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Reviews > Packs > Internal and External Framed Backpacks > Kelty Pawnee Pack > Test Report by Nathan Kettner
KELTY PAWNEE
INITIAL REPORT - March 14, 2009
TESTER INFORMATION
I'm a medium weight backpacker, meaning my pack usually weighs 30-35 lb (13-16 kg), and I generally hike a moderate pace and mostly in mountainous terrain. I almost always use a tent (lightweight when backpacking, wall tent when hunting). I'm a weekend backpacker and make lots of day trips and single night outings, plus a few week-long backpack trips. All of my outings have been in the beautiful and rugged Rocky Mountains of Colorado and Wyoming since I started backpacking in 2004. PRODUCT INFORMATION & SPECIFICATIONS
Manufacturer: Kelty INITIAL IMPRESSIONS
Kelty classifies the Pawnee 3300 as a 'day trip' pack, but at a quick glance, I would think it is too large for that category. But I'm not complaining, the bigger the better as long as it isn't excessively heavy, which the Pawnee certainly is not. READING THE INSTRUCTIONS
Kelty provides a fairly detailed 8 page set of instructions that include safety info (a backpack could cause you to lose your balance and they are flammable), feature identification (diagram with arrows to aluminum stay, shoulder straps, etc.), fitting (how to adjust the straps to comfortably fit my body), and even shaping (how to bend the stay to remove pressure points). The pamphlet says that "bending and re-bending the stays won't hurt them," which sounds unbelievable to me. I guess my real concern would be that I would never get it back to the original shape, which is supposed to be "an average curve" from the factory. TRYING IT OUT
Since I've been backpacking for several years now, I think I've finally gotten the hang of adjusting a backpack to fit me fairly quickly. The Pawnee's buckles made the adjustments very easy because the straps slid tighter without much effort and then stayed where I wanted them without slippage. The Scherer Cinch waist belt was the most noticeably easy to adjust compared to other packs I've used, even though it doesn't look remarkable at all. SUMMARY
After playing with the Pawnee for a couple hours it looks to be a well-designed pack for those medium range trips which I take more frequently than any other type of trip. Right now, I can't think of anything that concerns me with the design or function and I'm truly looking forward to putting it through its paces. FIELD LOCATIONS AND CONDITIONS
I've had the Kelty Pawnee out on two long day hikes and one overnight backpacking trip. The conditions on these hikes were as follows: PERFORMANCE IN THE FIELD
My wife and two children (five and seven-years-old) accompanied me on my day hikes and this pack was more than sufficient to carry rain jackets, snacks, water, and assorted other equipment (camera, GPS, etc.) for all four of us. This amount of gear did not really stress the limits of comfort due to the relatively light weight, but did allow me to become more familiar with the pack. One discovery was that the loop on the front of the shoulder straps is ideal for holding the water line from my Camelbak, but the pocket for the reservoir is too far down in the main compartment of the pack to make the bite valve easily accessible My family joined me again for the overnight backpacking trip down Northrup Gulch. This time, I totally maxed out the interior capacity of the Pawnee, and when I ran out of space, I started strapping equipment onto the outside. For starters, I stuffed a four-person tent and two adult-size mummy sleeping bags into the main compartment, which filled it to the brim. In the zippered hood pocket on top went my folding knife, titanium kettle, 8 oz (0.24 L) bottle of fuel, headlamp, toothbrushes, small tube of toothpaste, matchbox, journal, pen and probably a few other small items. In the zippered pocket on the back of the pack went all our snacks (trail mix, granola bars, Tootsie Rolls, etc). I carried a 20 oz (0.59 L) bottle of water and a dog leash in one of the elastic pouches on the side of the pack and a small camera and small fishing tackle box in the elastic pocket on the other side. On the outside of the pack I strapped two foam sleeping pads, a small spincast fishing rod and three (one adult and two kids) rain jackets. When I weighed the full pack (minus the water bottle, camera, and rain jackets, which were added later) the loaded pack weighed 27 lbs (12.25 kg), so I would estimate that the final weight was closer to 30 lbs (14 kg).
That is way more stuff than this pack was designed to carry, but it didn't feel bad at all. The Pawnee felt more comfortable than any other pack I've carried with similar weight, but since the hike was only about 2 hours long each way, it may not be a fair comparison to larger packs that I've carried for 6-8 hours a day. Weatherproofing: While we were searching for the ideal campsite near the South Platte, a thunderstorm bore down on us, seemingly from all directions. Just as we approached our final destination the wind gusted to about 40 mph (65 km/h) and started lashing us with a steady rain. In the ten chaotic minutes spent trying to set up the tent, my pack lay partially open in the downpour. When we were all safely in the half-assembled tent, I inspected the sleeping bags and other contents of my pack and found them all completely dry. This inspired enough confidence in me to use the Pawnee as our food bag to be hung from a high branch (black bears are common in the area) overnight without worrying about the contents getting soaked.
Ease-of-use: The elastic pouches on the sides of the pack were ideal locations to store a water bottle (although the 20 oz bottle was a little too tall and fell out once) and camera which my wife retrieved frequently for snapshots. The inverted-U-shaped zippered pocket on the back of the pack also worked well because the zippers came far enough down the sides of the pack that I could access the all-important snacks without even removing the two attached sleeping pads. SUMMARY
The Kelty Pawnee has performed well in all the conditions I have used it. Its light weight has made it a useful tool for long day hikes as well as short overnight trips. So far my only complaint is the water reservoir sleeve is too low in the main compartment to make it useful, although it may have been designed for a reservoir with a longer water line. LONG-TERM TEST LOCATIONS AND CONDITIONS
This has been a great summer for me for camping and backpacking. I've taken the Pawnee on two car camping trips and two overnight backpacking trips since my Field Report. I'll only discuss the backpacking trips in the report below because they definitely put the Pawnee to more of a test than the day hikes associated with my car camping trips. PERFORMANCE IN THE FIELD
This pack handled the trips I took it on with no problems. On my 2 night trip I carried over 30 lbs of gear including: SUMMARY As I have gotten to know this pack, I've come to appreciate it for what it is - a sturdy, well-designed, relatively lightweight backpack. It's perfect for a one to two night backpacking trip, or for just a long day trip. It is durable, water resistant (at least in the limited precipitation I encountered), and quite comfortable, even when overloaded. PLANS FOR CONTINUED USE I plan to use the Kelty Pawnee in years to come for every day hike and overnight backpacking trip I take unless I require something with more capacity due to the length of the trip or because of the extra equipment I need to carry for my young kids. This report was created with the BackpackGearTest.org Report Writer Version 1.5 Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.Read more reviews of Kelty gear Read more gear reviews by Nathan Kettner Reviews > Packs > Internal and External Framed Backpacks > Kelty Pawnee Pack > Test Report by Nathan Kettner |