Outdoor Products Skyline 8.0

[Maka Mani]

I recently had my day/overnight hiking kit stolen from me and was finding myself in quite a predicament regarding my ability to travel afoot in wilderness lands. Mind you I spent many a month and more dollars on building the "ultimate" system. (It even pulled urban duty quite often.) I can say I have an affinity for high quality, well known name brands and purchase them on whim and figure out their worth in the field later. Sometimes to my dismay. So I needed a pack fast, and I was nearly spent on coin trying to put a quick kit together. I figured I would try Big 5 as I know they have economical gear boundless. It was difficult going in there knowing I was to buy cheap, I can tend to be a gear snob if I haven't expressed that clearly yet, but I inched over to the pack rack and grabbed at what I thought could work for me.There I potentially found my new answer to kit hauling. The Outdoor Products Skyline in Grey. All 29 litres or so! Oh boy I wasn't too thrilled. I yanked at it and put the bag into my hands and began zipping the zippers back and forth. They worked. I even fluffed it like a down pillow getting a feel for its shape and size. I may have even stuck my nose to it and sniffed, thinking it would bring perspective to its quality. Reluctantly but satisfied I made the purchase and walked out of the store with a bag to put stuff in for adventures soon to come.......And now that I have hiked a good 60ish miles with it in the last month it's still going strong.

[Aimless]

Quality is as quality does. Price is not always an accurate indicator.

I have a no-name pack I bought at GI Joe's back when GI Joe's existed. It cost me $45. It's big - about 4200 cu. in. I trimmed off some excess straps and other extraneous stuff to bring its overall weight down to 4 lbs. I still use it when I need to haul big loads comfortably - mainly when I act as the mule on multi-nighters with my wife, who can't carry much weight on her own. It shows no signs of wearing out.

[Maka Mani]

That's awesome! I loved GI Joes. I remember the old location off Vancouver Way near Columbia Blvd. There used to be 100lb bombshells set up in cement lined up across the street from the old building still up until a few years ago. Anyway, I usually associate value with an imagined place where quality intersects with price, giving price more consideration concerning that value. So I'm changing that way of thinking.