I just bought this backpack to practice with untill I get a better one next year for my long trip....
http://www.ebay.com/itm/40-50L-Outdo...r=580531492459
This backpack was 30 dollars and seems to have some of the features of name brand packs and it's new. I checked the dimensions and it'll fit my tent and other supplies easy.
Here is another even larger one....
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Camping-Trav...item3f4141cb99
It's a different design, I found many hiking backpacks for under 50 dollars, various types, and sizes, one had a 80L capacity for under 50 dollars!
This doesn't make sense to me, are backpacks this cheap going to fall apart on me or something, they look decent in the pics? I'll have my backpack in a few days to give an opinion on it, but can anyone here with more experince tell me what's wrong with getting a backpack this cheap, or are they like shoes where you just pay more for name brand equipment that isn't always better? Most are spending at least 150 for a backpack from what I can tell, and often much more than that.
One more thing, has anyone here done weeks or months worth of hiking with a cheap backpack like this? I'm very curious how they hold up compared to the more expensive ones.