Hi guys. I'm JK.
And this is Jeremiah Stringer. A man who looks just like his
voice sounds. This is the backpacking podcast
episode 3. Yeah.
And today we're gonna talk about gear.
Yes. I want to talk about gear.
That's right. So kind of what I'd like to talk
about today. Um, the Essential piece of gear.
You can own as a Backpacker, is obviously a backpack in the
night and so exactly. So I would kind of like to talk
about the backpack evolution of each of us a little bit.
Yeah. Just a good just kind of here.
You know what has been your journey with backpacks and is
there something you're looking to pick up in the future?
So why don't you want you to kick us off?
And then I'll come in a little bit later and talk about mine.
Okay. Let's start with what was my
very, very first. Backpack in probably and I'm not
talking about in first grade, which you took to go to school.
Like LL. Be yeah.
Mine was an LL. Bean was like the pillow LL
Braun or somebody like whatever the Kmart version not Walmart.
We weren't good enough for Walmart.
It was Kmart. Well I'm talking about back
packing backpacks. Here you go.
And I'm talking about this one was full on full frame heavy.
I think this is a Gregory actually which isn't a bad
bringing my first was a gregory. No.
I think Mom was Mountain
mountain near. What's the brand that you can
get at like Dunham's or dicks? Or, or even wall Mountain Smith?
Is it? No, it's not now Smith.
What's the Walmart brand? There's the Outdoor Products.
It may have been that man. Here's the story.
So basically I'm a teacher and I wanted to go on a backpacking
trip. In the short is I'll need a
backpack so I started asking the kids.
Do any on know anything about backpacking and one kids like
yeah I went out to Colorado last summer.
Oh no. Nice really.
Well, tell me about it. We had an offer to go to
Colorado United. Yes, that's maybe for another
time but go ahead. All right, well, hop into that.
Some other towns were terrible at changing the subject.
I don't know so bad. Okay, go ahead.
Well anyway, Ethan is kid's name.
So shout out to you because you're probably not listening
this. But if you are, thank you for
what? Hey man, thank you for letting
me his mom's actually my veterinarian to oh, that's cool.
That's cool. Now, skewed.
So he let me borrow this Backpack.
And it was a cheap backpack, I think it's 95 L.
And I know you almost put your coffee out of the ninety five
liters, It was 95. Leave you carrying a high
schooler with you. I'm I could have fit him in
there very easily. Yeah.
Do you so he's just it was a cheap backpack and I borrowed it
and it worked out fine. It was enough to carry all 65
pounds than I needed to bring with me and I moved on from
there and borrowed. Somebody else's backpack.
The next trip. So Luke he's actually one of my
neighbors and I was like dude, you know about backpacking
stuff. I saw some of his pictures and
his parents like missionaries and Indonesia or something.
I don't know. Okay.
And they he done a lot of backpacking growing up.
Yeah, stuff. So he let me borrow his backpack
which I think was the Gregory. Okay.
Or some some name brand that you get like, REI, Great and full
frame still heavy and I remember, I felt so bad.
I Something on it. Yeah, I know and they take every
year that guy. I know my quilts going to come
back. Okay.
Do don't open it. Did you burn?
You burn holes in my quilt. He let me borrow his underquilt
never quote for my hammock, so don't don't don't open with you.
As long as the Scheels were showing you how to use stuff.
I'll be okay with it that dude, I can't listen, Andy, I know I'm
just kidding. Maybe Andy didn't hear that last
episode I highly doubt he's watching this.
I highly doubt. He's watching this.
So anyway That backpack. He got it, fixed for free.
So, we were good. And then, I actually finally
bought my own backpack and my own backpack.
I've actually reviewed on YouTube already.
You see that blood? Yeah, smart go necks that now
let's not go cakes. It was not gonna go.
Oh my gosh, the means. Yeah so it was an osprey at most
65 litre which is the perfect size to fit all the clothing
than I need from a Winterhawks. Right?
Seriously and it He's like four to five pounds with the brain,
which is pretty heavy in my opinion.
And now I'm transitioning into a frameless because actually Jason
helmandollar who is also a backpacking YouTuber.
Yeah. He let me borrow a UL.
A backpack that was completely frameless.
