backpacks

I’ve got an irrational soft spot for GoRuck. The GR1 popped up on my radar a long time ago. Eventually I bought one. (26L) Then another. (21L with the new 210d back) I never owned but often thought about the GR2 to add in some much needed organization, but I never pulled the trigger because the bag just looked too deep for my taste. I’ve been meaning to write a review on the GR1 but overall, it’s a polarizing bag for me.

UPDATE: Some of these photos now appear in Evergoods Official Griffin in the Wild gallery! Something pretty special today, the Evergoods x Carryology CPL 24 Griffin Edition. I’ve only ever purchased one Carryology collab before, I didn’t love it, and wasn’t sure I’d ever take that kind of risk again. The Griffin was announced, and initially I didn’t pay it much mind. Launch time came and went, a few hours later I checked in, saw the product photos, and they were beautiful.

The Cerberus is based on the design of a pack Mystery Ranch made about a decade ago called The Spartan. It was a very small pack intended for military purposes. Only about 1000 were produced, but the bag took on a life of it’s own after production becoming a bit of a collectors item, with good examples usually selling for over $1000 USD. When Carryology announced the Cerberus, I was extremely intrigued and pretty much decided immediately to buy one, despite the very high price tag.

My first high end backpack was a Mystery Ranch, the Rip Ruck 24 I wrote about a few years ago. Like any good gateway drug it led to the second, the Mystery Ranch Urban Assault 24. You’re probably thinking on how lame that name is, and you’d be right, lets stick with just UA24 for the rest of this. Luckily the bag is about to be discontinued and replaced with a new similar line with a much better name.

I’ve been hunting for the “perfect” backpack lately. For me, that’s a bag which is: fairly slim and low profile big enough for a weekend away at home hiking at home at the beach at home for a software engineer with a well protected laptop compartment Mystery Ranch caught my eye, not so much their military tactical stuff but their more toned down everyday carry bags. Specifically I narrowed it down to either their Urban Assault 24 (yes, the name makes me cringe too), or the Rip Ruck 24.