And is it worth a hoot?

I bought a fanny pack (the Brits call ’em bum bags, I love that) at REI when I first started hiking … just big enough to hold my wallet and a couple of water bottles and a small jacket lashed onto the outside. Handy on training hikes but I have to carry a shoulder bag for anything bigger like my camera and Gorillapod.

I’ve seen discussions of day packs and overnight packs but I can’t really recall seeing much chitchat about fanny packs, so what the heck: tell the class about yours: what’s good, what’s lousy, why it’s better than a shoulder pack, etc. Mention the actual brand if you can to help out the googling masses (half my traffic comes from search engine queries, so I must show a bit of kindness to the searching ones).

I still have a Christmas gift card from a sporting goods outfit back east, so I might splurge on a bum bag if I get some good guidance here.