Time for a New Travel Bag

by Robert McGarvey

Know that I am a travel bag cheapskate. I doubt I have spent over $1000 on luggage in a lifetime of travels. For the past eight years I have relied on a carryon Travelpro rollaboard that cost $85 and it has been a reliable companion but now as new travel looms I had to admit it had gotten shabby.

I had also grown annoyed with the clatter of the aging wheels and a propensity of the rolling bag to tip over when I am moving at speed.

Time for a new bag.

I had non negotiable requirements. It had to be cheap and it had to be carryon (22″ x 14″ x 9″). Otherwise I had no requirements. I have mulled this issue in print for some years and I thought my preferences were settled. Hah.

What I bought surprised even me.

I bought an Osprey Fairpoint 40 men’s bag – 40 liter capacity – and here’s the deal: no wheels but this is a backpack. Price: $137 at Amazon.

But this is not just any backpack.

A huge difference between the Osprey Fairpoint and traditional backpacks is that the latter have a big cavern where you stuff your belongings while the Fairpoint has a clamshell opening so what you have packed is immediately visible. Hunt for fresh socks with a typical backpack and you may wind up dumping everything out on a nearby bed. With the Fairpoint just unzip the thing and what you are seeking is right there.

Everything about the Osprey is well designed and thought out. “Also great,” ruled the NY Times’ Wirecutter reviewers who also point out it comes with a lifetime warranty which is surprisingly common with luggage (Patagonia, Briggs and Riley, etc.) but it nonetheless is a nice Osprey perk.

Many years ago I bought a backpack carryon on bag from a travel gear purveyor and frankly it was poorly designed junk. The load kept slipping and sliding around inside the bag as I walked (usually around an airport and a city, not up a slippery hiking trail). I soon gave it to a friend who admired the quirkiness of it but it cannot possibly have provided much useful service.

The Osprey is better designed. It is designed both to be a straightforward piece of carryon but also for a backpacker who wants a compact bag. And it even has a laptop sleeve. as well as compression straps to keep contents from shifting. There also are multiple organizational inserts for sale – such as a three cube set for $38 – that allow for customization of the storage.

Am I comfortable with a backpack? That is a good question. Many find them to be very uncomfortable and, initially, I did too.

In some years of walking and hiking around Phoenix I have grown accustomed to wearing a backpack – usually a compact Fjallraven that I have stuffed with water bottles. You don’t want to walk long distances around Phoenix without water. A backpack doesn’t bother me anymore.

Is the Fairpoint genuinely good for hiking? Probably, for serious hikers, purpose built hiking backpacks are a better option when you want to walk most of the Appalachian Trail. I have a 10 year old LL Bean AT 55 pack (60 liter capacity) which is what I would take if I decided to hike the Pacific Crest Trail. The Osprey Fairpoint – many reviewers agree – is better suited to day hikes where you will be bunking in hotels not campsites.

That’s me. I don’t plan to jam a sleeping bag and a cook stove in the Osprey and it was never designed for such loads. What I plan to use it for are light loads – under 20 pounds including an iPad – and for that weight the Fairpoint is a match. I have heard some say they crammed 40 pounds in it but, frankly, I think a well chosen expedition backpack is more appropriate for comfortably and safely lugging heavy weights.

That light weight load of the Osprey on my back is also why I think I won’t mind carrying the weight instead of rolling it. It just isn’t that much to grumble about.

Besides, in carrying my sack I will be fulfilling a half century desire to live novelist Jack Kerouac’s vision: “I see a vision of a great rucksack revolution thousands or even millions of young Americans wandering around with rucksacks, going up to mountains to pray, making children laugh and old men glad, making young girls happy and old girls happier, all of ’em Zen Lunatics who go about writing poems that happen to appear in their heads for no reason and also by being kind and also by strange unexpected acts keep giving visions of eternal freedom to everybody and to all living creatures ….”

Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums