Woodlife Trails

I’ve been waiting for a while but at last it’s here! Probably the first major upgrade to my kit that I’ve made. I’ve been keeping my eyes out for a new rucksack to replace my cheapy Eurohike 55 litre. I found that during the bushmoot in August, I had a bit of a struggle getting all my kit in. Now that winter is just around the corner, I could envisage that I would need even more room, so I’ve been keeping an eye out for another bag.

I nearly went for one of the Highlander sacks. They are pretty cheap but there’s only a 66 or 88 litre. I’ve always wanted a Karrimor either a 75 or 60-100 but the prices have been prohibitive (£130-£150 for a Sabre 75). Keeping an eye out on ebay, I saw my chance for a Karrimor Sabre 75. This one also had the 2 x 15 litre side pouches thrown in as well. These retail at about £36 on their own. I put my bids in in the vain hope that I might win. Imagine my surprise when I did win it and at only £89!

It was going to come from France, and again I was a bit dubious, but the lady selling it kept up great communication and emailed me when it was on the way. When it arrived, I was astonished that it had obviously rarely been used and even smelt new!

So here it is. I decided to put on the side pouches immediately and will probably leave them in. This potentially puts the capacity to over 100 litres if needed. The side compression straps keep the pouches in check and if they’re not being used, you can compress the bag to a very narrow size, in fact narrower than the Eurohike.

Opening up the side pouches and loosening the compression straps makes main area of the sack like a cavern! The carrying straps and hip belt are all padded as you would expect, and there’s a nice lumber pad. There’s no back length adjuster, but by playing with the various tension straps, you can get the bag to sit very comfortably on hips and shoulders. The lid has a large capacity as well and Karrimor obviously know that users would want to access this quickly. There’s ample room for first aid kit, waterproofs, fleece hat, face towel and a few emergency provisions.

The whole thing is very robust and should last a good while. It looks good with a double ‘chain’ running down the front of the sack and a few extra hanging loops. And…what’s this? A hidden zip pocket running all the way down the front of the rucksack. What will go in there? It’s very narrow…aha! The Granfors SFA fits in there a treat. This bag is just made for bushcraft and as you can probably tell, I’m extremely happy so far.

The test is in the loading and first of all, I checked whether the Vaude Ferret tent fitted in the main compartment. No problem there. Next I did a full load out for a week to ten day trip. There was still room for some more kit; however, I did sling the sleeping bag on the lower hanging straps. The bag was, of course, pretty heavy but it felt comfortable and well balanced.

Off to the woods then even though it looked like a downpour was imminent. On the way I came across a couple of Lapwings making use of the puddles on the ground. I set up the tarp and hammock and only just had time to play with another new toy (more about that later) before the heavens opened. Nothing to do now other than sit the rain out and have some soup. Unfortunately, the rain didn’t stop and didn’t look like it was going to, so I packed up and headed home. , I noticed as when I was at the bushmoot that the bottom of the hammock was wet. I traced this down to the hammock lines. I have heard that this happens in torrential rain and must think of a couple of ways to keep the hammock dry. Metal drip rings spring to mind. I will have to look at this at a later date.

The main purpose of the excursion was to test out the rucksack. So far a resounding success. Would I have paid out the full price for one? Having tried one out, I think I would have. What I didn’t realise was that far from being a major expedition rucksack, it compresses down small enough to be used as a weekend rucksack.

I’ll post again in a couple of days time. More kit?! You bet! Thanks for reading.