hydration pack reviews

The Gregory Zulu 24 LT daypack

Review: Gregory Zulu 24 LT and Jade 24 LT Daypacks

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Daypack
Gregory Zulu 24 LT and Jade 24 LT
$170, 24L/1,465 c.i., 2 lbs. 5 oz./1.05kg (men’s Zulu 24 LT)
One size each for men and women, non-adjustable
Zulu 24 LT: backcountry.com
Jade 24 LT: backcountry.com

This first thing I noticed about carrying Gregory’s Zulu 24 LT on spring dayhikes of up to about 12 miles from southern Utah parks to New Zealand, with plenty of uphill and downhill and a bit of scrambling thrown in, was its exceptional comfort even when testing its maximum weight capacity: This daypack does not wilt under loads that push some daypacks beyond their “I’m still liking this pack” limit. But the more I used it—and actually interacted with the pack, pulling stuff out, stuffing stuff back in, using its various pockets—the more I liked how its design constantly rose to my demands.

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The Black Diamond Pursuit 15 daypack.

Review: Black Diamond Pursuit 15 Daypack

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Daypack
Black Diamond Pursuit 15
$170, 15L/915 c.i., 1 lb. 7 oz./652g (men’s medium)
Sizes: men’s and women’s S-L
blackdiamondequipment.com

From dayhikes up to 16 miles with spurts of running on trails in my local foothills to steep, hard dayhikes from Yoho National Park in the Canadian Rockies to New Hampshire’s White Mountains, the Pursuit 15 struck an unusually effective balance between traditional hiking daypacks and running vests that’s most useful to avid dayhikers and mountain scramblers moving fast and light.

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The Mystery Ranch Coulee 30.

Review: Mystery Ranch Coulee 30 Daypack

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Daypack
Mystery Ranch Coulee 30
$189, 29L/1,770 c.i., 2 lbs. 9 oz./1.2kg (men’s S/M)
Sizes: men’s S/M and L/XL, women’s XS/X and M/L
backcountry.com

Let’s face it, we sometimes tend to act like unreasonable relationship partners in our expectations for our gear, including hiking daypacks: We want everything to be perfect all the time. And with gear, we can obsess a bit over weight. But as I discovered carrying the Mystery Ranch Coulee 30 on hikes from the trails of southern Idaho and Utah’s Wasatch to the Canadian Rockies, its reasonable weight is more than validated by a design, comfort, capacity, and durability that make it one of today’s best daypacks.

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The Deuter AC Lite 23 daypack.

Review: Deuter AC Lite 23 and AC Lite 21 SL Daypacks

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Daypack
Deuter AC Lite 23 and AC Lite 21 SL
$110, 23L/1,404 c.i., 2 lbs. 1 oz./920g (AC Lite 23)
One non-adjustable size in men’s and SL/women’s models
backcountry.com

On a two-day hut trek in New Hampshire’s Presidential Range in June sunshine and high humidity, a friend and I hiked 21 miles with about 6,000 cumulative feet of elevation gain and loss each day, including scrambling up the steep slabs and talus of what’s widely recognized as the hardest trail in the White Mountains: Huntington Ravine, and descending some little-used trails in steep terrain and clambering over the broad, rock-strewn bed of the Dry River. Through the countless high-stepping and four-points-of-contact movement and the hours of streaming with sweat, the Deuter AC Lite 23 demonstrated its strengths of comfort and back-cooling ventilation.

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The Gregory Miko 20 daypack.

Review: Gregory Miko 20 and Maya 20 Daypacks

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Daypack
Gregory Miko 20 and Maya 20
$150, 20L/1,220 c.i., 2 lbs. 1 oz./936g (men’s Miko 20)
One adjustable size each for men and women
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.

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