for at least 60 days a year. When it
wore threadbare, Rivendell was out of business and I was determined to continue using
the Jensen design. So I took apart the pack stich by stich and figured out how to make it.
I made another one and then over the next few years made a few more for fellow NPS
Rangers. In 15 seasons of work as Backcountry and Climbing Ranger, I never had
a seam or zipper fail in any of my Jensen Packs. That's why I can stand behind the
construction techniques that are used to manufacture the pack.
I met Don Wittenberger completely by happenstance. Don had acquired the assets of
Rivendell Mountain Works and some of the products were sold for a brief time through
the Yak Works, where Don was a partner and designer. Don left the Yak Works and
kept the Rivendell assets as part of his share. That's when I met him, as he was loading
a sewing machine into his car, outside the Yak Works retail store. He was kind enough
to try and let me revive the Jensen pack and was very generous with his support. This
was, of course, pre-Internet and the retailing and marketing was rather beyond my
ability to tackle. I continued to make packs on an occasional basis, mostly word-of-mouth. I also continued to refine the instructions on how to make the packs and slowly
improved my ability to make them more efficiently and to a higher standard.
After a couple of surprising inquiries on Trailspace in 2005, I realized I was missing an opportunity to spread the word about The Jensen Pack. In the spring of 2006 I relaunched
my effort to revive the Jensen Pack and put up a rather crude website. So far, the pack
production has been entirely a two-person operation and we have managed to churn out about
150 packs in this part time venture. As of November 2009, I am dedicating a larger effort to the Rivendell pack line and several new smaller packs will be available in early 2010. It has been a blast and I'm looking forward to continuing with it in the near future. Thanks for your enthusiastic support!!
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