I have several other packs that have just one main compartment, but all of them have at least a lid pocket to carry small items that I need during the day. I was concerned enough on the first day hike that I attached an outside pocket to the Katahdin to carry my water filter, toilet gear, and rain cover. For the rest of the test period, however, I worked out a packing system that put everything inside the pack, and it worked much better than I expected.

The Katahdin has the easiest access to the interior of any pack I have ever used. The top of the pack opens quickly, and the pack body is short and wide, making everything inside available. I used a small silnylon stuff sack to carry everything I would normally put in a lid pocket, and I kept it in the very top of the pack, along with a rain shell and my snacks for the day. As I wrote in my journal, 'using the stuff sack as a lid pocket worked out fine -- I was expecting to be annoyed, but I wasn't.'

Keeping all my gear dry was more challenging. While the Katahdin looks at first glance like a silnylon stuff sack, one whole side is made of stiff, open mesh where the suspension is attached. In addition, the standard drawstring closure leaves a small hole in the top of the pack, no matter how tightly it is closed. In even light rain, water gets inside the pack, and starts to fill the bottom of the pack body. My solution was to line the inside of the pack with a heavy plastic trash-compactor bag, which I purchased at a local supermarket. This bag weighs 2 ounces (57 g), is large enough to fit the inside of the Katahdin, and is amazingly puncture-resistant (I have been using these bags for years in my other packs). On top of that, I put a silnylon rain cover over the outside of the pack to keep water from entering the hole in the top opening. Together, these keep my gear dry, though water can still enter the pack through the mesh side.

Unlike some other ultralight packs, the Katahdin lacks any large mesh pockets on the outside of the pack body. I was concerned about this, because I don't like putting a wet tarp or muddy camp shoes inside the pack body with my nice, dry gear. I solved this problem by closing the plastic liner bag down inside the pack, leaving enough room inside the top of the pack body to carry my Tarptent and my Waldies, along with any other wet gear. Again, this worked out better than I expected based on my prior experience with lightweight packs.

Finally, I had to relearn how to use a water bottle. I had become very dependent on my water bladder with a drinking tube, since it makes it easy to drink while hiking. There's no pocket or compartment on the Katahdin for a bladder, but it does have two mesh water bottle pockets that are large enough to swallow a 1-qt (1 L) Nalgene bottle each. The good news is that I can remove and replace both water bottles while wearing the pack. The bad news is that I still haven't figured out a way to do this without stopping for a minute or two. On my last hike, I started to get dehydrated because I didn't remember to stop for water breaks. (This is, of course, not the fault of the Katahdin, but one more sign of your tester's advanced age.)

Also, the Katahdin lacks any small, easily-accessible pockets for things that I need while hiking. I was able to attach a small pouch for my camera, but there's no place for snacks, maps, compass, hiking guide, etc. I solved this by wearing a small waist pack on the front of my waist to carry those items. (Which had several unexpected advantages, letting me carry small items around camp at night, and giving me a useful purse in town.)

The first trip was, frankly, a disaster. The Katahdin was comfortable to start, but as the day wore on, it became more and more painful on my shoulders. The pack has load lifters, which are designed to take the weight off the shoulders while keeping the pack close to the body, but lifters don't work at all when the whole pack is sagging downward like a sack of potatoes. I kept tightening the compression straps to try to stiffen the load, but nothing seemed to work. Every time I tried to loosen the shoulder straps and tighten the lifters, the pack just sank lower and lower on my back. All 22 pounds (10 kg) was on my shoulders, and it left me in serious pain for several days after the hike.

I spent some time after that hike trying to figure out the best way to load and use the Katahdin. I tried different sleeping pads for support, and several different ways of loading the pack to get the load lifters to work properly. What worked the best for me was to keep the load as tall and narrow as possible, and then to tighten the compression straps as much as possible. Having a tall, stiff pack put the load lifters up above the shoulder straps, where they needed to be in order to work properly. However, the body shape of the Katahdin, which is short and wide, made it harder for me to create the required tall, narrow shape. For one thing, I found that I was unable to use my 3/4 Ridgerest sleeping pad as a 'frame' inside the pack, because it accentuated the short, wide shape of the finished pack. This was unfortunate, because lining the pack with the Ridgerest made it very easy to handle and load.

