inkynate
10-02-2016, 09:40
Hello everyone! First post here.
I've been sort of an old school, heavy, kitchen sink type in the past and I want to lighten up. We have three kids under 10, so there are lots of car camping and short-hike trips where weight isn't an issue. However, I also like to get out on longer trips, anywhere from 2-5 nights, a few times a year. When I was a strapping young lad, I would slough off the weight, but since I've gotten older my gear keeps feeling heavier, even though it's the same weight... :) My two oldest are also probably about ready to start going out on longer overnights with their own small packs, so I want to make sure I still have some extra capacity since I will likely be carrying some extra food, etc... for my trailmates.
For the longer trips, looking to the future, I'm starting to suffer a bit under the weight of my old Gregory Palisades and want a new pack. It's still in great shape, but is somewhere in the 7-8 lbs range by itself and I don't think any amount of modding/trimming I could do would make a significant impact.
I've been debating different options and have a little more work to do figuring out my other kit and base weight before I settle on anything, but from what I can tell the BL 70 looks like it may be one of the best value UL packs out there right now, there just isn't much in terms of reviews available at the moment.
I understand that this is basically the new iteration of the defunct GoLite brand, but I'm not really interested in the politics there, just the packs.
Does anyone have any experience with these? Any thoughts on pros/cons on this pack vs. the ULA Circuit or maybe one of the popular Opsrey models? Anything else I should look at?
If money was no object or I anticipated having the time to really put down a lot of miles every year, I'd probably be looking at HMG or Aarn packs, but as it is I'm looking for the most bang for my buck right now and $179 for the BL 70 almost seems too good to be true. Thoughts?
I've been sort of an old school, heavy, kitchen sink type in the past and I want to lighten up. We have three kids under 10, so there are lots of car camping and short-hike trips where weight isn't an issue. However, I also like to get out on longer trips, anywhere from 2-5 nights, a few times a year. When I was a strapping young lad, I would slough off the weight, but since I've gotten older my gear keeps feeling heavier, even though it's the same weight... :) My two oldest are also probably about ready to start going out on longer overnights with their own small packs, so I want to make sure I still have some extra capacity since I will likely be carrying some extra food, etc... for my trailmates.
For the longer trips, looking to the future, I'm starting to suffer a bit under the weight of my old Gregory Palisades and want a new pack. It's still in great shape, but is somewhere in the 7-8 lbs range by itself and I don't think any amount of modding/trimming I could do would make a significant impact.
I've been debating different options and have a little more work to do figuring out my other kit and base weight before I settle on anything, but from what I can tell the BL 70 looks like it may be one of the best value UL packs out there right now, there just isn't much in terms of reviews available at the moment.
I understand that this is basically the new iteration of the defunct GoLite brand, but I'm not really interested in the politics there, just the packs.
Does anyone have any experience with these? Any thoughts on pros/cons on this pack vs. the ULA Circuit or maybe one of the popular Opsrey models? Anything else I should look at?
If money was no object or I anticipated having the time to really put down a lot of miles every year, I'd probably be looking at HMG or Aarn packs, but as it is I'm looking for the most bang for my buck right now and $179 for the BL 70 almost seems too good to be true. Thoughts?