By Christopher Nyerges, California

It’s always best to plan ahead. Carry essential gear, since you never know when you’ll need it: knife, fire-starter, water, cordage—that sort of thing. Obviously, you also need some sort of pack.

Still, sometimes it happens. You just don’t have what you need when you need it. Then you have to get creative, and find some makeshift solutions.

In the case of a day pack, did you know that you can take a pair of pants, or a sweatshirt, or even a button-up shirt and turn it into a day pack?

It’s really simple, and all you’ll need is some rope or cordage.

Let’s use a pair of pants as our example. (Hopefully, you have an extra pair of pants to try this with.)

1. With a bit of twine, tie off the end of each pant leg. You should tie it tight.

2. Pull up the zipper and button the top.

3. Now fill the pants with whatever you need to carry. Fill the legs with soft material first, since the legs will become your pack straps. Next, fill up the upper part of the pants with whatever it is you need to carry. Try to balance the weight, and don’t have any sharp object jutting into the back, just like you do with a normal backpack or day pack.

4. Next, put a length of twine through the belt loops and cinch it up, and tie it well. Then bring each pant leg up to the waist, and secure the bottom of each pant leg to the waist. That’s it!

Go ahead and see how it fits. If the pack straps are too tight, you need to let out a bit of the cord on the pant legs and re-tie the pant legs to the waist.

Professor Nicole Deweese demonstrates the pants-pack. The bottoms of each leg are first tied off, and then the legs are tied to the waist. The pants are filled with contents,you securely tie off the waist, and then you wear it like a pack.

From this explanation, you can see how easy it would be a turn a sweatshirt into a pack. With the sweatshirt, it’s all the same except you begin by taking a bit of cord and tying off the neck. You need to do this very securely, otherwise you will lose things on the trail.

There was one time when I actually needed a pack, and the only extra clothing item was my long-sleeved shirt. I took off my shirt and buttoned up the front. I stripped some fiber from some yucca leaves, and tied off the neck. Next, I tied off each cuff.

Since I was using this “pack” to collect acorns and pine cones, I first filled the arms with acorns, which I put into a few paper bags to keep them contained. Then I filled the remainder of the shirt with pine cones. I tied off the cuffs, and tied the cuffs to the waist of the shirt, securing it all together. It fit well, but was a bit uncomfortable because of the pine cones. Still, I got home okay and didn’t lose any acorns or pine cones.

Since it was already dark by the time I’d hiked home, I was a bit cold wearing only my T-shirt, but not too uncomfortable.

An emergency pack like this can be a savior in a time of need. When I didn’t have a pack at home, I have actually taken an old pair of pants and used them for my “pack” for a day trip.

Although I have seen many variations of this idea over the years, the first time I ever saw it was in one of Ellsworth Jaeger’s books, probably “Wildwood Wisdom.”

Christopher Nyerges is the author of “How to Survive Anywhere” and other books. He has led wilderness and wild food classes since 1974. He can be reached at www.SchoolofSelf-Reliance.com or Box 41834, Eagle Rock, CA 90041.