Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Light pack for day trips.

I'm looking for a light pack to use for one day hikes. Needs to hold a camelback and have enough room for an added fleece, lunch/snacks, and a few basic survival items (matches, compass, small knife, basic med kit, etc). A place to strap trekking poles would be nice as well. I like packs with a waste belt.

Primary use will be day hikes in the mountains. Most hikes will not exceed 20 miles. 10-14 will be be the norm.

My hunting pack works fine, but I know I'm carrying more weight than I need.

Thanks in advance for the advice.

Badlands 2200

I just picked up a Mountainsmith Centennial 30.

Exactly what you described.

I've had a Black's Creek Westerner now for about 8 years. It meets all those requirements. It's a tough, comfortable, well designed pack. No complaints.

I'll second the Badlands 2200. I did 16 miles with mine one day last year ... and finished the day packing out a buck in it. I discovered the 105 fluid oz bladder is not quite enough, another 35 would have been really welcome.

If the 2200 is too much, look at the Badlands Pursuit. I'm using it for general day pack duties this summer. Same water bladder, no waist belt, fewer pockets, still enough space.

Sometimes a camo hunting-type pack isn't the right choice. The heavier material can be too good an insulator. Sometimes plain rip stop nylon turns out to be more comfortable if you don't need concealment. One pretty cool little pack is an REI Flash 18. Camelbak makes some decent packs, just depends on whether they have enough volume for your needs. My favorite small pack is a discontinued model from Patagonia which handles the 70 fluid oz Camelbak water bladder nicely. Got modest volume inside but straps for attaching a jacket outside that make it just about right for a lot of things.

Tom

If you are interested in the Badlands 2200, camofire is going to have it for sale at some point today.

Get a HPG Tarahumara, made by Evan and Scot Hill here on the Fire.

It's the most comfortable daypack I've used.

www.hillpeoplegear.com

Thanks for the suggestions folks. The Badlands 2200 is about the size of my current hunting pack, so I've ruled that out. It's nice, but not what I'm looking for.

The HPG Tarahumara looks good, doesn't look like it has a waste belt though.

Keep the suggestions coming.

-Washburn

Thats because it does not need one. The shoulder harness is very comfortable and you will not miss a waist belt on this pack.

Due to lower back problems, I'm experimenting with beltless options for ultralight overnight use. I haven't gotten to full weight with it yet for such an endeavor (some stuff will have to be strapped on), but so far the shoulder straps on the Tarahumara have been very comfortable with no waist belt. I'm going to try strapping on a Kifaru pod to carry the bulky, but light sleeping gear and am whittling away to try to keep the load around 15 pounds with food and water (yes, this is a fair weather, I'm not hunting type deal.) If I were just out for a day hike as you've described, the load would be nowhere near that and IME, perfectly comfortable.

For me, it fills a great niche for a grab and go light pack for essentials on day trips as opposed to my Kifaru Express with Duplex belt that gets the nod when I may have the opportunity to pack meat out, but want to keep things relatively streamlined going in.

X3 Awesome day pack!

Washburn:

I like HPG, but won't have a Tarahumara because of the waist belt issue. Don't know if you need one for the same reason I do - lower back trouble - but a good waist belt - actually, a hip belt - is absolutely mandatory even for a lightly loaded daypack.

- Tom

I do not agree and I have a really bad back and disc problems. Maybe you should give it a try first and then have an opinion? What weight due you consider to be "lightly loaded"?

I don't need to try a new beltless day pack when I've carried other beltless day packs and discovered for myself that an increase of weight on my upper body, compressing my lumbar discs, has to be kept to a minimum even on a day hike.

Your back doesn't hurt with a beltless day pack? Good for you.

OP wants a hip belt. I'm not to tell him he doesn't know what he's dong.

Sorry for being snappy, I just get like that when someone claims something about gear they have not used. I understand that it might be bad for your back but you did not define what a light load was. You could of said a waist belt is "mandatory" for you, your observation is only helpful to you.

Guess I hadn't made that clear. Sorry about that.

The HPG Tara is not you average pack, not camparable to say a camelbak in how it carrys. It converted me to trying a beltless pack but a light load to me is 10 lbs or under. Thats about all I carry in it. Looks like CCH and I have the same "bad back" as not having a waist belt is helpful for that. Guessing you are different but still it might be worth a try as HPG gear looks like its having good resale value.

BTW, I might be out of line saying this as I dont know anything about your condition but have you tried doing core excerises? I started doing a half hour core excerise routine twice a week and it has really helped my back problems.

I too have a bad back....3 discs surgically removed, and 2 more that may need to come out, but I'm very committed to my physical therapy.
Anyway, I'm a big fan of the Osprey Manta 30, and I like their hydration system better than camelbacks
Johnny

Thanks for all the support guys. Recently I've been carrying 40 pounds in a prototype belted pack I'm working on. This morning I switched back to the Tara, which is loaded with a lot of water weight for out here in the desert. That plus my Kit Bag weighs in at around 20lbs of all shoulder weight. I found myself wishing I was carrying the heavier load in the belted pack instead. The Tara fills a niche and I love it, but anything above about 15 and I prefer belted myself... I've got no back issues to deal with though.

I'm not arguing that beltless packs are superior for heavy loads, just that the Tarahumara is quite comfortable for me without a belt for LIGHT loads as the OP was describing. I currently have a problem with my L-5 disk and find that pulling a belt tight around that area and then focusing the weight there rather than spreading it across the rest of my spine is painful. Hopefully that is going to change for me, and I'm only exploring the overnight type stuff as a "better than staying home" option. But since the topic seemed to be about minimalist daypacks carrying a light load, my experience with the Tarahumara has been good going beltless for that use. Beltless does not work well for my pants though.