TETON SportsTETON 55L Scout Internal Frame Backpack for Hiking, Camping, Backpacking, Rain Cover Included

After 7 years, here's my thoughts...This is an OUTDOORSMAN'S backpack. This thing is extremely well thought out for OUTDOORS usage. It has served me as a backpacking bag (doing large miles through mountains), but more so as a bush craft type bag. Walking through thick brush, setting up unconventional camps, surviving in the woods at a basecamp for a week or more. The construction is very robust. Thick nylon material, large buckles, large zippers.Let's go over why this bag is excellent for my use case...The pockets and outside straps are perfect. Need to strap some stuff to the outside? The bottom and straps will hold your tent, sleeping bag, outerwear, or collected bundle of firewood with its robust straps and buckles and the heavier fabric will absolutely not tear. I particularly enjoy setting up camp and using these straps to carry back tons of firewood in one trip. That bottom strap is occupied, because you are overloaded with gear and had to throw the tent or sleeping bag down there? Well shove your stuff behind the elastic cordage right above it or on the very top. These elastic cordages typically hold a rain jacket (or similar clothing item) or wet socks and they cinch down so no fear of losing what you got strapped on. These bungee style cord are fantastic and you get two sets of it. Need to keep things handy or generally separate from the everything else shoved inside? You got two decent sized pockets on the outside that are perfect. I use one for fire starting equipment and water purification items, and the other pocket carries extra cordage, a folding saw, and fixed blade knife. My knife/saw pocket did tear from being over stretched and abused constantly after about 4-5 years, but I sewed it back together and have had no issues since. One complaint is the two water bottle pockets are extremely small. They will fit a 1 liter smart water bottle (thinner bottle) but a nalgene is impossible. This is honestly not a huge deal for me. One pocket holds a water bottle and the other my tent poles, which loop into the top elastic loop (which is now extremely stretched out, but still works and is NOT falling apart, but elastic does naturally stretch out over time). I don't use the sleeping bag compartment zipped up so that I can have the entire inside completely open, but this feature exists if you would like. I do however use the zipper on the outside to access this lower part of the bag somewhat regularly and find it extremely useful. The dual pocket lid on top is also incredible. The inner portion holds things like toiletries and the outer portion more readily accessible items like a headlamp or anything else that needs stashing away for quick access. These four main outside pockets are truly perfect for keeping things organized. Otherwise I'd have to go fishing around inside for things like my folding saw or knife or have to pull everything out just to grab my lighter to start my butane camp stove.I am rewriting this review because I recently purchased a more expensive bag (Granite Gear Blaze 60L) to ideally replace this bag due to comfort and having more volume to take more stuff in winter time. Unloading this Teton bag and putting everything into the new fancy bag quickly showed me how usable the teton bag really is especially for outdoors use. The new bag has no outer pockets to hold saw/knife/firestarting items and I see this as a huge detriment for my intended use. The actual material of the bag is far less durable than the Teton and is more like tent rainfly material. It has a lot of outer straps but they're flimsy and mostly to be used as compression straps. Sure the water bottle pockets will hold big bottles, but smart water bottles are superior because when empty they can compress down to smaller size. Yeah it's more comfortable and will more easily carry heavier loads, but I will now be forced to separate my small items into various stuff sacks that I'll have to fish out whenever I need them.Final thoughts...If you are going to be on trail, doing miles of hiking this bag is not ideal, although it is serviceable. It is not the most comfortable or lightweight, but it is extremely durable and will last you a long time. This is a great starter bag (and as I have found, a great end game bag). You really need to evaluate your use case scenario. Overall weight, this thing kinda sucks with over 25-30 pounds for any considerable distance. What type of gear is going inside? Do you have cheaper gear that's heavier and a bit bulky or generally going to carry a good amount of weight? A bag with better straps, hip belt, and back panel may suit you better. Especially, if you're hiking a decent amount. Or do you think you can just tough it out? I have, and it works, but this bag does not stack up to more expensive bags in this area. Do you care about having multiple easy access pockets to keep certain gear separate? Do you need a bag that will withstand you bushwhacking off trail and being thrown down without care? This bag has you covered.It's hard for me to recommend this for a mostly on-trail, backpacking bag. Over time the foam in the shoulder straps has degraded which compounds on the uncomfort of carrying heavy loads. Don't get it twisted this thing will absolutely do the job (see photos), but there are better options. However, if you want a bag that you can take into the woods and survive with for a week or more, this will absolutely not let you down for many years to come. I would buy another one, but I don't need to. This thing just won't quit and I won't let it!

