Best thru hiking pack

Mchale Little Big Pack. It can be customized to the exact size and specs you need.

If you don't want to spend that much, pick up an Osprey or ULA that fits you well–several good choices there.

Aarn featherlite freedom.

Front balance pockets make this pack a body pack instead of a backpack. Over long distances that balance and centered load pays off greatly. Instead of all the weight being on your back, it is split 50/50 between front and back, or 60/40, however you want.

All your gear will be immediately acessible because of the storage capacity of the front pockets. No more reaching behind you for anything. I keep my stove, maps, beef jerky, gorp, water, compass, knife, gloves, balaclava and raingear in my front pockets.

This pack puts no load on the shoulders, where as traditional packs put 20-30% on the shoulders, here your shoulders will be light as air. All the weight is on the hips, and you can really feel it there when you walk.

Its made of durable cordura fabric, so no worries about ripping it.

A pack that keeps you standing straight up, is durable, lightweight, keeps all your important gear immediately accessible, your body comfortable, your shoulders pain/strain free is what i look for in a long distance pack. This one meets them all. And its right in your weight range. Its the best pack i've ever used, ever.

aarnpacks.com
aarnusa.com
search for: jason klass aarn featherlite freedom
on youtube: search for aarn featherlite freedom

my call would be the ula catalyst or circuit…i think the best mix of comfort, bells and whistles, as well as durability at less than 3 lbs w/ frame that transfers weight to hips. Great for those times you need to tank up on water or food depending on the thru hike and still fine when your supplies dwindle.

http://www.ula-equipment.com/packoverview.asp

I have been looking into the ULA pack series. I am considering the CDT or Circuit, but am still not sure about the comfort level. I don't want something as big as the catalyst… but maybe.

How do you all feel about the Osprey Atmos 50? Or the Exos 46? I was also looking into the Gregory Z 55, 45 or 35R. I don't know how you all feel about the bigger companies. I'm not sure if I like steering away from the cottage industries either. Anyway, what do you think about comfort? Weight? Price? Quality? etc…

The plus is that Osprey will repair forever. I don't tell me what you think.

ULA Circuit fits your criterion and should pair very well with your current gear list, allowing room for food and water on longer stretches between resupply. It's a very popular pack on thru-hikes because of comfort, well balanced size, compressibility, durability, practical storage, weight, and affordability. I would personally consider the Circuit to be a lightweight backpacking "Jack of All Trades" pack for sure. What trail are you going to thru?

I have also been evaluating packs for an AT thru hike. I have both a ULA Catalyst and a Mystery Ranch Trance XXX, and have tried both on hikes simulating the weights I expect to carry, and the terrain I will be covering. Some of my observations:
1) It is vastly easier to pack the Trance than the Catalyst. Putting much in the catalyst outside back sleeve really impeeds use of the interior volume. I also found it much easier to place items in the Trance in a way that I could get to them easier during the day. The Catalyst is much more of a tunnel than the Trance.
2) The usable volume of the Trance is MUCH larger than that of the Catalyst. I had wondered about the stated volume of the Catalyst when I first started using it, but thought that perhaps the shape was making it harder to get my gear in. However, as noted recently in the reviews of packs, the ULA packs do really have a somewhat smaller volume.
3) For me, the Trance was much more comfortable to carry than the Catalyst. I've owned quite a number of packs through the years, and I think the Trance is either the most comfortable, or second most comfortable pack I have ever carried. The Trance was quite easy to adjust to my body, and it was easy to make changes during the day as well. The Catalyst is also a reasonably comfortable pack, but I found it more difficult to find the right sweet spot for the strap adjustments. In addition, I found that it was harder to change strap tensions on the Catalyt during the day without really impacting the positioning of the pack on my hips.
4) I was shocked to see how well the Trance water bottle pockets worked. It was quite simple to reach back and take a bottle out, drink, and put the bottle back without having to mess with anything else on the pack. This feature improved my trail comfort since I really like to drink frequently on the trail. With the Catalyst, I found that if I had a fully packed pack, I might need to take the pack off to get to a bottle. Instead, with the Catalyst, I started hanging a bottle in the front, on the straps. This arrangement actually worked fairly well, except when taking off or putting on the pack.
5) Both packs seem to have good workmanship, and to be up to the rigors of a long hike. I also think both packs would work well for a thru hike. I'm still evaluating some of the other tradeoffs such as methods of packing for the rain, and the impact to the extra weight of the Trance on my overall plans.
Jim

Thanks for the review on the Trance. I spoke to MR recently and the pack is being revised a bit. Same suspension, etc, but compression is being improved. Weight should also drop a few ounces although for a true 70L main bag, killer suspension, unmatched durability, that weighs just over 4lbs, it is impressive.

