Another Pack

Just a quick note, this years Mystery Ranch x Carryology collaboration is here in the form of the Dragon 2.0. I decided to go for it despite not having a lot of luck with the past two collabs, however mine is slowly making it’s way to Canada and won’t be here for over a month. I do hope to have a review up sometime after that. I quite like the decisions made on the surface. Original Dragon was a bit too large for me, around 30L (though sold as 25L which it definitely wasn’t). This one is 26, and reportedly packs smaller than that which is about right for me. I like the streamlined bottle pockets, the U shaped opening should be great and prevents the Unicorn problem where the harness interfered with the top pocket if you adjusted it to ride high. Organization seems right. The stick-it being detachable seems great, and I like how it gives the option of a more technical aesthetic vs a cleaner one. Laptop carry in these is far better than a GORUCK and these external access zippers are also ideal for that. Just seems like a good package and I kinda loved the Blitz 30 just found it a bit too big and tactical. ...

If you peruse this relatively new site you will undoubtedly notice that GORUCK dominates the content here thus far. This isn’t intentional and I don’t intend this to be a GORUCK specific site, but the company is producing an incredible number of interesting products right now that are right up my alley, so there’s a lot to talk about at the moment. ...

UPDATE: Some of these photos now appear in Evergoods Official Griffin in the Wild gallery! ...

Just a quick note that the GORUCK GR1, full 1000d with front and side molle, is about to get the much loved quick access pocket. Actually it’s technically already here, but only in hot pink. However I’ve seen screenshots of an email someone posted from GORUCK support stating that other colors, including black, are inbound within the next couple months. This is fantastic news, the quick access pocket is a massively requested and very useful feature, and for so long was only available on very expensive and rare collaboration or heritage bags. Now it’s arrived on the ripstop GR1/GR2, the two compartment Bullets, and now/soon the 1000d GR1. This continues to incidicate that GORUCK is making an effort to deliver bags a little more tailored to EDC. Looking back at what GORUCK has released in the last year or so, (the two compartment Bullet 18L, the ripstop / waxed canvas / 500d M23, the ripstop GR1 and GR2 with QAP), these are the bags I’d always wanted from them. ...

Updated: 2024-07-06 I’ve loved the GORUCK GR1 for some time, but it was always just a couple tweaks away from perfection for me. The simple design was great, but it just felt a pocket short for my life, and unquestionably 1000d is a little much for my lifestyle. The Heritage editions existed but they were expensive, made out of waxed canvas which still isn’t my favorite for outdoors, and featured no shoulder strap webbing so you can’t use a sternum strap unless you send it in for expensive modifications. Special editions of the bag came out now and then that loosely matched what I wanted, but always with weird materials, limited availability, and absurd prices. I desperately hoped that one day, GORUCK would lean just a little more into the every day carry world and make a GR1 for EDC, readily available, in a nice livable material, with the much loved QAP and shoulder webbing. ...

GORUCK is on a roll right now with this fast developing excellent lineup of everyday carry friendly packs made in 420d ripstop nylon. I believe it first appeared on the 16L and 14L laptop Bullet packs, then the 18L double compartment Bullet, and now this really neat M23. ...

Before going too far with this blog, we need to talk about the benchmarks, starting with the legendary GORUCK GR1. If you’ve found this review, you probably have a lot of questions, first and foremost why is this relatively simple backpack $330 USD? (Wait until you see the cost for the Dyneema/X-Pac/Waxed canvas versions) ...