Daypack
Gregory Miko 20 and Maya 20
$130, 20L/1,220 c.i., 2 lbs. 1 oz./936g (men’s Miko 20)
One size each for men and women, adjustable
Miko 20: backcountry.com
Maya 20: backcountry.com
Don’t fix what ain’t broke has proven a timeless rule to follow and Gregory seems to take it to heart with the Miko and Maya, the brand’s 2023 updates of its classic Miwok and Maya. Wearing the men’s Miko on dayhikes of nearly 10 miles and 4,700 feet up and down 5,774-foot Mount Adams in New Hampshire’s rugged northern Presidential Range and a mostly off-trail dayhike-scramble of 11,330-foot Twin Peaks in Utah’s Wasatch Range that spanned eight hours with 5,200 feet of up and down, I concluded that these daypacks remain true to a successful lineage while showing subtle improvements to excellent daypacks.
While there’s much that I like about the Miko and Maya (as I did the old Miwok and Maya)—and, really, nothing I find wrong with them—the story begins with their fit and comfort. The updated, close-fitting BioSync suspension features an elasticized shoulder harness and hipbelt that provide a very comfortable, body-hugging fit and a dynamic carry that stretches and flexes with your moving body.
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There’s no metal or plastic in these packs. The foam back panel distributes weight nicely and delivers a blend of flex and support that’s probably ideal for many dayhikers. You can see this when folding the pack in half to have the top kiss the bottom—it folds easily over that dimension. But it doesn’t yield as easily to attempts to fold it parallel to its long dimension—folding the two side edges together—and especially so at the top, behind the shoulders, illustrating how the bottom of the pack moves with the part of your body that moves the most on a trail, your hips, but the top end of the pack flexes less, delivering more stability behind your shoulders.
Even as the pack hugs your torso, breathability is very good, thanks to the back panel’s perforations and contoured shape, with channels to allow air flow, and the perforated foam in the shoulder straps and hipbelt.
On both packs, the torso length easily adjusts by repositioning the shoulder straps up or down using a hook-and-loop patch behind the back panel—a newly improved, simple and secure adjustment system that provides a 3.5-inch/9cm fit range while adding nominal weight to the pack. That’s actually less fit range than the previous Miwok and Maya, which had five inches/13cm of adjustability; but that large a range isn’t as likely to fit people at either end of it as well.
After hauling about 12 pounds inside the Miko 20 up and down the steep, rocky trails of Mount Adams and about 15 pounds of water, snacks, extra layers, and my camera up and down Twin Peaks, I found the pack clearly handles 15 pounds comfortably—and I suspect many hikers will find it comfortable carrying 20 pounds, as Gregory claims.
The Miko’s and Maya’s main compartment is quickly accessed via a U-shaped, two-way zipper that opens down as far as the side pockets. While the pack feels streamlined on your back, its 20 liters/1,220 cubic inches provide plenty of space for a three-season dayhike, fitting my rain shell, extra layers, a full day’s worth of trail food, three liters of water, small items like my headlamp, plus my DSLR and two lenses. People who bring more stuff will find these packs have abundant capacity and the larger sizes in the Miko and Maya lines would serve well on multi-day hut treks if you pack efficiently. The internal, zippered valuables pocket is larger than the similar pocket that was in the older Miwok and Maya.
In fact, I have not yet completely fill the Miko 20’s capacity. I think that, given the lack of a rigid frame, as you add more to this pack, it’s likely to perform and feel better if that added ballast does not push the weight well over 15 to 20 pounds. In other words, you can fit a fair amount of stuff in the Miko 20 and Maya 20; but in reality, these packs are made for most of their contents to be light and bulky, such as extra clothing layers, rather than dense and heavy, like significantly more water and food. That’s a particularly important consideration with the larger-volume models of the Miko and Maya.
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The six external pockets include:
- Two zippered hipbelt pockets large enough for a phone and a few bars.
