I have a bit of a fetish for daypacks and, as such, I’ve become quite particular about what I like and what annoys the heck out of me. That’s why I was so excited to try out my new Osprey Raptor 14 on a recent trip to Zion National Park. With temperatures pushing 100°F, hikes lasting hours and the air as dry as a bone, it’s incredibly important that you have the right supplies and that you’re comfortable throughout your time on the trails.
Osprey packs always feature impeccable construction and the Raptor 14 is no different. It feels indestructible. The reservoir is held snug and I never felt any sloshing around when I was hiking. The Raptor series utilizes Osprey’s AirScape suspension system, which helps distribute weight evenly and allows for airflow so that your back doesn’t become a sweaty mess.
Osprey’s Raptor 14 Hydraulic hydration pack is impressive because it has a collection of unique, well thought out features, notables being the wedge-shaped 100oz Nalgene Hydraform bladder and Airscape Suspension system.
Hydraulics refers to the bladders ability to remain flat against your body, even when filled thanks to a rigid rear panel that’s sculpted to conform to the shape of your back in the cycling position. The front side of the bladder has a plastic carrying handle that performs three functions: it protects the lower half of the drinking tube so it’s always in an optimized flow position free of pinching, it acts as a secondary support to retain the bladders shape and insure that perfect fit and also aid in filling by providing structure and a handhold. Add in Nalgene’s contamination resistance and you have one of the most effective, easy to use bladders available.
Airscape is a mesh outer covering on the back of the pack to keep direct contact to a minimum and provide a degree of cooling. By positioning the weight of the pack slightly off your back Osprey was able to add rigidity to the pack’s basic structure without affecting overall comfort and fit. This rigidity matched to the design of the bladder makes it exceptionally easy to pull out and put back the bladder in it’s compartment even if the pack itself is stuffed full of gear and food.
Just the features mentioned above make this one of the best designed and most comfortable hydration packs available but attention to detail in the pockets themselves make the Raptor 14 that much more impressive.
A quick switch of clothing and equipment, and the day turned from mountain biking to mountain hiking, with the bonus of a picnic at the summit becoming part of the new plan. We’d picked up some local cheese and paté and put them in our cooler for an evening appetizer; instead, they were pressed into service as a decadent lunch, along with some of our usual traveling bag of food. The Osprey Raptor 14 hydration pack that I’d been trying out is larger than the typical MTB pack, and was able to handle our lunch easily. That’s actually pretty impressive for an MTB pack; our lunches aren’t exactly starvation rations! So, in short order we were headed up the trail. And, I do mean up.
The Raptor 14 is a great long haul pack for an all day adventure on your favorite single track. Stretch woven side pockets with InsideOut™ compression provide versatile gear carry options, while a large zippered front pocket with dedicated compartments for bike tools keeps essentials handy. 3-liter HydraForm™ Reservoir Included. Colors available: Silt Gray, Spruce Green, Sand Gold.
To prepare for and finish the Speight’s Coast to Coast, a 151-mile adventure race down under, my relay partner (and wife) Mary and I faced two broad challenges and scores of little ones when it came to gear.
For one thing we were complete novices at two of the sports (road racing on bikes, whitewater kayaking), and we were about to get a re-education on the third (running). So we needed to borrow, purchase, and gain a basic competence with a lot of gear we didn’t already own.
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Buy a hydration pack just big enough (25 liters) to fit the mandatory first-aid gear and extra clothing layers for the 21-mile mountain run. Go even smaller by ditching the hydration bladder and drinking from streams as locals do. (As a rule, you do not want to drink from streams near livestock, campgrounds or industry.) For the race, my wife, Mary, opted for the Mountain Hardwear Fluid 26 ($100). For longer training runs, she swears by the Osprey Raptor 14 (right; $99). I found that there’s no hydration pack that fits my torso that well. If I cinched the shoulders, the hip belt ended up squeezing my diaphragm. If I loosened the shoulders and cinched the hip, the pack banged against my shoulder blades. And so I came around to something I swore I’d never be: a waist-pack guy. For runs over 8 to 10 miles or longer, I carry water, snacks, mobile phone, ID in an Osprey Talon 4 (below; $54), a sturdy belt that easily carries up to 240 cubic inches(room for a shell, even nano-puff jacket), and two quart/liter water bottles. Just don’t call it a fanny pack; the preferred terms are hip or lumbar pack.
Get on the water: Log time in a sea kayak or, ideally, a “long boat,” such as the Sisson Evolution, the kind you’ll want to rent/race in New Zealand. Get used to cycling in a pack: Drop by your local bike shop and ask, “So, when’s ‘the ride’?
The main attraction in West Virginia’s Valley Falls State Park is the rushing water over the sandstone ledges of the Tygart Valley River forming several waterfalls. The park also boasts exhilarating singletrack mountain biking along its 18-miles of trails. A mountain biker will take on rock gardens and stream run-offs and pump through steep ascents.
A mountain bike ride through Valley Falls State Park will dehydrate a biker quickly, and a hydration pack such as the Osprey Raptor 14 is designed for longer mountain bike rides. The Osprey Raptor 14 along with the other hydration packs in the Raptor series will be available at retailers in mid February of 2010.
