Backpacks

 

 

Using the April Gear issue of Backpacker I narrowed down the myriad choices for backpacks to the Osprey Exos 48. We were looking for a pack that we could use for both day hikes and our eventual goal of hiking with overnights. This pack seemed to fill the bill.

 

We went to our local REI store Schaumburg, IL to see the pack in person, to touch, feel and wear. We had no intentions of buying at this point. Our salesperson turned out to be an Iraq vet working while attending college. He was excellent in his knowledge and working with the two of us.

He picked out a small Osprey Exos 58 for Michelle and a large Exos 48 for me. He took our measurements prior to picking the packs out. He then stuffed weighted bags into each pack so we wear then. The estimated the weight  at 15 - 20 pounds. After a few minutes he looked at mine and from the way it was fitting me was to large so we tried a medium which worked well. The large did not sitting on my hips correctly.

We spent about fifteen minutes walking about the store and while the packs felt heavy, it was not extreme. Easy to say while in store but we realize walking with weight in the packs will help us become conditioned for the trail.

So our salesperson, being a good salesperson, helped me make a buy decision and we left the store with our new backpacks!

We are planning to buy some play sand and put the sand in five pounds bags we can wear the weighted packs during our neighbor walks. At the same we purchased the book 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Chicago to identify some local hikes we can experience with out new packs.