Of course it has no side water holsters, or lid pocket, or hipbelt strap, but I think that all contributes to its low weight. For the water bottles I just use Platypus .5 liter and 1 liter flat style bottles, which you can fit in the main body of the pack on top of your other gear. We’ve scouted the best routes, from easy day hikes to epic overnight bike-packing.Find detailed itineraries, directions, and maps right here.
This pack will make great for a day at the beach with an extra change of clothes, flip flops, keys, tanning oil, towel and a iPod or stuff your lightweight sleeping bag and a jacket. I spend a great deal of time on the water every summer boating and fishing in Northern Michigan. I will often load a large cooler up at the beginning of the week and leave it on my Pontoon packed with drinks and ice. If you have a boat and bring kids or friends on the water, you know that once you leave the dock the requests for drinks start rolling in fast and furious.
I have lost a couple of drain caps in my day which makes the cooler unusable until a replacement arrives. This cooler, when compared to the Pelican 45Q Elite and Yeti Tundra, has the smallest profile while still providing 45Q internal storage. It features rubber latches which I am a huge fan of for boating applications. When you are out ozark trail chair on the water, people often sneak over to grab something from the cooler and may not latch it back up. With a hard plastic latch, you run the risk of brushing by the cooler and hitting your shin, which I have done and is awful. One of my favorite features though is the rubber wheels vs. the hard plastic wheels on the Pelican and Yeti.
I can’t imagine loading this up with a lot of bulky, heavy items. I drooled over all the lightweight packs from the major manufacturers for a few years. There’s no way I can justify paying five times more for something that might carry just as well.
I plan to pick up another if/when this one wears out. For the second overnight hike in which I used the pack, I left the hammock at home and stuffed an REI Stratus insulated pad and lightweight bivy inside. I was a little concerned with how the straps would distribute weight.
After all, I had to be sensitive to weight as we were required to carry our own water for 10 miles as there were no options for filtering during that stretch. In the following paragraphs I share just a few design features that, in my opinion, make this a well-designed product. Not the best choice for long trips or hikers who need to carry a large amount of gear.