Reasons why packs aren’t water repellent?

[Sam Farrington]

Re: "Take any well used pack and look inside the pack while holding it up the light. The bottom of the pack will have tons of holes in it from setting it down on the ground. You might not see the holes looking at it from the outside." Great suggestion, Justin. No pinholes, but a quarter inch slit in the bottom liner that must have come from something inside the pack, because the bottom is intact. Will patch the liner. It is 30D 'shield' silnylon from Thru-Hiker which is there just to insure against leakage. The bottom outer and the whole pack are white widow spectra gridstop from Seattle Fabrics sold around 2007, and still intact. That may be because the hourglass-shaped frame projects a little below the pack bottom, which angles upward, so when the pack is set down, much of the weight does not fall on the pack bottom. The bottom sleeve that holds the frame bottom in place is 6.5 oz diamond gridstop nylon from OWF or Quest, and has also held up well. When I switched from heavy packs to BPL, I found that a pack that is never over 25 lbs. total is much easier to set down softly, not to mention much easier to take off and put on at stops.

[MW]

I've been wondering this myself. Coming from cycling, were roll top Ortlieb panniers are, I'm finding it hard to fathom why backpacks aren't. Trash bags seem such a hack.

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