And I tried that too hides. The CDT I can't remember if it's
a CD t or circuit. Maybe, I don't circuit the
circuits frame sides, it's By the CDT, all these, she dtn.
But he let me borrow that we went to Trail days and then hike
from Damascus, to Grayson Highlands to see the little
ponies and that was my first experience with a frameless
backpack. And so I was like, oh that's
really cool but I don't think I can use this in the winter
because I take one right, right? Right Shaw and all that.
So fast forward, I've been using that Osprey.
I've used it on multiple through hikes, which I guess you can put
quotes around because they weren't thousands of miles but
still, huh? It's, I put hundreds of miles on
it through hike, man. And and now I'm transitioning
into for warmer weather where I don't have to take as much a
frameless and actually shout out to Tom Baker, who we met at the
Michigan hammock cane. Super cool guy.
And he watched one of my videos and I talked to him at the
hammock kang-hee, watch one of my videos a little later on and
he was like, dude he shot me a message.
I know that you're talking about how heavier off.
Osprey is because to me it's heavy and it's 45 pounds.
Yeah, I mean that's a heavy backpack.
He's like dude, I'll just make these for fun sometimes.
Why don't you let me send you one and it's made out of dyneema
and he's like, my my backpack. No hip belt.
But it's got, you know, shoulder straps on it over their shoulder
straps to be in trouble. If it doesn't, it's got good.
Good padding in my opinion strap, where are you Over
something fanny pack man. Fannypack fannypack just a giant
fanny pack. It's a 65 litre.
Fanny pack in my defense where I was going with.
That was shoulder. Straps are nicely padded.
Oh, there you go. There you got the recovery.
That's good recovery because you totally messed up.
I know. I know rewind.
So he sent me that and I absolutely loved it, but I was
like, dude, I'm gonna keep it real with you.
I can't really use it much besides day hiking in the
Wintertime like I won't be able to use it so he sent it to me
not too long ago. And I've used it 4 or 5 times
they hiking. And like if I'm car camping
going to do today, I think I've seen enough think I've seen you
using some of your videos to. Yeah, it's got, its got one
sleeve on the back like a mesh back pocket and it what I
absolutely love have you had a backpack with a bottom pocket.
Like how man I love those. I'll I've got to.
I've got a day pack that has that that's my lungs or put my
water bottle to easiest thing in the world is and Reese's cups.
I think that their design Reese's Cups, these cups.
So anyway, that's my backpacking.
Backpack, Evolution not the LL Bean backpack, actual
backpacking backpack, and I'm looking hopefully soon to have
Tom here. Here's his idea.
Okay, just full disclosure, he said, I'm going to send you one
that I've already made. It's like 14 oz done.
I was like, wow, that's a lot lighter than four pounds.
That's a lot later. I'll whole lot.
You know, think about All all like, all the other crap that I
could bring the makeup that wait, that's where my mind, he
thought of this. But you forget, like the weight
limit on our on those to know and it doesn't have a hip belt.
So you have to keep it light. Anyway, point being full
disclosure, he just said, I'll send you one that fits my body
type. He's quite a bit shorter than I
am and he's like, you get a feel for it, you tell me what you
like, what you don't like and I'll make one that will fit your
body frame. Better because he's making it
himself like showing it and everything, right, right?
So he's going to send me that I assume I'll talk to you more and
see if he'll send it to me whenever the weather warms up
and I get to use his more and actually take it out and do full
testing. Yeah, I did get to take it out
one time like, overnight or during one of those winter, 60
degrees. Right?
Yeah, that's what is awesome. So, and you know that, you know,
the pox itani fill that is the name right, the groundhog.
He Didn't see a shadow, man, it's mean Springs coming, that's
right, it's Prime backpacking Seasons almost here, man.
That's right. Well, tell me about your
backpacking Evolution. Okay, so back that we're going
to, we're going to go back way back.
It's like 2002 and I was a youth minister in Cynthiana Kentucky.
And one of my youth group kids, he was a senior in high school
and he was big in the backpacking.
Yeah, big into it. I mean, he had all kinds of
really Gear and he was hey man, let's go camping sometime.
I'm like, all right, I'm down, I'm down for anything so I won't
do what everybody does and I went to Dick's Sporting Goods
and I bought the biggest 10 I could possibly buy because you
know, Lord knows you need a huge tent to be able to stand up in.