ULA are very good packs as well. They have huge pockets on teh side that you can stuff lots of things for access.

look at the latest review for pack from BPL … they looked exactly as what yr looking for in terms of criteria

at the end of the day only you can judge what's comfortable and what's not by trying everything on

All these reviews and recommendations are fine, but your pack should be the very LAST major item you buy.

Why? Because all your gear has to fit in it. Get your gear first, then choose the pack. This has the added advantage of letting you see how your gear fits in several packs at the store and to carry them around a bit before you buy.

Doing it the other way really limits you. What do you do when your chosen pack is full and you still have gear waiting to go in…………or a lot of empty space still left that you must somehow compress so it carrys well?

I agree, buy all your other gear first then calculate how big of a pack your going to need.

Paul,

I failed to catch the "actual" list part, I thought the gearlist posted in your BPL profile was your actual current gear list from which I judged the ULA Circuit as a pack suggestion for you.

Like the blokes above me said, solidify the essentials and bits and pieces that go into the pack first, that would be ideal, then choose your pack. Unless, you're fairly certain that the items in your hypothetical gear list are what you're set on acquiring. Although I can tell you with confidence that the hypothetical gear list you've laid out would fit in a Circuit or CDT pack with little issue if that helps any.

There is no best. currently on the cdt on my phone.disagree with all the recommendations! Out of the three packs at this break I prefer my mld exodus to the others.. Lugging 5 liters of water right now.

About getting your pack last–I definitely agree! Box up the rest of your gear plus the equivalent of a week's food and a day's water, and take it to the gear stores with you to try on packs.

If you order the pack, or when you get the store-bought pack home, don't take off the tags. Instead, load up all your gear as above and take a several hours' hike around the house, making sure to keep the pack clean. If it's not raining, go for several hours more around your neighborhood, again making sure the pack stays clean. Pay close attention to the vendor's return policy. All this hiking around the house and neighborhood will be horribly boring, but by the time it's through you'll know whether the pack is a keeper. If it isn't just right, return it. Fit, fit and fit are the most important aspects of a pack!

I would go with my ULA Circuit, best overall pack in my book.

You could go Bob's route and buy the pack last, but you could use the same line of logic and buy the pack first, and let it set the parameters of what amount you fill it with.

As I look around BPL, I see gear junkies. We all are, can be, or have been. So technically, if you're looking at something you can put all your gear into, I say look first to what other successful thru-hikers are carrying, not so much what you think you'll carry, or what your pack will carry. Otherwise, you may "over-gear" yourself with things you don't need, but really think are cool. I saw one guy on YouTube who seemed like a nice guy…but wow, when he went through his gear list in his video, I was like, "Really?" It was overkill. You could outfit 4 thru-hikers with the stuff he couldn't fit in his pack.

Just based on climate and terrain, an AT thru-hike will be different than a PCT or CDT thru-hike, and will call for different gear. Look at what you'll need for that thru-hike, and you'll get a good idea of what pack size you need.

It seems, though, that you could loosely go with one of many packs out there that are approximately in the same size range. I mean, really, how much of a size difference is there for a thru-hike? I see manhy of the same packs listed on thru-hikers bios. Circuit, Gorilla, Subpop or LBP 36, or even the lighter wispy packs.

Thankfully, I'll have the opportunity to use a McHale. I think the durability is a plus, and the fit is unparalleled. (In that area, if you don't mind an UL pack with little to no hip support and mostly carried by your shoulders, then UL is the way to go. I personally have had a neck issue that can recur from time to time thanks to an athletic injury, so the less strain on my shoulders and trapezius, the better for me, thus I'm willling to spare a few ounces on the weight of my pack for a sturdier, form fitted type of pack like McHale).

Not sure if any of that rambling helps…but good luck!

Dug
http://thf2/wordpress.com

I purchased a pack before I had all my new gear. Mistake, it was much to large. I have finally found MY pack, the Aarn Marathon Magic 33. It is big enough but more importantly it is very comfortable. You may have to try many different packs and styles as the best pack is the one you can fit all your stuff in and is the most comfortable. My three day skin out weight is 21 pounds including 1L water in two bottles comfortable to 30 degrees.

I have both of these packs and don't know if I'd use either on a thru-hike?

For me, both pack's have way to many straps, either for adjustment purposes or for load compression.

