Monday, July 30, 2012

One Week Out - Pack Review

One week from today I will be in Mongolia.  Kind of hard to believe now that I think about it.  This last week will be filled with tying up loose ends, seeing friends for the last time for a few months, and starting to plan out things to be sure to see on the trip!

This will be part one of my posts covering the gear I will be bringing.  This time I will tell you about my pack pictured below.


That is the Osprey Waypoint 85.  It is an 85 liter pack that has a 15 liter detachable (pictured on the left) which leaves the main compartment 70 liters.  I think the detachable day pack will prove useful when I have to carry all my stuff since it can easily zip back on to the main compartment.  Another handy feature is the strap protector.  This is basically a zip up sleeve that covers all the straps that make it a backpack.  When travelling, if a strap gets caught in the machinery or on anything else, the baggage guys usually will just cut the strap.  This attempts to cut back on the likelihood of that happening which will be nice since this bag will be going on many planes in the near future.

So that is the pack that will carry all of my stuff for 4.5 months.  Hopefully it holds up! My dad found it for $45 at the REI used gear sale.  I think it was marked down so much because it was missing the day pack.  That was easily replaced by Osprey for another $40 which still placed the pack at a very reasonable price compared to most of the brand new options.

Well that's it for now for my gear review.  Stay tuned to hear more about the rest of the stuff I am bringing!

-WG