REI Co-op  Ruckpack 18 Pack

As I headed out for a short adventure on the beautiful Oregon coast I grabbed my REI Ruckpack 18, as well as a few essentials, and left my worries at the door. This great little pack is lightweight with a relatively straightforward design, but with a few much-appreciated features that made my trip quite enjoyable. In my opinion, day packs should be simple. There just isn't enough room to be adding crazy features and random compartments. This Ruckpack fits the bill. It has one main compartment for stuffing all your goodies and a few smaller non-obtrusive pockets for some organization. Fitting a parachute-style hammock, tree straps, a hammock top-quilt, and a Jetboil type cooking system is no problem with some room to spare for food items and even a light-weight fleece pullover. There is a separate compartment for a water bladder with the standard plastic hook to hold the bladder up. I appreciated the design of the top zipper/flap very much. Instead of a cinch-style closure, REI chose a zipper/flap configuration that allows the pack to use all of its internal space without scrunching the top down as a drawstring would. The underside of that flap has a zippered mesh pocket for keys, wallets, etc. The flap employs dual zippers that can lock together with a small padlock for security. There are two pockets on the outside sides of the pack. One side has a water bottle pocket that has some elastic and stretchy mesh to accommodate larger bottles and a strap that can be tightened to keep things in place. The other side of the pack has a tall zippered pocket that reaches from the bottom of the pack almost to the top. Inside this pocket you will find various smaller pockets for pens and smaller items. The deepest of these pockets is lined with softer fabric which I assume is to protect electronics from getting scratched. However, I found this pocket to be way too deep to hold my cell phone. My hands are too big to reach into the opening of this pocket so I would have to turn the whole pack upside down if I wanted my phone back. There is also another larger zippered pocket inside this area that is somewhat hidden which might be a good place for a wallet as well (although neither of these pockets are lockable). The outside of the pack is nicely designed. My pack is black which makes it very subtle in appearance. There are compression straps on both sides of the pack to help tighten the pack up if you have extra space. There are daisy chain webbing loops on the surface of the pack but they are hidden from view which may be good for esthetics for some people, but honestly I found it made them difficult to use. I wouldn't mind it at all if the loops were visible on the pack as I don't think that would take away from the looks of the pack at all. The trekking pole loops are also concealable, again a feature I don't value much. The shoulder straps are nicely padded. I did not notice the weight of the pack biting into my shoulders at all. The chest strap has a whistle-buckle, which I love. I would like to see a little more room for the chest strap to move down the shoulder straps. The strap stops about 2 inches above the edge of the padded portion of the shoulder strap. I'm rather tall and in order for the pack to sit a little more comfortably on my hips I needed to loosen the shoulder straps so the pack would hang a little lower on my back. Doing this however brought the chest strep a little too high on my chest for comfort. If I could utilize that extra few inches of space to slide the strap down, it would have been perfect. All in all, I really like this little pack. I think it's perfect for a day trip or even for an overnighter if you know how to pack efficiently. It's lightweight, comfortable, and simple yet with some well-thought-out features. As with all REI products, it's very well-made and I have every bit of confidence that it will withstand the test of time. Highly recommended.

I got this as a product tester and I was looking forward to a new bag from REI. We were planning an adventure in Scotland and I had high expectations for this bag. When it arrived I was surprised (disappointed) that it was mainly one large pocket. For it's size, it seemed it would be useful for day hikes but then it occurred to me that it would be tough to keep everything in one main pocket. For my day hikes, I like to take food (a sandwich, fruit, energy bars) and a water bottle or bladder plus map/guidebook and camera and/or binoculars and sweatshirt. I wasn't sure the bag would be able to hold all that. I like this rucksack's bladder sleeve and there are holes on either side to feed the tube, which is very useful. There's a good pocket on the side for keeping a bottle, which is what I used on this trip. For this trip, I also needed my rain jacket (then swapped it for my sweatshirt), both of which fit but only one at a time. I like the slimness of the bag. I found that because a sandwich and snacks need to be on top (to keep from being squished), it was hard to use this bag. Since it's all one pocket, inevitably there are things on top and on bottom and it's hard to keep it arranged when you reach in to grab something. For example, the camera (which is compact) kept slipping down to the bottom and it was hard to pull out when I wanted it. I liked the side flap that opened for keeping my pens and mini-notebook and sunscreen but I felt like more pockets would definitely have been good. And since I was carrying two water bottles, I needed to keep one on the inside of the bag, where condensation from the coldness made some of our things wet. That was unfortunate. The biggest problem with wetness, however, was in the non-waterproofness or non-water resistance of the bag. On one day, it was drizzling lightly throughout the day and though the bag didn't "look" like it would be alright in rain, I hoped it would. When I returned after our hike, everything was wet - guide book, money (which I stored in the zipper pocket on the top flap), a map I stored in the bladder sleeve. Since there was no indication on the tag or anti-wet characteristics I could see, I shouldn't have expected better performance in wetness but I was still disappointed. When I switched to another bag for our next outing, I picked my old familiar knapsack that I've been using for years (a jansport). I laid out what needed to dry and transferred everything else from the REI bag then put it on. For the rest of the day, I was missing the feel of the REI bag. It was lighter, more comfortable on my back and more compact. That I missed it was very surprising. In the end, I continued to use the REI bag instead of my go-to Jansport with the awareness that it has no rain protection and it's been fine. A couple of other things, I like the zipper pocket on the inside of the top flap. I used it for cash, keys and granola. I didn't use the daisy chain or the poles attachments on the outside of the bag because I don't use hiking poles. In summary, this was not my favorite bag but I did like it more than I would have expected based on my initial impression. To make it better, I'd add another pocket in front to keep guide books, maps, etc. separate from sandwiches, rain gear, binoculars, etc. I'd definitely add some water resistance, or at the very least, flaps to cover the zippers. I'd also add some high-vis to the outside to the straps. I liked the black color of the bag, but if I'm sleeping out, I'd want light to hit it well in my tent. If I'm just using it on the street, I'd want to be easily spotted crossing an intersection (and in Scotland, I think that would be especially helpful).