I was away at the beach last week had the pack delivered today. I figured I would provide an overview of my first reactions to it....
It surprised me at first as it came in a box that could hold a small refrigerator....as I grabbed it I thought "uh-oh....how big is this thing?!" :lol:
It is a pretty good size....yes large, but not like a week long hiking backpack. I think it will be great for what I want. It weighs in at right at 5 lbs empty.
It is approximately 24" tall, 12" wide and about 8" deep. I say approximately as empty its always hard to tell and it still had the "memory" from being compressed as its brand new. But here's some pics with a tape. Mind you the tape kept falling off so it was hard to get a good reading. But it gives you a sense of the size:
It has a bunch of pockets, as you can see....the bottom "pockets" are a removable pouch that is about 9" wide x 7" tall and 4" deep with 2 pockets. It attaches to the main pack with velcro and belts. It has a "sleeve" on the backside to allow for a belt to slide through for use as a pouch.
The "middle" pocket (on the outside" is about 10" x 8". It has sleeves inside for holding various items
Next up is the "top" pocket which is about 10" wide by about 3" tall and 4" deep.
The 1st "main" pocket extends behind the top and middle pockets (so it extends about 2/3 of the way down the pack) and is quite sizeable...again with the packing memory hard to tell exactly but approximately 14" tall x 11" wide x 4" deep. It too has some "sleeves" inside for gear.
Then there is the main compartment which runs the full length and width of the pack. What didn't come out well in the picture and I am too lazy to retake it and upload it is the "front" part of the main pocket (the folded down part that appears black) is a full top to bottom netting pocket with zipper. It just didn't show up well in the picture.
This has a sleeve for a water bladder with a strap to secure it at the top. The top corner of the pack nearest your shoulders (on each side) have a small opening to feed the water tube through. I have ordered a (tall) Camelback 100L from Amazon to use with it.
It also has a zipper to the compartment that houses the backplate. So if you wanted you could remove it for a softback. I will leave it in to start and see how it goes.
The shoulder straps and waist straps are padded well and secure well for almost any position someone wishes to use when carrying it.
As you can also see there are molle straps and tie down points everywhere for attaching almost any kind of additional gear, pouches, what have you.
In addition every strap you can see and zipper is the typical Maxpedition heavy duty style that I am used to from my Versipack. I am looking forward to getting some gear in this and doing some hiking with it. I am sure it will take me a while to try different ways of packing it to get comfortable not only with it on my back but also in terms of ease of access to the items I need. but its a big step up from my current Cabelas bag. I just hope I don't fill it with so much stuff I cant walk! :lol: I will update this after I have used it a few times.