It will write, you gotta hope the four person tent for two
people to sleep in that weighs 15, 20 pounds.
And so, I bought this massive tent and I didn't have a
backpacking. So I got a backpack.
I'll sell it to you for like 20 bucks flag and no, no, I'm
thinking back then not for me like that.
And I'm like, who twenty dollar hit backpack.
What kind is? He goes?
Is my favorite band, dudes, a Gregory Gregory.
I'm like, I'm like Gregory. Tell me about it.
And, so, we're talking about, I guess.
He's like, he Osprey, Osprey sucks.
And he's like, going through this whole thing about other
backpack, Brands and kelty's awful, and all this stuff fast
forward, a few years, I have a Kelty in a, in an osprey right
now, but but I'm like, sure, I'll take it.
And this thing was just basically a big sock with a
bunch of stuff to lash on the back of it.
I mean, it might as well. I've been a rucksack.
You know, that's kind of the way this thing was it have hip belt?
Yeah, yeah. Had hip belt had a hip belt,
very minimal backpack. It's a matter of fact, I could
fit the tent in it. Four person tent, that's it.
Nothing else wanted. Hey, you just wrapped everything
else. Like I had a I got a was, like,
all I'm thinking is, I can go to Walmart and buy all the gear.
Yeah. You know, because it's cheap at
Walmart. So, I go to Walmart and I buy
this like self inflatable sleeping pad.
Genius, brilliant, right? It's only five pounds, that's
not bad. So eyelash that onto the back of
it. I go by a sleeping bag and I buy
the Walmart 50 degree sleeping bag that's like flannel on the
inside. You know what I'm talking about.
I've still got that sleeping bag.
I'm a only bust that out sometime for a car camping trip.
But I mean, you pack that thing down, it was massive.
And so, I had, I took like, yellow shoe, strings, and I tied
that down real good in time, then, Back.
Tied it to the back of my of my backpack.
And yeah so this basically I just had most everything I
brought with me tied to the back of the backpack and a tent
inside of it. Now that was to 2002.
Yeah man, I bet you don't have a picture of it, did you?
I don't know man. We didn't have cell phones cell
phones back, then we did not take good pictures so nobody
ever use a cell phone for picture.
If they did if you try to put them like make it bigger, it
would look like Super Mario Brothers.
I mean it was just like Terrible photography.
So, but so fast forward now. Like obviously I didn't enjoy
it. So I have this 20 dollar Gregory
backpack which I still have. I still have the backpack?
Good friend, isn't it? Yeah, I figured I was gonna let
you borrow it. If you ever need a backpack,
let's stick with the gun but, uh, but uh, but yeah.
So so fast forward to 2015 and I'm planning for Kilimanjaro and
so I read all the stuff Furnaces you need something between a 30
and a 50 liter backpack for the walk up and back and you've got
to bring him up, you know, food and clothes and you'd bring
water and all this kind of stuff.
And so I got a, an osprey Stratos 50, that's popular pack.
It was actually a really nice back.
I still really nice backpack, as a matter of fact, I might be
using it for my winter trip coming up just because I can
hold a lot of stuff in it. Yeah.
For and it's got that nice air vent in the back.
Yeah I like that. So I use that for Jarro and they
also said you're going to want you know 25 L or less day pack.
When we go on the Safari and new backpack.
Yeah. So so I bought a Kelty like I
can't remember the name of it. Those are frameless healthy day
pack. Yeah I was frameless.
No, there's no frame or anything but I was nicely padded and was
just a little backpack and had the pocket on the underside like
you're talking about, always keep my water bottle there.
I still use it when I Day hike. Like, if I'm doing day hikes,
I'll just pull up that Kelty and I'll use that because it's so
light and it's so small Small, it's easy for what I'm doing,
but I'll take that with me. I've still got that one.
And then in 2017, me and a buddy decide we're going to hike
shelter, we trace and still, I start doing some studying and
realizing that my Osprey backpack weighs almost four
pounds, you know, three pounds 11 ounces, I think is what it
weighed. That's the bad part and I was
just like man, it that's heavy. That's going to add like two
extra pounds to my back that I could potentially pull off if I
get something. Else.
Are you take food? Yeah, or you can eat.
Yeah, so so I decided not to eat and keep the backpack.
