The Ditty Bag

Today, the ditty bag has incarnated into tacticool pouches with zippers and elastic webbing to keep your items snug and secure. Modern materials and patches, plastered all over the pouch, have given rise to a popular breed of gear organizers. But, if you go back and read the masters, like Nessmuk, Kephart, Mason and many others, you always find a chapter with the ditty bag and the use of said bag. What does it do? It separates your gear into easy to find sections or bags, most commonly, colors or markings on each bag to give you a clue as to what it contains.

Ditty bag keep small items from working their way to the bottom of the pack where they become a chore to find.

With experience, the camper will begin to think in terms of convenience and will separate all their gear into logical order in ditty bags

The bags are a much better option than tins and other containers, as they will not rattle and bang about. Ditty bags will pretty much stay where you put them.

You can buy them at most all sporting goods stores and can be found on line, as well.

The old time way, if you didn’t have a bag, was take a handkerchief, or an appropriate size cloth, and place your items in the center, bring all the corners together and tie it off, easy and simple. Different color ribbons can be used to mark each bag individually. In some ways, the simple use of a kerchief is very convenient. By simply untying and spreading out the corners, one can spread the small items about yet keep them together within the confines of the kerchief, and some people prefer this over small zippered pouches.

The ditty bag will prove to be a valuable addition to your kit. This is part of “smoothing it”, as Nessmuk is quoted as saying, and it does help to make the campers life much easier, no frustration looking for an item and leads to far less swearing.

Some carry a small frying pan and the ditty bag keeps the soot off of your other gear. By placing your stove, if you carry one, in a ditty bag helps as well.

I have some ditty bags made from canvas. I water proof them with a handy water proof spray before each outing. I also have some ditty bags that are made of some kind of a rubber stuff. Water proof spray can be found at most places that sell back packing gear, and the paint department of the big box stores carry it as well.

The ditty bag an essential piece of gear. Try it I’m sure you like it.

Here’s an article on what some boaters carry in their ditty bag… http://www.classicboat.co.uk/practical-advice/whats-in-your-ditty-bag/

By Dude McLean

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