Here's what I found the be the most comfortable way to load the Katahdin: First, I lined the inside of the pack with a trash compactor bag. Then, I folded my Thermarest Prolite 4 mattress in quarters, and slid it inside the trash bag, up against the back of the pack. This provides support and keeps sharp things from poking me in the back. My clothing bag then went sideways in the very bottom. Then I put my sleeping bag and my food bag (an Ursack TKO) next to each other vertically on top of the clothing bag. Then I put my small ditty bag of personal items on top of that, and stuffed my windshirt down in front of the stuff sacks. Then I rolled the trash bag closed over all the gear I wanted to keep dry. On top of the closed trash bag went my camp shoes, my hammock or tarp, my rain shell, and my small silnylon bag with all the little stuff I would want during the day (see above). I slid a very small piece of closed-cell-foam pad down the inside front of the pack, between the pack body and the trash bag, to spread out the pressure of the three compression straps (I used this as a sit-pad during the day). I put my toilet gear in one small outside pocket, and my alcohol fuel in the other. Two plastic soda bottles went in the mesh water bottle pockets.

After I loaded the pack, I had to cinch down the compression straps to make the pack body as stiff as possible. At the same time, I was trying to force the load into as tall and narrow a shape as possible.

So, does it work? Does the compression system transfer the weight to the hip belt, and make the pack more comfortable to wear? As comfortable as a pack with a frame? The short answer is: yes and no. I found that the compression system does work to shift some of the pack weight to the hip belt, as long as I am careful to load and compress the pack properly. However, this system has its limits. Whenever I was carrying more than about 22 pounds (10 kg) in the Katahdin, I found that the area where the hip belt is attached to the pack started to collapse under the weight, which then put most of the weight back on my shoulders (see picture at right). Also, like many ultralight packs, the Katahdin needs to be full or close to full in order to function properly. As my food bag got smaller during a hike, it was more difficult to make the weight transfer to my hips (though as the weight decreased, this became more and more unnecessary). I think my personal weight limit with the Katahdin would be about 20 pounds (9 kg), at which weight it is more comfortable than other ultralight packs that I have tried.

The top compression strap is shorter than the other two. This makes it hard to tighten when the pack is full, since there's not a piece of webbing to grab. (At least it has a little sewn-down tab on the end, unlike the hip belt webbing. Had they made this tab an inch longer, this wouldn't be an issue.)

The flat zippered pockets on the sides of the Katahdin are impossible to load once the compression straps are tightened, because they are pulled completely flat and taut. I have to remember to re-load these pockets before I compress the pack.

Testing with Various Sleeping Pads:
The Katahdin requires the use of a sleeping pad inside the pack to support the load and keep sharp objects from hitting the back. I tested the pack with every type of pad in my gear closet:

• Z-Rest 3/4: This pad fit well inside the pack, and provided a fair amount of support as the 'frame'.
• Z-Rest (full length): This pad took up a lot of room inside the Katahdin. It's probably not usable with this pack. Also, both Z-Rest pads are commonly folded up then opened in half to make a support that is two panels wide. This is much narrower than the Katahdin interior, and it was difficult to keep it centered.
• Ridgerest (full length): This pad took up most of the room inside the pack.
• Ridgerest 25x77-inch pad (64x196 cm): There wasn't room for much of anything inside the pack once this huge pad was unrolled inside. However, the 25-inch (64 cm) width did a better job of supporting the full height of the pack. If I were willing to cut it into a torso-length pad, it might work well.
• Ridgerest 3/4: This pad unrolled nicely inside the pack, and made it much easier to load and unload. But see above for how well it worked as the internal support system.
• Thermarest 3/4 (older style): Folded into thirds, this 20-inch wide (51 cm) pad covered the entire width of the pack, and with a little air blown inside it provided the best support of any pad.
• Thermarest Prolite 4 (standard length): Folded in fourths to cover the entire width, this pad also worked well to support the load and provide some padding for the back. It wasn't quite as supportive as the Thermarest 3/4, probably due to all the cutouts in the foam making it less stiff.

Thanks again to Equinox and BackpackGearTest for the opportunity to test the Katahdin.