How to improvise heavy rain protection for a backpack?

Question

Heavy rain can soak all of your gear. There are some things that you don't ever want to get wet, like your camera. I've learned to protect those things with string bags, which are light and I always have a few with me.

However, it would be nice to protect my whole backpack from rain. A long, broad poncho is great, but I lost my good one and the next I bought was quite heavy and doesn't cover the whole backpack. When traveling abroad I have left it at home because of the size and weight.

Now I'm looking for concept to improvise some protection for my backpack during a trip. Garbage bags are good to hide a backpack inside and wait for rain to stop, but the problem with them is you can put the backpack inside the garbage bag, but then you can't put the backpack back on.

Answer 1

Roll top dry bags are fairly common. They are usually combined with either a pack cover or a pack liner. The pack liner is commonly an over-sized roll top dry bag placed inside your backpack.

A cheaper option is to use a trash compactor bag as a pack liner. They are usually cheap and easy to find in the USA.

Usually, the trash bag is put inside your bag so that you can still use the backpack. A regular trash bag might be too flimsy. Heavy duty bags are great and cheap for this purpose.

aLOKSAK can help you protect small items. My experience with the similar OPSAK over an extended period of time (month+) is that you eventually have to replace them because of the closure. Nylobarrier is an other option but it is only water resistant.