Matt Kreiter

This post is dedicated to DJ Septon, Bob Erwin, Chuck Gregg Jr, and Maltzey Maltbaltwin (Gone but not forgotten).

As a young man in my twenties I graduated from college and set forth to travel Europe. It was the late 1980’s and I was full of life and strong opinions. As I prepared to leave there were many things that I needed to take on my trip with me, but alas my backpack could not hold them all. I scoffed at the thought of leaving any of my precious things behind. I was educated and I needed merely to put my giant brain to work to conquer this small problem. I tried bungee cords and rope to secure my things, but it was too unstable and I had too many things. I needed to think outside of the box. That is when I envisioned the counter balance technique. The counter balance is beautiful in its simplicity. If you take a single regular backpack and simply wear it on your front, looping your arms through the straps, you can haul almost twice the amount of crap you can with a single backpack. Problem solved and I even had extra space to buy more crap I didn’t need while visiting different countries . So I set forth with my technique and all my crap. Every where I went people marveled at the counter balance technique. Word spread quickly like fire through the hostels and out through all of Europe of the young American boy who had maximized the volume of unneeded things that a single human could carry. Before I knew it, people using the technique began showing up all around me. We would smile and laugh at the other people walking with just a fanny pack to haul extra things. Now I’m not saying that the counter balance was the cause of the demise of the fanny pack, but I also don’t believe in coincidence and the timing was right so......... As I returned triumphantly from my trip across the pond I was ready to share the genius of the counter balance with all of the American backpackers. I packed up all my things and filled both packs with all sort of things and headed out to the Hoh rain forest with close friends. What I learned is that extra unneeded stuff is great when you are traveling by train and walking to your hostel. It’s not so good when you are slogging up and over beach heads on a 10 mile hike. Needless to say my technique did not take off and I heard that many years later it had been lost and forgotten in Europe also. But today I came across a strapping and handsome older French man with his wife. We looked to be about the same age and I stopped to help them with directions. As he turned around, there it was in all its glory!!!! The counter balance!!!! A tear came to my eye as he riffled though all sorts of crap he would never use on this trip to find his map. We talked about the left path or the right and after we made our choice I complimented him on his choice of a backpack for his counter balance. He gave a big smile and proudly said thanks. We parted ways and as I walked I began to think. The fanny pack is making a comeback, maybe just maybe the counter balance will too.Read more