My Pack

"This is my Pack. There are many like it, but this one is mine."- Pack Creed

A hikers' pack is not one to be toyed with. The decision on which pack to purchase is a crucial one for any hiker or backpacker. In a way, your pack can reflect your hiking style. Not to say I judge people on the trail by their pack, but I find it interesting how people come across their equipment and how it suits their hiking style.

 For me, it was a tough decision, with being new to long distance backpacking I didn't know what I wanted. Did I want an ultra-light pack? A multi-day large pack? I felt overwhelmed with the options.

Then I thought, just settle on a quality brand and search for the best deal. After reading many blogs and forums, I decided on an Osprey Pack. They seemed to have great reviews and didn't lack in any features. After shopping around I decided to go with the Osprey Exos 58. 58 Liters is on the on border of "Light-backpacking" and "Ultra-Light Backpacking", so it seemed that it would work well for me. I didn't want a larger pack because I was afraid it would tempt me to pack too much because I had the space. This smaller pack would help me really think about what equipment I brought along with me. Also, I really liked it in the Grey and Orange color, I thought it looked pretty cool.

I scoured the internet looking for a good price for the pack. Osprey is a really nice brand, so buying the pack brand new from a retailer would be very expensive. I eventually ended up on www.moontrail.com and found the Osprey Exos 58 for a great price. Osprey was currently re-designing the Exos pack, so the 2012 model was not being made anymore and thus dropped the price. I pulled the trigger and haven't looked back since.

It's a great pack and I love it. On the trail it held all of my equipment with easy and never once felt overbearing. It was easy to remove items from the pack as well as find a pocket to place any item. It comes with a lot of pockets and great places to store equipment. It has a built in pouch for my water bladder as well as side pockets to hold additional water or tent poles.

The hip pockets were my favorite feature, easy access for some snacks!

My one complaint about the pack was that the hip and should straps are not well padded. After the first couple of days I had some pretty bad bruises on my lower back and shoulders. My pack at most weighed in around 35lbs, so it wasn't the weight that was causing the irritation, it was just the lack of padding. After these first few days of discomfort the pain seemed to go away.

Thin shoulder straps

As I mentioned earlier, Osprey has re-designed this pack and it now has much thicker padding on the shoulders and the hips (darnit!). But I am not a fan of the new colors. I think the Grey and Fire Orange suit me better. All in all, I love my Exos 58 and am excited to continue to use it in the future.

You can find the new Osprey Exos 58 Here.