Know, if you're looking at me right now on camera, you're
probably like you could have gone without, he knows, but
anyway, so so I decide to go do some research and so I look at Z
packs and I'm like, man, these are cool, but they are freaking
expensive. I can't afford that and start
looking at other things. And then I'm on the backpacking
gear flea market on. On Facebook.
Really cool group on Facebook because they sell a lot of used
gear. It's a Marketplace website.
Sure. Yeah.
And there's a guy on there, talking about this company
called Ula that, I had no idea who they were, but all these
people were singing the Praises of Ula.
And at that point, I'd started watching videos by these
YouTubers. And one of them was Shug Emory,
and if you've watched Shug, he only uses Ula backpacks and Shug
like an OG man like it shut using stuff.
You should pay attention because do knows what he's doing.
And so I see that and then I'm, I noticed that syntax 77 him and
his wife, both have these backpacks called Ula ohm 2.0.
Xym like, Basic Shug in syntax are using you, LA's something to
it now and then there's this dude named Jason backpacking
with Jason. This, this country guy that I
never met before, and he's using a Ula circuit.
And I'm going, okay, I maybe I need to check out this Ula
stuff. So I contact this rep of theirs
and I start talking to him about the backpack, in his know
listening because if you order through me, he goes, you can't
do this on the website. If you order through me, I can
get you the backpack in this material called X-Pac.
And he's like, it's a lightweight material, but it's
really water resistant. He said, but it's super sturdy.
It's really, it's a little more sturdy than your typical nylon.
It doesn't rip as easy and stuff like that.
I'm like, okay, talk to me some more about it.
So he's telling me everything because if you buy the backpack
through me, we can customize it to any colors you want.
You can see all the stuff. I'm like, really like, what's
the catch? Yeah, I go.
What is the catch? He goes what I mean.
Customization will cost a little more in here little cost.
And I had a very specific And he was able to give me exactly what
I wanted to five dollars under my budget.
Give me a number man. Give me a ballpark.
How much my spending With mind being fully customized.
Yeah. Was like 250 bucks or tall.
You make me look student. My Osprey was more than that.
Yeah, so just off the rack. Yeah, and so so I was like,
dude, I'm in. I'm in 100%.
Yeah, man, because I think my budget was like 270.
Yeah. And he kept like, between 250
and to 65, or something like that.
So, with shipping and all that, you know, all that stuff.
And so I got that backpack and weighed 2 pounds.
So, I went from 38 pounds, 11 ounces, 22 pounds, like that,
and completely customized. We were talking and he goes, he
goes, he goes, are you big guy? Are you a skinny guy?
So, well, not a skinny guy and he goes.
Then let me tell you don't get your regular J straps, get S
traps. He said, you should have two
women get, you know, because they're built different than
men. They just fit a more
comfortably, but he got me about them because, because, as a big
guy, as a big guy fits better too, because it fits more on
your side. Okay.
So, it hugs, your side, and Your front and Jay straps with guys
that are bigger in the front, kind of like, I am guys, like me
that are more heavy those those J straps kind of Bulge out a
little bit and get uncomfortable and they rub funny on you.
And so, he told me which straps to get, I did what exact I did
everything exactly the way he said, and he was 100% right
across the board on every bit of it.
So that was my next backpack. Was that Ula home 2.0?
Yeah. Well, let's fast forward now to
and I use that on the entire shell tight race.
How'd it work? Yeah.
Amazingly it's My go to every time I go out, what's the leader
capacity? It's 50 and do you think it's
true 50? No.
Yeah, I think she thinks bigger than that.
Okay, I actually think it's bigger than that.
I know they use different standards now, this thing's
massive. I mean, I can put so much in it,
and, I mean, you've actually worn it.
Yeah, yeah. And so it's, you seen how big
the inside of it is. Yeah.
I mean, it's not quite as big as your 65 but it shouldn't be
everything that gear swap. Yeah.
Yeah, it's still a funniest thing in the world, but, uh, so
so fast forward now, To this past November, I believe and
backpacking. Gear, flea markets, doing a
sticker raffle. You buy a pack of stickers.
You get entered into a raffle. Yeah, and I always, I always do
it. So I want the stickers.
Anyways, the stickers are kind of fun and also, you get a
chance, you could win some really cool stuff.
So I was like, I think I'm gonna do it.
