ttljournal | trough the lens journal

In my never ending quest to find a perfect week long pack I just got Arcteryx Naos 70 from REI. It all started just over a year ago with Osprey Crescent 85 which I tried in San Jacinto and it didn't work out -- the belt was too stiff and slippery so it kept slipping off my hips. I then purchased Arcteryx Bora 80 in regular and took it to Alaska -- it was a nice pack with a good fit although at times I felt it was a bit too tall for me and the velcro straps that secure water carriers kept popping out every time I put the pack down on the ground. Next it was Bora 65 in short -- I don't know what I was thinking when I ordered it because it was just too short for me. Then I tried Arcteryx Needle 55 -- the hip belt felt weird and extremely uncomfortable, I was really disappointed because I really like my Needle 45. Next I went back to Bora 80 in short -- I just felt that I should give a short version a try -- mistake -- it's just too short for my torso. Then I almost re-purchased Bora 80 in regular but they are no longer made in Canada so that's what brought me to Naos 70.

Without wasting any time I took it for a test run to the Temescal Canyon Trail loop. The loop is ~ 3.5 miles and if you swing by "Skull Rock" it makes it 4.7 miles. Typically we go for the longer route but this time we were running a bit late and decided to take a shorter 3.5 mile loop -- good for me because I've loaded the pack to the max -- total of 49.8 pounds. I didn't even know it's weight until I got back home and decided to find out what was killing me on the trail! Between the BearVault BV450 and the 2 gallons of water in MSR Dromedary Bag it was over 20 pounds of "heavy" weight in there.

In the beginning of the hike I kept fiddling with the setup to make sure the pack didn't slide down my hips but eventually I found a sweet spot by carefully cinching the shoulder straps down and keeping an eye on the hip belt. The key to comfort is to carry the weight on your hips and to use your shoulders only to stabilize the load and to bounce the weight back onto hips every once in a while when you feel the hip belt slide down. Once properly adjusted the pack felt like it was glued to my back and hips -- it is one of the most comfortable packs I've ever tried.

One of the most notable features of Arcteryx Naos 70 is it's "rolltop" dry-bag like closure at the top which combined with the treated, seam sealed fabric "420Advanced Composite Textile VaporTight" keeps the contents dry on the trail. Based on my gut feeling I think you can even drop this bag into a water stream, pick it up and it will be bone dry inside as long as you keep the the hydration port closed.

The other thing that's apparent is that the pack is all about streamline -- nothing sticking out, hanging out or swinging -- everything feels tight and cinched down just the way I like it. I don't use hydration bladders so I've attached a ThinkTank Photo R U Thirsty water bottle carrier to one side and a Modular Pouch to the other using the lower cinch down straps. I use the "Modular Pouch" for the Garmin 60CSx.

The craftsmanship of Naos 70 is simply unmatched and I am not surprised because it's still made in Canada while the other top of the line pack Arcteryx makes called Bora 80 has already been offshored to the Philippines. I've had both Canadian made Bora 80 and the one made in the Philippines and I can tell there's a difference in material and craftsmanship so I really wanted to get the pack that was still made in the original Canadian factory.

Since I've had a week long experience with Bora 80 in Alaska I'll try to give a comparison of that pack to Naos 70, but instead of focusing on the obvious differences that you can easily learn from the Arcteryx website lets focus on the usability and feel:

• Naos is all about open space, while Bora 80 is about dividing it. Bora's main compartment is constricted by kangaroo pocket -- Naos is just one giant space that's ready to swallow anything you throw in there. Now that I think about it, I really hated Bora's kangaroo pocket because it cut the large opening creating an area that was hard to fill with oddly shaped objects such as my cooking stove which never fit together with the BearVault.
• The other plus to Naos is the lack of sleeping bag compartment and the zipper at the bottom of the pack. With Bora I never even used that compartment separately and always kept the divider open, loading the pack from the top. Whenever I tried to use the divider I found that I'd be wasting lots of space at the bottom of the pack and it would not compress properly.
• Bora's water carriers simply sucked in use -- the velcro retention straps that were supposed to keep the bottom of the carrier attached to the pack would undo when the pack was placed on the ground and it was also very difficult to get the water bottle out of the carrier when on the move. With Naos 70 I have no such issue since it doesn't even have water bottle carriers, instead I've attached my own (see below pictures) and I really like it this way because now, if I leave the pack at the base camp and take off for a day hike, I can take the water carrier off the main pack and attach it to my belt. To me it's all about double duties and being modular really helps.
• Once I loaded Bora 80 with two gallons of water in the 10 liter MSR Dromedary Bag and placed it close to my back to keep the center of gravity low. This position created a bulge in the Bora's back-panel -- it just couldn't handle the pressure of all that water. It was impossible to carry the pack with that bulge so I had to improvise -- I unrolled my thermarest pad and used it as a shield for the back panel. This worked but I felt disappointed with how much fiddling I had to go through and how much space was wasted with this setup. I am happy to report that Naos 70's back panel is extremely tough and requires no such workaround -- so far it handled the pressure of the MSR Dromedary Bag without any issues.

Conclusion
So far I like it! I've done another 3.5 mile trail run with 40 pounds and it felt a lot better with that weight. A note on the hip belt -- I've read one review where it said that the belt has a tendency to pop out of the socket where it connects to the pack -- I haven't noticed this problem yet probably because I always cinch the belt's stabilizing straps down before I put the pack on, only after I secure the pack using the shoulder straps I release the stabilizing straps and cinch down the hip belt.