O.P. Sak
Field Report
October 20, 2006

Reviewer information

Name	Marie-Noëlle Augendre	I started backpacking nine years ago, day-hiking in Ile-de-France all year round, and doing several one or two-week trips in more mountainous regions (Corsica, Pyrénées, Cévennes, Lubéron, etc.) each year. In the past three years, I have gradually lightened my pack load as I changed to a hammock, an alcohol stove, a light pack and running shoes instead of boots. After living the most part of this year in Quebec (Canada), I'm just back to France and looking for a place to settle, preferably in an area suitable for outdoor activities, especially hiking and backpacking.
Age	48
Gender	Female
Height	about 5 ft 2 in (1.57 m)
Weight	170 lb (77 kg)
Email address	augendre.bgt@gmail.com
City, Country	Ville d'Avray (Hauts-de-Seine), France

Product information

Manufacturer	Watchful Eye Designs
URL	http://www.watchfuleyedesigns.com
MSRP	$7.79 (pack of 3)
Listed size	9" x 10" (22.86 x 25.4 cm)
Actual size	9.2" x 10.6" (23.3 x 27cm)
Weight (actual)	0.53 oz (15 g)

This report is the second in a series of three. For a complete description of the product, and my first impressions upon reception, please refer to my Initial Report.

Testing conditions

The O.P. Saks have been used during a three-day kayaking trip on the Fjord Saguenay (province of Quebec, Canada), and on a couple of day-hikes in parks of the Saguenay - Lac St Jean region; I usually put home-made beef-jerky in one of the bag, and GORP (a mix of nuts, dried berries and fruits, and M&Ms) in another. The third bag has been tested for odorproof-ness during two weeks at my cottage by a lake, in the middle of the woods. Temperatures encountered were in the 65°F-80°F (18°C-27°C) range, and weather mainly dry during my outings; however, the bag left on the deck of my cottage has been subjected to several strong showers.

Observations

I find the O.P. Saks very big; in fact they are too big for my specific uses, and I'd rather have several little bags than one of this size. For example, one O.P. Sak is about 3 times bigger than a 3.5 oz (100 g) bag of nuts (picture 1), so the nuts fill only a little part of it (picture 2), and I have to fold the bag 4 or 5 times on itself (picture 3) in order to have a convenient packet to store in backpack, pocket, drybag or whatever I want to put it in. It was the same with jerky and GORP: each time, I didn't manage to fill more than the third of the bag.

Provided I take care to close them properly, they are really airtight (see top picture) and waterproof. As I noticed some white marks made by sharp bits of food, I checked the waterproofness by trying to submerge two of them in a sink full of water, but couldn't see any air bubble coming out; I even held them in the water, trying to drown them, but the closure stood up and no water seeped in the bags.

They are not very easy to clean, as little bits of food tend to get stuck in the gap between the bag material and the closure strip (see second picture from the top, beside the product information table).

The funniest part of the test has been about the odorproof-ness of the bags. In front of my cabin, I have several bird-feeders that are "visited" all day-long by little squirrels; so I hid a handful of seeds in a paper-towel then slid it in an O.P. Sak. I put the closed bag in one corner of the deck close to the bird-feeders, in an area the squirrels go all over numerous times a day, weighted with a stone in one corner so it couldn't fly away. I let it rest there for two weeks, and never saw any critter coming close to it. They just passed by and ignored it, as it wasn't even there! At the end of the two weeks, I picked up the O.P. Sak and checked it for any tooth or claw marks, but there wasn't any; in fact, this one O.P. Sak remains the best-looking of the initial pack of 3 as it has only suffered from the weather: it has no marks due to sharp bits or rubbing as have the other two.

Provisional conclusion

On the whole, I am quite happy with the O.P. Sak:

• they proved to be really airtight and waterproof, even when I tried to weigh heavily on them
• they passed the odorproof-ness test with flying colors

However, there are two minor issues:

• the size I am currently testing is the little one, and I find it much too big
• little bits remain stuck in the lap joint between the bag material and the closure strip

I would like to thank Watchful Eye Designs and BackpackGearTest.org for giving me the opportunity to test the O.P. Saks.