Sure. And so I put the money in
waited. When they came up with the
numbers, I had one a backpack and I won my choice of either a
you Ula CDT or a photon. And those are there to frameless
packs and I never had a frameless pack before every
backpack I've ever. Had have been framed and I'd
gone from fully framed Osprey, Stratos to semi frame Dome 2.02.
Now, I own a Ula CDT frameless and that thing is totally
tricked-out. I mean, tell me about it.
What's it look like? Okay, so, When you win, he
basically says, you can get any colors you want, you can get it
with any features you want, that kind of thing.
So me being who I am, I kind of feel.
I'm just gonna push the envelope and see how far I can take this,
you know? Just like I mean I mean they can
always tell me, no, it's not going to complain about
something that I won, you know what I mean?
So I'm like, I'm just going to trick this thing out.
So I got on you, LA's website, and they have a customizer.
And so I went on there, I customized every square inch of
that backpack. Don't know where the On isn't to
step across. That's right.
You, you don't get in trouble.
I mean the worst they could say is no, is my opinion so hurt
anybody. Exactly, so so I tricked this
thing as far as I can take it and I send it back to this guy
and he sends me back. This message and goes, man, he
goes That's really cool. Looking, I don't think we can do
all that, man. I don't think we can do all that
and I'm like well, it's cool. I mean, if you can't just get it
close. Sure.
And so he sends me a message like the next day.
He's like, man, there are a lot of people at one, these
backpacks, so it might be a while.
So I was just like, well dude just make my last, I mean it's a
frameless pack. I'm not going to use it till
spring anyways, for, you know, like you were saying earlier,
you don't really use a frameless pack in the winter time
typically because they don't have the same weight capacity as
a frame pack. So I just kind of I just like
just save me for last man. Just get everybody else done.
I got all the time in the world. No worries.
Nice guy na. Yeah, na.
I mean, if I needed it next week, I said, get on mine now.
Ha ha ha. But no, I just, I was like, I
just want to hold off and then all of a sudden, one day of the
backpack shows up, just end it. Yeah.
Just like two weeks ago, like, you know, from November to like
the middle of January, but the pack just shows up and it's
Italy, tricked out the way I had designed it.
What did that feel like, - one little feature.
What's the feature? They made it better than what I
wanted. Oh, so like, so what I did is I
took there's several different kinds of camo designs and I
picked the kryptek camo. And I got it in like a gray
kryptek, which is really cool-looking design.
And I've got some like red accents, like the two back,
pockets are red. It's got the black pocket on the
back and then did some red Accents in the straps, on the
front got Pockets. And then I want black on the
inside of the strap and a couple other things and I was just
going to go with the cheaper fabric on the back.
Like right where my back rests on the backpack?
No they kept the kryptek going dude.
So like they use the expensive fabric there too now what is and
okay? It's an EX pack.
Okay. It's like a really high-end
X-Pac like the best way I can explain it.
It feels like a fully taped fabric, like, you know, when a
backpack is taped like when they tape Backpacks or fanny packs.
And you get that clear almost plastic-looking area, where
they've taped it, the entire inside of the fabric.
Looks like that, that make it waterproof, I don't know, but it
has to be pretty dang close. And usually on on X-Pac, you can
see that diamond shape through the fabric you can't on this.
It's super sturdy. Not probably is a lot heavier
because of it. Well, but my guess is too
though, because of that, it could probably hold a little
more weight problem and it's Probably be able to take a
beating and probably more durable and I'll be shocked if
it's not almost completely waterproof just from just from
looking at the material so I can't wait to get it out in the
spring but it's frameless. And like I said I got it for 20
bucks because I heard that but I think yeah you know.
So I got $20 those, My First backpack was a twenty dollar
Gregory and this is my twenty dollar Ula.
So dude let me tell you well there's one more oh hit me with
it. Hit me with.
Now this this is often the future.
I've been talking with Ben from Hilltop packs for a while Greg
and and he makes that Raven backpack.
Yeah and I really got my eye on one of those.
It looks really cool. If y'all haven't seen it on the
Instagram, go check out his Instagram.
If you fully customizable like yes, down to you design with the
fabric looks like like you could put your face the shield
brothers face bags. Yeah, you know, you could do a
face pack, dude, like, like, like a one of those Like a woven
bag, top fabric, I'll sing my Cuban seed or some.
