This is essentially the second part of my gear review of the pack saddles Dad and I used on the first leg of our Mexico-to-Canada pack trip we started in April. This post, however, is specifically about paniers vs manties.

For the neophyte, a manty is a heavy canvas tarp, normally about 15 oz. canvas, about seven feet wide by eight feet long into which a cargo load is wrapped up like a package and tied with a manty rope, which is a half-inch diameter rope about 25 feet long. One mantied load is tied to each side of a Decker-style pack saddle. A panier is a large canvas or nylon bag or hard-sided box into which items are packed. One panier is then hung on each side of either a Decker or crossbuck pack saddle by straps or Decker hooks. Crossbuck pack saddles are specifically made to handle paniers, while a Decker-style pack saddle can handle either.

To summarize what I said in my last post about this topic, Dad and I made 355 miles in 28 days with five horses and a mule. We rode one horse each day and packed the other four animals, two under crossbuck pack saddles with paniers and two under Decker-style pack saddles with mantied loads. By the end of this first leg of our trip, we both came to the conclusion that for our purposes, mantying our loads was simply an extra chore every morning and was far more difficult and time consuming than packing paniers. By the end of the trip we had sent two pack horses home, along with our manties, and continued with two pack horses, each carrying Utah-style paniers.

Decker-style packing and tying up cargo in canvas manties came into vogue in the northwestern U.S. during the first twenty or so years of the 20th century and has continued to reign supreme for all kinds of packing and outfitting there. However, in the southwestern U.S., crossbuck pack saddles with paniers has remained the standard, carrying on the traditional style of packing that far predates Decker-style pack saddles. When I made the decision to use Decker-style pack saddles and manties on our pack trip, it was partially from a desire to broaden my packing experience, but also with a question in mind as to why Decker-style packing has never taken hold in the southwestern United States. By the end of our trip, I had gained the experience I wanted, and I think I answered the question – at least to my satisfaction. Keep reading.

After packing about 200 miles through the low deserts of southeastern Arizona, through the Chiricahua Mountains, and on up through the volcanic mountains between Safford and Clifton, I came to the realization that each time I laid out a manty on the ground to start packing, I ended having to brush all manner of “ouchies” from the manties as I wrapped them around my load. Now, for those unfamiliar with the desert southwest, in the immortal words of Rooster J. Cogburn, “Everything out here will either bite you, stick you, or stab you!” Unless you have actually experienced horse or other kinds of packing and camping in the desert southwest, you really cannot comprehend the full truth of that statement.

There is no square foot of ground, at least not that I have seen, in the desert southwest that is not covered with all manner of seeds, thorns, insects, cactus, and other pricklies, each with its own means of causing pain and discomfort to the human hand. Unless, that is, you are in pure sand…which then presents its own set of problems. In other words, every morning I found myself picking stickers and cactus spines out of the manties, out of our gear, out of the ropes, and out of my hands, as I tied up the manty packs. I have never encountered that kind of nuisance in the mountains of the northwest, or even in the higher mountains of Arizona. I am convinced that this is the primary reason that Decker packing and manties never took hold in the southwestern United States. A secondary reason might possibly be, though I have not researched it, that in the northwestern areas there are more national forests, national and state parks, and other forested areas managed by the US government, wherein materials such as building materials, gravel, lumber, etc, have had to be hauled into remote areas by mule trains for the construction of ranger stations, bridges, trails, etc. Decker-style packing lends itself much better to cargoing odd-shaped loads than paniers.

Take a look at this short youtube video I made, in the mountains near the Double C Ranch, just south of the Gila Box State Park, southwest of Clifton, Arizona, about 200 miles into our trip. You’ll have to turn the volume up, as I didn’t have an extension microphone for the GoPro camera. In this video I demonstrate how I tie up a manty to prepare a sack of feed to be loaded onto a Decker-style pack saddle.

In preparation for our trip, I purchased two manties from Outfitter’s Pack Station, at $54 apiece. They are the 7’X8′ size, with hemmed borders. I also purchased from them a pair of Utah Paniers, which they call Utah Meat Bags, priced at $250. Wade and Simone gave me a substantial discount on these items, for which I am grateful. I already had a pair of 18 oz canvas tarps measuring 6’X8′, which I used for the second set of manties. Dad had an old pair of canvas panier bags for our second set of paniers.

