Mac In Oak Ridge
Shohin
Some time back there was a post here asking about a back pack arrangement for carrying larger trees over some distance.
Several years ago I made a back pack for transporting yamadori over long distances. See photos attached.
It is made on a military surplus back pack frame. I added a plywood plate on the frame, it is attached with screws and two bolts. The left and right edges of the plywood has rails attached with lacing holes for lacing a gear bag to the pack.
In this case my gear bag is actually a very light weight plastic tarp that is folded in such a manner to make a pocket inside. I loosen the rope lacing to accommodate a large plastic bag of damp sphagnum, pry bar, 2' handle limb loppers, hand limb cutter, gloves, extra rope, a ball of heavy cotton twine and various size squares of burlap. The contents of the bag can be adjusted for the conditions where I am going. I usually hand carry a digging tool, but a smaller one could also be put in the pack bag if needed.
Once the gear bag is loaded then the rope lacing is tightened up to hold everything in place. The reason for this method is that the rope accommodates different sizes of load, the bottom where the stash of sphagnum is bulges out, but as sphagnum is removed for protecting roots of a dug tree the ropes are tightened to adjust to the smaller amount in the gear bag.
It is my intention to change how the lacing rope is attached shortly. I intend to use screw in hooks for lacing points so I can remove the rope completely without having to pull the loose end through all the holes. Just unhook it and be done.
At the bottom is a hinged platform to hold the root ball of a collected tree. When flipped up it is only about 4" wide, when deployed it sticks out about a foot. I use small cord to support the deployed platform, that allows me to adjust the angle to suit the geometry of the root ball. There are holes around the outside of the platform to use cord for lacing the root ball to the platform. Once a tree is attached I then adjust the angle of the platform with the two guy cords so the trunk lays close to the laced up gear bag. Then a rope or cord is attached to the trunk up higher on the pack frame to keep the top from flip flopping around when hiking out.
In this case I harvested a winged elm that was growing beside a very large pond that contained beaver. The beaver trunk chopped the tree 3-4 years ago and a natural vase shape has developed all on it's own. The bark was very rugged and the limbs had wings forming on them and I didn't want them damaged so wrapped everything up with burlap to protect them from damage during handling and transport.
It may take more than one post to put all the photos on this post.
Several years ago I made a back pack for transporting yamadori over long distances. See photos attached.
It is made on a military surplus back pack frame. I added a plywood plate on the frame, it is attached with screws and two bolts. The left and right edges of the plywood has rails attached with lacing holes for lacing a gear bag to the pack.
In this case my gear bag is actually a very light weight plastic tarp that is folded in such a manner to make a pocket inside. I loosen the rope lacing to accommodate a large plastic bag of damp sphagnum, pry bar, 2' handle limb loppers, hand limb cutter, gloves, extra rope, a ball of heavy cotton twine and various size squares of burlap. The contents of the bag can be adjusted for the conditions where I am going. I usually hand carry a digging tool, but a smaller one could also be put in the pack bag if needed.
Once the gear bag is loaded then the rope lacing is tightened up to hold everything in place. The reason for this method is that the rope accommodates different sizes of load, the bottom where the stash of sphagnum is bulges out, but as sphagnum is removed for protecting roots of a dug tree the ropes are tightened to adjust to the smaller amount in the gear bag.
It is my intention to change how the lacing rope is attached shortly. I intend to use screw in hooks for lacing points so I can remove the rope completely without having to pull the loose end through all the holes. Just unhook it and be done.
At the bottom is a hinged platform to hold the root ball of a collected tree. When flipped up it is only about 4" wide, when deployed it sticks out about a foot. I use small cord to support the deployed platform, that allows me to adjust the angle to suit the geometry of the root ball. There are holes around the outside of the platform to use cord for lacing the root ball to the platform. Once a tree is attached I then adjust the angle of the platform with the two guy cords so the trunk lays close to the laced up gear bag. Then a rope or cord is attached to the trunk up higher on the pack frame to keep the top from flip flopping around when hiking out.
In this case I harvested a winged elm that was growing beside a very large pond that contained beaver. The beaver trunk chopped the tree 3-4 years ago and a natural vase shape has developed all on it's own. The bark was very rugged and the limbs had wings forming on them and I didn't want them damaged so wrapped everything up with burlap to protect them from damage during handling and transport.
It may take more than one post to put all the photos on this post.
