If you see me at Webelos or Boy Scout camp at Gerber Scout Reservation this summer, or at any of our Troop 292 monthly campouts, or maybe even just out hiking around my neighborhood, I’ll probably be hauling a big black backpack with MOLLE attachments (Modular Lightweight Load-Carrying Equipment, a military-designed system for attaching pouches and accessories to vests and packs). It will look like far more bag than I need for those outings. It usually is.

So why do I carry it?

As it turns out, because I took a long time and put a lot of thought and energy into deciding just what kind of pack I wanted to carry for these events, it wound up reflecting some of my most important personal values, while also providing me very functional gear transport.

There are three reasons I carry this pack.

The first reason is for love of my family, and it goes straight to the Boy Scout Motto: “Be Prepared.” I ran across a very sad story five years ago about a man and two of his sons who got lost during a hike in Missouri. They wound up stranded in the woods overnight as torrential rain fell and the temperature plummeted. All three died of hypothermia. I pledged to myself when I first read the article that my boys and I would never face the same scenario. So part of my design of my pack was to have specific pouches for critical items – a tear-away first aid pouch, a fire-making pouch, and pouches for a knife and flashlight. The main pockets contain a hydration bladder, rain gear, a whistle and a compass, along with other gear and food as needed. There’s even a sewing kit. The basics are always there and ready when we head out on a hike; I just grab my pack and go, secure in the knowledge that we can weather most storms and potential problems.

The second reason is aimed at keeping myself healthy, and it’s contained in one word: rucking. The best definition I found was on the Military.com website: “But the terms ruck, hump, or forced march, all really mean getting your gear from A to B in a backpack.” It shouldn’t be any surprise that hauling a heavy pack over a good distance is a great workout. I first learned about it as a fitness exercise from an old work pal of mine, who last year sent out information about his son’s new business. Tom Coffey is a former Army Ranger and now fitness instructor and consultant, and one of his many helpful blog articles covered rucking. I began working it into my fitness routine late this past winter, and now I wish I’d started much earlier (before the winter weight gain set in!) My Boy Scout camp experiences give a great example of how effective it is. Our Troop’s residence camp is a full week of hiking everywhere you go, and I carry my pack the whole time. I always lose weight, despite eating like a king. (Tom also has a great article on how to burn fat – here you go!)

The last reason is to honor those people like Tom Coffey who’ve signed up to protect the rest of us. (Let me stipulate one thing I DON’T intend by carrying it: to have anyone believe I served in the military. I did not, though I deeply admire and respect all who are serving or did serve. The military look of my pack is purely practical – the MOLLE system is unbeatable for customizing things to get exactly what you want.) Depending on what I carry, my pack might weigh ten, twenty, maybe even thirty pounds. Our soldiers routinely carry more than twice that, sometimes more than three times that, over distances I don’t ever have to think about. So yeah, a lot of the time I’m carrying more than I need to. But when it weighs me down, it makes me think about the folks who are carrying a lot more than that, in a lot tougher conditions, and who are out there keeping my family and me safe. Then it doesn’t feel so heavy. (If you really want to honor veterans this way, look for and sign up for an event like this one near you.)

Those are the reasons for my honkin’ big backpack. I think they’re all pretty good ones.