[at-l] In need of Backpack advice....

[spiriteagle99@xxxxxxxxxxx (Jim and/or Ginny Owen)]

Bradley (Pip) wrote:
>    i have been following th e-mails, and picking up much needed info.  I
>am starting my thru-hike in march and i have all of my gear except for my
>pack!  It's terrible but i cannot decide.  I was set on the Gregory
>Whitney, but i thought that it may be too heavy, so i chaned my mind to the
>Osprey Aether 90 back, because it is substantially lighter, however i am
>not sure if it will be rugged enough to hold up for the entire trail.  Do I
>really need 5500 cubic cm's to fit all my gear and food?  If anyone has any
>suggestions about packs they think will suit me well for a thru-hike,
>please drop a note, also it would help if i could go try these packs on at
>either a Galyans, or another big outdoor equipment store.  Thanks for your
>time.


Pip -
Nobody here can tell you which pack you should use.  Only you can decide
that because only you can know how comfortable (or uncomfortable) any
particular pack is for you. Ginny tried on a Dana Bridger prior to our PCT
thruhike because it was the right size - and because a good friend loved it.
  We even had to special order the thing.  And when she got it, she hated
it.  It hit her the wrong way in all the wrong places.  You'll have to
figure out for yourself what the lesson is in that story.  There is one.

But we can tell you what packs we've used.  First though, straight from the
gear discussion in the Thruhiking Papers at
http://trailwise.circumtech.com/thruhikingpapers/part2 -

>No matter what kind of pack you buy, there are only 4 considerations -
>
>will it hold your gear? will it last 2000 miles? how much does the pack
>weigh? is it comfortable?

Those are the pack selection criteria that I wrote 7 years ago.  They're
still valid.  Check out the website for the complete discussion.

Personally - I used a Camp Trails external frame pack for the AT.  Then I
used a 4000 ci, 5# Gregory Reality for both the CDT and the PCT.  Now I'm
using a 4000 ci, 40 oz ULA P2. There are those who thruhike with a 20 oz (?)
GV4.  Any of those (or any of a dozen other lightweight packs) would work
very nicely for the AT.  I seriously doubt that you need a 5500 ci pack - or
something that weighs in at 7 or 8 #.  Nearly any brand-name or custom-built
pack will survive a thruhike if it's given reasonable care (don't throw it
off cliffs - at least not fully loaded).

Lighter is faster, better and easier - but not necessarily cheaper.  <g>

Walk softly,
Jim

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