With the Catalyst, you have 4 adjustment straps (2) for the shoulder straps and (2) at the hip-belt. I guess that once you have these straps adjusted, you could leave them set, but I always seem to loosen them, and re-adjust them, each time I put the pack back on.
For a thru-hike, this would be a hassle for myself dealing with excess straps. I've heard that many get sick of them and just end up cutting them off anyway.

With regards to water bottle access, I don't really see how a spandex water bottle pocket would make it easier to remove and replace a water bottle. The Catalyst's mesh side pockets are huge, and will easily hold a 1 liter platty or Gator-Aid bottle, and IMHO be much easier to access than the Trance's side pockets.

I'd like to see the Trance, with side pockets like a McHale and a fabric front pocket, loose all the 1" wide webbing straps, and lower pad straps. Place some loops on the pack so you can lace some bungee cord over the front of the pack, and have only 2 side compression straps similar to a McHale or with only one per side like the Catalyst.
Also, the lumbar pad and hip-belt needs much design improvement as well. I'd like to see the Trance's hip-belt be a little more supportive with regards to load bearing, meaning it needs to be beefed up a tad more. Lumbar pad is too flat,and needs more padding and lacks grip as well.
The main hip-belt side support wings are also too far outboard from the hips, which lessens the wrap-around effect and snug fit that you should get from a hip-belt. Narrow their attachment points, so these wings exit the rear of the pack, closer to the lumbar pad, like in many packs where the hip-belt passes through or behind the lumbar pad.

Being the Trance lacks hip-belt load lifter straps, I'd possibly lean more to using it over the Catalyst,but it would be a tough call for me.

I think that with the Catalyst loaded properly, one could do without the adjustment straps, at the very least you could probably do without the hip-belt load lifter straps.

Sorry for the ranting, I probably didn't help you much, but I can speak from experience about using a pack, with and without any type of adjusment straps, and for me personally, I would not want to have any excess straps to deal with on a long thru-hike.

I'm not selling McHale packs to you, but I have a LBP36, which has removable side and roll top straps and that's it. No adjustment straps to deal with, just put the pack on and go!

Consider the ULA CDT, not much in the way of adjustment straps, also MLD packs like another poster mentioned. But this is a frame-less ruck, which although about as simple as they come, you would probably be carrying more weight on the shoulder's, especially through area's with less frequent resupply.

Hopefully you get more actual thru-hikers here, giving you solid advice, of which, actually,I am not.

I do have a ULA Catalyst,Circuit,MR Trance, Granite Gear Nimbus Ozone,McHale Chasm,and LBP36…..whew!!

Osprey Aether 60 as long as it was manufactured prior to 2005 or so. Great pack for an AT thrueeee.

Aether 60

I would also endorse the Mystery Ranch Trance that some folks were trying to pimp out.

Ok, since the MR Trance and McHale LBP36 packs were brought up,and I have both of which, here's what I find with regards to fit and comfort between the two packs.

Loaded with 30lbs, the McHale easily blows away the MR Trance for load transfer to the hips and comfort for "ME Personally"
The Trance probably carries the weight more equally between the hips and shoulders, were as the LBP carries more of the load at the hips, and less at the shoulders.

I realize that you may not be in the market for either of these 2 packs being they are expensive, but thought I would post my personal findings. Others may find the fit and carry of the MR Trance to be superior to all other packs they've owned, but not me, personally.

Take a look at Granite Gear packs as well, Vapor Trail or Nimbus Ozone. I believe that there are going to be some upgrades made next year, on some of their packs as well.

Paul,

You mentioned that you were considering the ULA CDT. I have that pack and like it a lot, but I would not consider it a thru hiking pack. It is a comparatively small pack, fine for weekend trips, but IMHO not enough room for carrying several days worth of food. You will need one of the larger ULA packs.

Again – opinion; I have done 5 day trips with the Conduit (old CDT) in the UK where a tent if often (mainly advisable) together with good waterproofs.

The capacity is fine, everything fits well, BUT, carrying comfort is on the margins for me…2-4 days fine…more..?

I have a Catalyst that I used for the JMT (carrying all food for two people) – I would never consider it for a solo-thru-hike, it is way too big.

My favourite pack is a Crux AK37…why? As it is the most comfortable day-in day-out.

"I have a Catalyst that I used for the JMT (carrying all food for two people) – I would never consider it for a solo-thru-hike, it is way too big."

I assume you had many drop off points.

In my opinion, a true Thru Hike involves much unsupported time – 20, 30 days. That requires a high volume pack.