In general, keep an eye on anything made by Gregory, Dana Design, Arcteryx, Osprey, The North Face, or Mountainsmith. These are the established "elite" brand names. Some packs of the "second tier" brands, such as Kelty, Lowe and Jansport, are good enough to stand with the top dogs. And a few of the newer pack makers have shown promise of becoming elite pretty soon, especially Granite Gear, whose Cirrus Access models are being praised to the skies, but they haven't been around long enough yet for a mature market judgment to be made on them.

Fitting A Backpack.

When you're thinking about buying a backpack, you want to get one that fits your body. There are two important considerations here: (1) Your torso size and (2) your waist measurement.

Your torso size is the number of inches between your neckbone (the bumpy vertebra at the bottom of your neck) and the top of your hip bones, measured downward along your spine. The better backpack makers either use "adjustable" hip belts, or else they issue each of their pack models in three sizes: SMALL, MEDIUM, and LARGE. Small is usually under 16 inches. Medium is usually between 16" and 20". And large is usually over 20".

Your waist size for a backpack is the usual "pants" waist measurement. Although the belt is called a hip belt, it's really meant to ride just above your iliac crest, so your waist circumference is really the important factor. That's more important for you ladies than it is for us guys.

And now that I'm on the subject I might as well mention that the elite backpack makers have special models just to fit the curves of women who have those nice female-type curves. The heftier ladies can probably get away with using a men's model.

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Recommended Personal Weapons

Personal weapons fall into two categories, namely ones that use some some sort of extrasomatic energy, such as electricity or chemical explosive, and those that simply lend mechanical advantage to your own muscle power.

Powered weapons.

In this category but not recommended are gasoline powered chainsaws and electric drills. Chainsaws are too heavy and awkward for combat, though they'd be OK for carrying out executions. Electric drills require too much precision for combat, though they might make a decent implement for torture. Then there are explosives, such as dynamite, which I don't know anything about making or using.

Since I know very little about explosives, I'm going to limit my recommendations for powered weapons to firearms.

1. A pistol of large caliber, such as a .45 or a .357 magnum: good personal defense from 3 to 30 meters, assuming you score the first hit.
2. A target pistol of .22 caliber, such as a S&W model 40 or a Ruger Mark 2 (also good for recreational shooting).
3. Some sort of hunting rifle with a scope and a magazine (also good for deer). Respected calibers for such rifles are 5.45 mm, 5.56 mm, and 7.62 mm.
4. A .22 caliber rifle with a scope (also good for rabbits).
5. A shotgun with a short, no-choke barrel capable of carrying five shells and firing either slugs or shot (also good for bear).
6. Lots of ammo for all of the above.

Hand weapons.

1. A fillet knife with a rigid thin blade made of high carbon steel.

Old Hickory used to make these, but lately they've been turning out very inferior blades of stainless steel. Don't get those stainless steel fillet knives: they're not rigid enough, and they won't keep an edge well. But if you can get one of the older, high carbon fillet knives, do so. If the blade is mirror-bright shiny, then it's no good. You want blades that have the tight-grained matte grey color of high-quality mechanical tools.

You might also consider the Old Hickory 8" slicing knife and 6" boning knife, either of which is (still) made from high carbon steel and can be bought for $5 each at WalMart. Both have fairly acute points so they can be used as stabbing as well as cutting, even if they aren't quite as optimal as the old fillet knife was.

Be sure to get belt-wearable sheathes that fit your knives.

2. A nightstick made of hardwood and 22" - 24" long.

The proper term for this sort of weapon is truncheon: a thin club. The very best nightsticks that I know about are made of Arizona Desert Ironwood and sell for about $120 each. The reason for the cost is that the wood is rare to obtain in the necessary lengths. But satisfactory nightsticks made of red oak can be bought for under $10 each.

The ADI nightsticks are prettier, and they might be slightly harder, but do you think one guy with an ADI nightstick is going to beat up on 12 guys with red oak nightsticks? Ha, no. The ADI nightsticks sell because they are status items with some value as objects of art, which a policeman can use for show-and-tell with his buddies. They aren't twelve times more effective than a red oak truncheon.

There are specialty nightsticks made of metal pipe with a sword blade inside, though switching between sword and stick involves unscrewing the pipe sheathe, which takes several seconds, and I'm not all that happy about the blade tang on the ones I've seen.

Most nightsticks will come with a cord, but the cord goes though a lanyard hole. You might want to devise a snap-release thingy so you can carry the nightstick at your belt and unattach it quickly when enemies approach.

3. A hatchet.

Get a plain, but well-made hatchet. Just an ordinary hatchet that you might use to chop small limbs off firewood. It's an excellent bone-breaker and skull-smasher for up-close fighting. I killed a raccoon with one of these. They work great! You can carry hatchets on loops that come with your backpack, or you can make a loop with hay-bale twine and attach your hatchet to your belt.

4. A staff.

Using these well takes a lot of practice, I'm told. Fighting with staves is a specialty area among martial artists, so you might want to learn from them the tricks involved. If you do, though, stick fighting is supposed to be very effective in combat with unarmed opponents and can even provide some protection against foes armed with blades -- though of course you should consider hiding or running away as alternative tactics.

A long staff is called a bo. It's about six feet long. A shorter staff, the jo, measures from 40" to 60". Jo staves can also be used as walking sticks for those tiresome uphill hikes or as supports for old guys.

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