Mystery Ranch Goodness

I haven't been too attentive to this or my other blog for a while.  Nothing wrong, just busy at work and otherwise lazy.  Plus writer's block and a general lack of good ideas and/or inspiration.  I've got several good topics racked and stacked for future posts, but I need to wait until the end of the month and the 2013 Blade Show before I can get them fully developed.

So today we'll take a side trip to have a look at what has fast become my favorite backpack, the Mystery Ranch 3 Day Assault Pack.

In a past post on this blog I've covered my lifetime search for the perfect day pack.   At the time I heaped praise on the USGI MOLLE II Assault Pack.  My opinion hasn't changed - it is still one of the best day packs ever developed.  However, a hobby/obsession wouldn't be a hobby/obsession if the search didn't continue, and I'm always on the lookout for something newer and better.

About a year ago I started noticing a growing discussion about packs made by a small manufacturer out of Bozeman, Montana named Mystery Ranch.  Owners of their packs heaped high praise on them.  Now, that's not at all unusual in today's internet driven fanboy mentality world.  You can find plenty of fawning posts on the web for the Yugo but that doesn't mean it was a great car, or even a fair car (in fact, it was a pretty damned lousy car).  The same goes for backpacks.  Lots of lousy gear gets great reviews simply because someone bought it, is afraid to admit their mistake, has an internet connection and is craving some attention.

However, things were a bit different with the Mystery Ranch products.  A lot of the comments were coming from folks who had no prior interest in Mystery Ranch products but were issued them as part of their work.  In particular, military members engaged in combat in Afghanistan and Forest Service firefighters working the fire lines in remote locations where their packs carried all their fire fighting, survival and subsistence gear.  The reports were generally glowing, and many focused on the quality of the design, overall carry comfort and tough-as-nails construction. 

I had never heard of Mystery Ranch before and did a little digging on the company.  It turns out that Mystery Ranch is owned by Dana Gleason, one of the top backpack designers in the industry.  Gleason got his start in the business back in the 1970s repairing what others made.  This gave him an excellent perspective on what works and doesn't work from a design, materials and construction standpoint.  He doesn't repeat the mistakes of others.  Gleason has started, then sold, several backpack production companies but about 12 years ago he settled in Bozeman and started his current venture, Mystery Ranch. 

The company builds a wide range of backpack products, most of them incorporating new and unique designs in load carrying technology.  Of particular interest is their Futura adjustable suspension system that allows the backpack fit to be custom tailored to the individual.  To be fair, adjustable shoulder harnesses are nothing new in the backpack world.  Gleason just took the concept in his own direction and came up with what is, in my opinion, one of the most comfortable suspension systems on the market today.

My interest is in small - medium capacity day packs, something to throw on the back for a few hours at the most.  It only needs to carry a first aid kit, some water and snacks, camera, GPS, maybe some fishing gear.  In slightly more extreme circumstances I may have to toss in a survival kit, rain jacket, extra socks, gloves and a vest.  Nothing too big or complicated.  My days of hauling huge, heavy loads are long over.  The smallest pack in their line is also one of their most popular, perhaps the most popular given the number of packs produced.  It's the 3 Day Assault Pack, and it's Mystery Ranch's sales leader simply because it's been adopted by a number of militaries around the world.  The US military uses it in a limited role, it is popular with military contractors working in the Middle East and the Australian Army has selected it as the standard assault pack for its ground forces.  It didn't get selected because it was a cool looking backpack (which it is), it got selected because it had been tested in combat, modified and improved based on lessons learned and the final result is a bag that scores high on carry comfort, functionality, adaptability and ruggedness.  Of course this means I had to have one!

Mystery Ranch 3 Day Assault Pack just back from a hike

When I ordered my pack from Mystery Ranch I was told it would be a two week wait before they could ship; they were out of stock on the bag and waiting for more to be produced.  That two week wait extended to almost five weeks as the company struggled to catch up with it's production backlog on the pack.  The 3 Day Assault Pack is extremely popular and demand is high.  In fact, Mystery Ranch had to set up a production facility in the Philippines to handle orders from its Asian customers.  My guess is that's where the bags being produced for the Australian Army are being made.  Rest assured though that if you are a US-based customer your bag will be made in Bozeman, Montana using US-produced materials.

