Sea to Summit 50L Big River Dry Backpack
The brand-new Sea to Summit 50L Big River Dry Backpack just arrived at my door. I was excited to see it because I’ve been looking for a lightweight 40-to-50-liter portage pack for canoeing. I’ve written about my dream portage pack before. The 50L Big River Dry Backpack fits the bill.
Description
The Big River Dry Backpack is a 50-liter pack that weighs 26 ounces. It’s made of a beefy 420D nylon that’s bonded to a TPU lining. This gives the exterior good abrasion, tear and puncture protection while providing a waterproof construction. The TPU lining is bright white which makes the interior of the pack nice and bright for packing and finding gear. The pack closes with a roll-top closure that you can secure over the top or with two straps attached to daisy-chain along the side. The daisy-chains are big enough to work as grab handles, too.
The shoulder straps and waist belt are minimal. The straps are an ergonomic EVA foam with load lifters. The waistbelt is a 1.5-inch nylon webbing that’s easily removable.
It comes in two colors: black and orange. It measures 23.9 x 13.6 x 11.2 inches. and you can clean it with soap and water.
Big River Dry Backpack Initial Impressions
I quickly loaded all my camping gear (link to LighterPack if you want to see what I’m using), plus a BearVault BV500 Journey Bear Canister, which fits seven to ten days of food for a solo paddler. Even though I wasn’t careful with packing and tossed in a few extra items, everything fit with room to spare. When using lightweight backpacking gear, it’s surprising how spacious 50 liters is.
After carrying it around the house for 30 minutes I started adding weight — literally I added dumbbell weights. As I’d expect with a frameless pack, 25 to 30 pounds was at the limit without using a sleeping mattress to form a frame. I’ll experiment with this as I get more familiar with the Big River Dry Backpack. With ten days of food, I’d be somewhere near that upper limit at the start of any trip. I’d be perfectly happy with that.
The only thing that I thought was missing was an exterior water bottle sleeve, so I surfed over to Garage Grown Gear and picked up a Water Bottle Sleeve from Trekker Joe’s. It can be attached to the daisy-chains on either the shoulder straps or the side of the pack. It holds a 1-liter SmartWater bottle (link to Amazon so you can see what it looks like) that you can buy at any convenience store.
I suspect this will be my portage pack for the next couple of years, and I’m looking forward to using it more. I’ll report back after the lakes thaw.
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