Great backpacking for the price, holds up well to the abuse and getting thrown around in a truck. No tears or breaks of any type so far after a good amount of multi-day trips. If you’re just getting into camping or backpacking this is a great starter option and I’d even recommend it for a budget conscious intermediate!

To start, I'm 6'1" 185 lbs and bought this pack for me for the purpose of 2-3-day back country camping trips with 5-10 mile backpack hikes through mountainous terrain, which I've been doing regularly for the past 25 years or so. I'm a bit of a minimalist, so no fancy propane stoves, lanterns, or the like for me, and i was hopeful this pack -with its advertised smaller size- might be a good fit my purposes as most packs of mine end up with a lot of empty space I don't use. I was pleased with the look out of the box. Zippers and seams appear strong, intelligent design with plenty of pouches and places to tie stuff, such as my cooking pot, on the outside. It took a little figuring to sort the straps for my height and get the waist belt resting on my hips instead of cinched around my guts. Although I manged it in a totally satisfactory way, ideally, I may be a little tall for the pack and would imagine it'd fit better if I were a few inches shorter. As far as it's size vs my wide shouldered average adult male frame, it fits wonderfully with no indication of being too small to affect mobility or add extra joint pain at the end of 5-10 mile walk through rugged terrain than any other pack would. My one struggle with the pack was attempting to fit my 10-degree mummy bag (an average adult bag you'd pay $60 for at a store) in it's stuff sack into the bottom sleeping bag compartment. There's simply no way I was gonna fit it in, and i even tried taking it out of the stuff sack to try and stuff it in the compartment alone. No go. Thankfully, the sleeping bag compartment has an internal zipper that can be opened to allow it to be joined with the main pack compartment, which i did and simply stuffed my bag and stuff sack in from the top of the main compartment with no struggle and no discomfort upon putting it on my back and walking down my road a bit. However, after adding my tent to its proper place on the outside bottom and throwing a small tarp in the pack, the space remaining is not great. Because I'm a minimalist, generally needing only plenty of socks, a hoodie, and maybe a set of thermals, I'll be fine having enough space for 3 days food and my remaining gear. I pack my water off my belt loops, so i haven't looked at the water bladder and don't intend to.So, to summarize, I wanted to write this review for anyone who might be looking at this pack for similar stuff that I do. It's price and quality are solid. And it will suit my situation wonderfully. If you want to pack a 10-piece orchestra and your entire wardrobe and stay gone for 7 days, you may want to consider something larger. Once I've gotten some use out of it, I'll hand this pack down to my 5'8" 120 lbs daughter, whom it will fit wonderfully, and buy one a bit bigger for me. Quite likely my new one will be Teton as well based on the winning balance of price vs quality of this of this pack. 4 stars is the best I can give without having spent more time punishing it outdoors.Update: I've now taken this pack on 4 trips, which included a number of miles off trail bushwhacking through brush, climbing over deadfall, and scaling rocks. The pack is handling it all fine with no signs of failure. I've used the rainfly in action and can confirm it's well designed and does its job. Over these four trips, I've become more sure that this pack is not suitable for my 6'1" height (however, i've made it work with no discomfort and only minor annoyance), so i just received Teton's Hiker 3700 today for me and gave this pack to my shorter daughter. Ratings change to 5 well deserved stars.

This a good, sturdy pack, with limitations.pros- Hefty material, solid zippers- Tons of pockets in all the usual locations- Sleeping bag access from below is great, fit my bag easily- Hydration pouch is a plus- Great capacity- Bungees on the exterior for jackets- Brain/top pocket holds a lot- Adjustment for torso lengthCons- When a tent or sleeping pad is attached to the exterior straps it gets in the way of attaching the hiking poles to the sides. Attaching poles to the sides is a must for me.- The waist belt and shoulder pads are quite stiff.- It is relatively heavy compared to more expensive/technical backpacks.- It is adjustable, but the build is not specifically designed for women.I wore this around the house fully loaded, and made multiple adjustments to the straps and size. I like the pack (love the color) but ultimately needed something lighter and more comfortable for very long backpacking in tough mountain conditions. I think it would be great for moderate overnight backpacking, especially if you are not trying to optimize every ounce of weight.Men might find this pack perfect. I also think it would be great for backpack traveling. I opted to spring for an Osprey because it fit my needs better.