Many of Mystery Ranch's designs utilize what they call the tri-zip feature.  The bag is held together by three zippers.  One long vertical zipper that encloses the main bag and two shorter horizontal zippers that form the lid.  I've written before that I'm no big fan of zippers on backpacks.  I've seen far too many of them fail.  While researching this bag I was surprised to find an interview Dana Gleason did a few years back where he addresses this very issue.  Turns out he's no big fan of zippers himself, but he designed his tri-zip bags to meet a specific requirement for fast, easy access to the contents and he was careful in his choice of zippers and how they were incorporated into the design.  Dana states that the design has been very successful and they've had very few zipper related failures, so he's now sold on the idea of using zippers on high stress areas of the packs he produces.

In this shot you can see the three zippers that form the bag -
one long vertical zipper for the main compartment and two
horizontal zippers that form the lid

I'm not sure I'm 100% sold on the zipper concept yet, but it sure does make getting to the contents of the bag easy.

The 3 Day Assault Pack zipped all the way open.
Mystery Ranch aficionados call this 'filleting the bag'. 

But what really sets the 3 Day Assault Pack apart from its competition is the suspension system.  Called the Futura System, it is an infinitely adjustable shoulder harness system that can be custom tailored to the user's torso length.   When you order a Mystery Ranch pack you select a suspension system based on your height.  Once you get the bag you custom tune the fit following directions provided by Mystery Ranch.  It's really a two person operation, but in the end you'll have a shoulder harness system precisely tailored to your torso length.  This pack, when fully loaded, is one of the most comfortable - if not the most comfortable - packs I've had on my back.  The bag profile is narrow and the suspension system holds it close to the back.  It is very steady, with little or no side-to-side sway to cause balance problems.

The Futura suspension system with waist belt

One of the last things to mention is the quality of construction.  I've spent over 35 years inspecting soft goods for quality of construction, materials and design.  This pack is, without a doubt, the best civilian market backpack I've ever inspected.  Everything is first rate - from the design to the materials to construction standards.  Here's just one small example.  The 3 Day Assault Pack (along with many other Mystery Ranch packs) has a reinforced double bottom.  But it's not just two layers of material stitched to the sides of the bag.  The inner bottom panel is cut  1/2" smaller all around than the exterior panel.  This means that most of the load weight is supported by the smaller inner panel, reducing stress on the outer panel and reducing the amount of abrasion damage it suffers.  Simple but ingenious.

The attention to detail is amazing.  All seams are expertly stitched and properly reinforced.  You can not find a single hanging thread on any part of this bag, a sure sign of very tight production standards and quality control.

This bag approaches bespoke quality.  While not cheap, it is worth every penny.

Finally, as a sign of pride in their product Mystery Ranch stitches a quality control tag into each bag, and everyone who had a hand in producing it initials off as it moves through the production process.  The Mystery Ranch crew is clearly not shy about letting you know who had a hand in creating your pack.

Stay sharp!

Bag It

Let's switch gears for a minute or two and talk about something other than knives.  I like to hike.  Always have.  As a teenager my friends and I would tromp all over southern New Jersey in a quest to identify all the abandoned towns that once filled the vast empty spaces of the Pine Barrens region of that state.  When I moved to Ohio in my mid-teens I found myself hiking up and down the Maumee River Valley following the traces described in Allen Eckert's classic works about the hardy frontiersmen that opened and settled the original Northwest Territory.

While I did very little overnight backpacking I would easily wear out a pair of hiking boots each season tromping the local trails and roads.

Along the way I developed a strong interest in - some would say an obsession with - the bric-a-brac of outdoor life and adventure.  This accounts for my fascination with knives.  I also developed a slightly weird fascination with backpacks.  I think it started with my realization that the old, square canvas Boy Scout knapsacks we used as kids were, well, let's be honest here - they were simply lousy load carrying devices.  It took this lowly and somewhat dim Tenderfoot only about two outings to realize there had to be something better out there.