See my plan is to put Dan Becker's face on mine.
That's what I would do, man. I mean, maybe he'd pay you to do
that. No, I'm just doing it for free
because I just dance dance. Having a rough time with getting
Subs. You know, people aren't watching
his videos. So about me, I'm trying to hook
him up, you know, get some views for him and stuff.
So you told you now see that's I look out for my friends, you
know, so I'm gonna get Dan's face on my backpack and then on
the other side, I want to put Jason Wang there because he
makes a good Take yeah. So but now I'm working with him.
My point, you know, this I've been fighting weight loss for a
while, Liam, so I've kicked that up quite a bit recently, and I
lost about 10, 15 pounds, congratulations.
But I need to lose. I want to lose about another 70,
80 pounds. Yeah.
After that, and talk to Ben about that.
And so, when I lose the weight, I'm gonna be ordering a backpack
from been to have that. Just because I want to try the
dyneema backpack. Sure, I've heard pluses and
negatives, Darwin just did a video on it recently, talking
about how loud it is because the fabric makes that squeaky noise.
So I'm interested to try that out and see how it goes.
So that's, I've gone from the Gregory to swing all the way to
the Future, potentially getting that dyneema pack from Hilltop
packs. Now, in all seriousness, have
you have any idea what pattern if you have it printed on what
pattern would you go with? And please don't tell me.
It's a Ohio State. Well, I mean, it's gonna be red.
And now it's not going to be red and gray.
Are you kidding me? Like, do you know me?
I know you too. Well, I guess it's exactly
right. But it's still gonna be a face
on it. I tried to give you the out,
man. Now, there's no help needed.
No, I need it. I'm proud.
All right, man, you guys believe blue, like aliens, I bleed red
like an American. So start, bro.
That's darling Scarlet. Don't send me your emails about
which sports teams. You like I'm just joking if you
like Ohio State that's On you, I almost wore my Ohio state happy
because but I didn't because we're friends.
Yeah. But uh good we're still friends.
So are there any backpacks your eye in the future?
Well, I want to take a step back because I forgot 10, whenever I
before I bought the Osprey, I'll tell you what I did.
I went yard saling. I thought, I know where I can
buy good backpack, yard sales and I assume the yard sale.
All over the US. You think I'm right?
Oh yeah, I seen so, I don't know.
I know in Kentucky, we have like one giant yard sale, 127 yard
sale mmm and it's just Miles and Miles yard sales in one weekend.
Anyway, I was driving around the county that I live in Saturday
morning. Eight am looking at yard sales
stopped at a few and I stumbled upon a backpacking backpack.
Whoa, it's looking back. I'm like, man.
There was almost zero chance that I would have found one and
I'll tell you what it was. When I say frame, I mean
external frame. Oh yeah.
Did the Kelty external thing. I have it in the garage.
Actually I took my buddy Derek out whenever I don't know it was
warmer weather. We went to Cumberland Falls,
which you pass on the show too each race and he used that
external frame backpack. I've actually never worn it out
on the trail, but I bought it and then when I bought it, I
paid two dollars for it. Hmm.
That's a good buy. That's what I'm saying.
So, he got the He strapped quite a bit to the outside of it, too.
Oh yeah. It looked like a Boy Scout man.
I was like, he's more of like, a survivalist, like Bushcraft type
deal. So, anyway, that was probably
the cheapest backpack that I've ever bought the Kelty, external
frame. And actually, my wife's dead.
He prefers the external frame. There's a lot of guys like
old-timey. Backpackers a love that stuff
retro. Yeah.
Well dude, this has been
awesome. This is Been awesome.
That's Flume. And I flew by fast.
We're done already. Yeah.
Can you believe that dude. That's insane.
I enjoyed it. I hope so.
But looking forward to getting on to episode number four here
real soon. I know we've been talking and
we've got some potential guests, starting to show up on this
thing. Yes, I think so, we got some
stuff in the works and if you didn't know, you can actually
watch this online as right pecking podcast YouTube channel.
That's right. So, if you want to see JK's,
beautiful face, or my ugly mug, You can watch.
That's the truth. So until next time.
Thanks for tuning in to the backpacking podcast.
I'm JK This is Jeremiah have a good one.
Adios.