Every morning, for the first 25 days of the pack trip, I tied up four manties and Dad and I loaded them onto two pack horses with Decker pack saddles. We then loaded four paniers, including my Utah bags, and lifted them into place on the crossbuck pack saddles. We agree that loading and unloading the paniers is much easier than manty packs. I found that tying up manties was terribly hard on my bare hands. The rubbing and chafing of the ropes and canvas while tying up the manties left my hands swollen and painful until they finally toughened up about two weeks into the trip. That was not because my hands are soft. I am a wood worker, a leather worker, a horseman, I do general construction, electrical, plumbing, and about anything else a “Jack-of-all-Trades” does, and I purposely do these things bare-handed, specifically to keep my hands tough. I am here to tell you that tying up manties every morning is TOUGH on the hands!

There is one thing in which manties have an important safety factor over paniers. That is in crossing water. There is a danger with paniers, particularly when they are not covered with a tarp and diamond hitch, in crossing water. If the horse loses its feet, or if the water is sufficiently deep to rise above the top of the paniers, the paniers will fill with water, effectively becoming a “sea anchor”. Pack animals have been swept downstream and drowned due to this. A manty, on the other hand, is quite water resistant when tied properly, and will resist filling with water while a pack animal regains its feet or crosses a deep spot. Not that items within will not get wet, but the pack will not fill with water. We had one instance in which a pack horse laid down in the Gila River, in water about 18″ deep, and tried to roll his pack off. One manty pack was completely submerged for a second or two. The pack remained in place as we got the horse up and the contents were dry when we unpacked them that evening.

The Utah Meat Bags are huge bags, measuring about 32″ tall, 23″ wide, and about 10″ deep at the bottom (deeper at the top). These bags are made of a very heavy woven nylon fabric, commonly known as “iron cloth.” They have very heavy leather adjustable straps, with steel roller buckles, as well as  heavy leather corner reinforcements. These are perfect for hauling game meat, ergo the name, as they are easily washed with soap and water. Blood and other contaminants wash right out without leaving a stain. For our purposes I was impressed with the size of the bags, which easily contained the gear we had to fill them. Once the top strap was tightened, the bags closed over our gear, thus eliminating the need for a cover tarp and diamond hitch…at least when the weather was clear.  The adjustable hanger straps allowed us to adjust the height at which the bags hung from the pack saddle, which was important when we switched the bags from our crossbuck saddles to the Decker saddles. This made it possible to hang the bags at the most comfortable height for the pack animal.

I was very pleased with the quality of construction of the Utah bags. We really put them through their paces. They were rubbed on rocks, poked by tree branches of burned trees, rubbed on blackened, rough tree bark, brushed against cholla cactus, run into gate posts, and rolled on. The handled all this with no problem, no tears, no fraying. The only hole in them came from a metal grill that poked a small hole in one bag. There was no fraying or propensity to unravel. The hole remained a simple small hole throughout the trip. Eventually…if I ever remember to do it…I will take a heated nail and melt the edges of the hole to ensure it will never get worse. Dad’s canvas paniers have lasted almost 40 years, but they are nearing the end of their useful life. He has patched and stitched them so many times that they resemble a patchwork quilt in some places. They are a true testament to the durability of canvas paniers, however, I believe my iron cloth paniers will outlast them.

My manties, on the other hand, sustained several small rips and tears from rocks and branches. They also became quite soiled from dirt and rubbing against burned trees in the Chiricahuas. These rips and tears will continue to fray throughout the life of the manty, as they cannot be sealed with heat. I have a rip-stop fabric glue for them, but in my experience, that will only work for a limited time and will need reapplication occasionally.

As I mentioned before, by the end of the trip, we let the manties go home early with a couple horses, and we put a Decker-style Phillips Formfitter pack saddle on my mustang, Jimbo, and hung the Utah Meat Bags on it. For our style of packing, we found this much easier than tying up manties every morning.

For my kind of horse packing, I expect I will be putting a lot of miles on my Utah bags over the coming years.