This was about the time the lightweight backpacking craze was sweeping America, fueled in large part by Colin Fletcher's classic bible of backpacking, 'The Complete Walker'.  The pages of of the outdoor magazines were filled with sexy shots of hikers on the Appalachian Trail or the Pacific Crest Trail sporting the latest in load carrying technology from companies like Kelty or JanSport.  These newfangled aluminum and nylon concoctions were a bit more than I needed for schlepping the local trails.  A lot of them made you look like you were hauling a refrigerator on your back, but they showed the way to the future.

Then one rainy Saturday afternoon I caught the movie 'The Mountain' with Spencer Tracy and Robert Wagner.  Set in the French Alps, it's the story of two brothers who climb a mountain to reach a plane crash site and plunder the belongings of the crash victims.  This was the first and only time I've seen the movie.  While I remember the story line as being somewhat interesting what really caught my eye were the backpacks they used in the climbing scenes. These were the classic teardrop-shaped Alpine style rucksacks.  I was fascinated by them - so those are what serious climbers use!  They are soooo cool!  The image was burned into my memory and launched me on a lifetime quest to find the perfect rucksack, just like the one Spencer Tracy used in the movie.

It's been a long, enjoyable and slightly frustrating quest, and I've come to realize that the perfect and perfectly cool Alpine rucksack like they used in the movie simply doesn't exist.  Or at least I haven't been able to find it after decades of searching.  No matter, I've found plenty of great substitutes along the way.

In this and subsequent posts we'll have a look at some of the rucksacks I've come across and why they work (or don't work).  I've had a lot of rucksacks on my back over the years, and I've lived out of them for weeks (and in one case months) at a time.  Most of this experience has been with the US Army's ALICE system rucksack (which we'll tackle in a later post).  But living with and depending on a piece of gear for so long gives you a good perspective as to what works and what doesn't.  Now it takes me about three minutes wearing a pack under load to determine if that particular bag is good or bad (for me).  What counts is comfort (always the #1 consideration), ruggedness, good design and execution.  Surprisingly weight becomes a secondary consideration; ruggedness and quality of execution impose their own weight requirements.  

Let's start with my current favorite, and it's a design I'm fairly new to.  In the 1980s the Army realized that the old ALICE (All-purpose Lightweight Individual Carrying Equipment) system was badly outdated and a new Soldier load carrying system was needed.  This triggered a complete rethinking of military load carrying technology and out of it came the MOLLE system (MOdular Lightweight Load carrying Equipment).  The MOLLE system went into general issue with the Army in the early 2000's at about the time I retired.  The system is in its second generation (MOLLE II) and may be headed to a third generation upgrade.  As the name indicates, the system is designed to be modular.  The MOLLE system consists of external frame packs of different sizes, rucksacks, pouches and bags all of which can clip or snap together in various configurations. Soldiers can combine different components of the MOLLE system depending on specific mission requirements.

As was bound to happen, soon after adoption MOLLE equipment began to leak out into the civilian market.  Some of this was from Soldiers selling their field gear after they left the service, some was from contract over-runs by the manufacturers and some was surplus releases of used equipment by the US military.  The one MOLLE component that quickly became a hit with civilian users is the MOLLE II Assault Pack (NSN  8465-01-524-0001).

MOLLE II Assault Pack front view

The Assault Pack is what civilians would classify as a large day pack.  It's a common design - a half clamshell secured by a large zipper, with load compression straps on the side and a large exterior pouch.  Where the Assault Pack shines is in the details.  Because it was designed to be worn over body armor the shoulder straps are very generous and well positioned for a guy with my body type (that's a polite way of saying I'm overweight).  The pack also incorporates an internal plastic stiffener that provides shape to the pack and shields the wearer's back from poking and prodding by items inside the pack.  The pack is manufactured of heavy nylon and all seams are taped and double stitched.  Stress points are all reinforced.  There are plenty of external straps and attachment points for mounting pouches or other do-dads.