- A zippered top pocket for sunglasses, headlamp, and smaller items you want to access quickly.
- A large stretch-mesh front pocket with a buckle securing its top to the pack body.
- Two stretch-mesh side pockets with space for a liter bottle each (as long as the pack isn’t fully jammed).
Typical of Gregory, the Miko and Maya are well constructed, with good durability for a typical dayhiker who spends most of their time on trails, with adequately tough but lightweight 100-denier, high-density nylon in the body and 210-denier nylon in some areas of the body as well as in the two-layer bottom, which will outlive parts like zippers and seams. The fabrics are up to 45 percent recycled materials, which Gregory says reduced the carbon footprint of each new pack by about 25 percent. As with many daypacks, the most vulnerable areas are the stretch-mesh side and front pockets, zippers, and seams; and Gregory has reinforced stress points and generally designed the pack to disperse its weight load evenly—good for the carrier and the pack’s lifespan.
In the Miko and Maya, Gregory displays its attention to the kind of small details that make a pack or any gear faster and more pleasant to deal with—details sometimes only noticed when they aren’t designed smartly.
Examples: the independent zippered pocket for a hydration bladder, eliminating the need to empty pack contents to refill your water, with its SpeedClip hydration hanger that’s compatible with Gregory’s 3D Hydro and 3D Hydro Trek reservoirs;the large, custom-molded pulls on all zippers that you can easily grab with gloves on; the sternum strap’s one-hand buckle and easily adjustable fit; and the easy-to-adjust trekking poles attachment and front pocket buckle.
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Available in four capacity versions from 15 to 30 liters—compared to the three models of their ancestors, the Miwok ranging from 12 to 24 liters and the Maya from 10 to 22 liters—the Miko-Maya series clearly aims to deliver a size that appeals to nearly every dayhiker, from minimalists to people who need extra space for cold-weather layers, extra food, water, and/or gear, and hikers whose pack must accommodate the needs of other people, like trip leaders, parents, or anyone with a partner who needs a little help with weight.
The other daypacks in the Miko-Maya series include the Miko 15 ($120, 1 lb., 15 oz./880g), Miko 20 Plus Size ($130, 2 lbs., 3 oz./1kg), Miko 25 ($140, 2 lbs., 2 oz./962g), Miko 30 ($150, 2 lbs., 2 oz./970g), and the Miko 15 ($120, 1 lb., 13 oz./834g), Maya 20 Plus Size ($130, 2 lbs., 3 oz./989g), Maya 25 ($140, 2 lbs./916g), and Maya 30 ($140, 2 lbs., 3 oz./984g).
Gregory Miko 20 and Maya 20
The Verdict
Lacking any real flaws, the Gregory men’s Miko 20 and women’s Maya 20 strike an ideal balance of comfort, capacity, access, convenient features, and weight for dayhikers who travel fairly light and like a pack that they hardly notice when on the trail.
BUY IT NOW
You can support my work on this blog by clicking any of these links to purchase a Gregory men’s Miko 20 at backcountry.com or rei.com, a women’s Maya 20 at at backcountry.com or rei.com, or other versions of the Miko at backcountry.com or rei.com, and the Maya at backcountry.com.
See “The 10 Best Hiking Daypacks,” “5 Tips For Buying the Right Backpack” (which includes daypacks), and all reviews of hiking gear at The Big Outside.
You may also be interested in my “8 Pro Tips for Preventing Blisters When Hiking,” my picks for “The Best Trekking Poles,” and my story “How to Know How Hard a Hike Will Be,” which you can read in its entirety with a paid subscription to The Big Outside or click here to purchase separately.
NOTE: I tested gear for Backpacker magazine for 20 years. At The Big Outside, I review only what I consider the best outdoor gear and apparel. See the Gear Reviews page at The Big Outside for categorized menus of all reviews and expert buying tips.
—Michael Lanza