The snappy grips are the best friends you will ever have, they truly save your hands. The only thing better is a hard frame backpack that has a fold out rack so you can set your bucket it on it and then just take a rope or bunji cord to attach it. You can stick your tools in it and then hike off the mountain with ease.

It's a lot cheaper then a pack mule.

Broll makes 5 gal bucket haulers for bout 120.00 pretty cool thing to have and they have wheels.

I'd read about those. Be really nice on smooth terrain. I'm wondering how easy it'd be to diy one of those for less. Maybe convert a used stroller from a garage sale?

  Here's a pic of the bucket with the folding sluice box inside, and the classifier & pan on the outside.

 

   One more pic.

 

BTW,

You can take a razor knife and trim down the sides of your pans so they slide right into your bucket as well, it doesn't change your panning at all and makes it so they fit nice in the bucket.