MOLLE II Assault Pack rear view.  That is a GPS receiver pouch
mounted on the right strap, a wrist compass on the left.

The Assault Pack is not the lightest thing available; empty and with no external pouches it weighs in at about 3 lbs.  However, as I mentioned the pack is extremely rugged and made out of heavy nylon.  It's a trade-off - additional weight for durability.  It's a trade-off I'm willing to make.

Where the Assault Pack really shines is carry comfort.  This is perhaps the most comfortable large day pack pack I've ever used.  I routinely load this pack up to about 23 lbs (water, first aid kit, jacket, GPS receiver, maps, binoculars, survival kit, knife and other small items).  It's a full load, but a comfortable load.  The shoulder straps look thin in profile but the design does a very good job of distributing the load.  The shoulder strap design means the straps stay in place regardless of what you are wearing.  There is enough adjusting strap length that it's easy to loosen the shoulder straps wide, toss the bag onto your back and roll your shoulders while tugging on the straps to get a perfect fit.  The internal stiffener allows the pack to rest comfortably against your back and keeps the loads from shifting around.

Other small details add to the usefulness of this pack.  You can use it with a hydration bladder and there are covered drinking tube openings on each side of the drag handle (although these openings are not really there for use with a drinking tube - more on that in just a bit).  Each shoulder strap has a 'dump' buckle - unsnap the buckle cover (think of it as a safety) and pull up on the web tab and the shoulder strap and adjusting strap separate.  The zippers are the heaviest YKK self-repairing nylon zippers I've ever seen and the Fastex-type buckles that secure all the webbing are heavy duty.

This pack is designed for use on parachute jumps and it comes with stitched-in webbing for attaching to a parachute harness.  This is really what the two 'drinking tube' flaps on each side of the drag handle are for.  You route the straps out from the inside of the pack through these slits.  There is also a lowering line attachment loop sewn into the bag.

There are some quibbles, but they are minor.  The bottom of the bag is not reinforced.  Some double layered protection would have been nice.  I have to be fair, though, and mention that the bottom of my ALICE rucksack that saw me through over 12 years of service didn't have a reinforced bottom and it survived just fine.

I'm also not a big fan of clamshell design packs.  Zippers can fail, and when they do there go the contents of your pack.  The Assault Pack mitigates this somewhat by being only a half clamshell design and the compression straps help take the strain off of the zipper.  Clamshell designs are also not very waterproof.  In fact, they leak like a sieve.  The main pouch zipper has only a small, thin weather flap covering it.  This isn't a pack designed for use in wet weather.  I much prefer a top-loading design with a cover flap.

In general I'm not a big fan of the clamshell design.  If the zipper fails there
goes the contents of the bag.  The Assault Pack mitigates this somewhat by
being only a half clamshell design, using a very stout YKK zipper and
placing compression straps where they can take some of the strain off of
the zipper.  Note the white plastic stiffener and the white parachute harness
webbing at the top of the picture. 

And then there's the camouflage pattern.  Most of the packs coming onto the market today are made with the Army's ACU digital camo pattern (also known as the Universal Camouflage Pattern).  This pattern has served the Army well through almost 10 years of war in the Middle East, but it is really too light for effective use in more vegetated regions.  This pattern, especially after it starts to fade a bit, really stands out in the forests of North America.  I'd much prefer olive drab, but you take what you can get.

Speaking of camouflage patterns, the Army produced this pack in the old woodland (BDU) pattern, the desert (DCU) pattern, of course the ACU pattern, and is now making them in the new Army MultiCam pattern.  Since so few were made in the woodland and desert pattern they are harder to find and good examples command relatively higher prices.  The new MultiCam patterned bags are just starting to appear and they command outrageous prices - I saw one go on eBay in the last few weeks for about $150.

But right now the ACU pattern Assault Pack can be found at bargain prices.  There's always examples for sale on eBay and internet storefronts like Uncle Sam's Retail Outlet are selling them new for as low as $59.99. That's one heck of a deal for a great bag that costs the real Uncle Sam something close to $90.

The detachable multi-purpose pouch, designed originally
to hold the Army 1qt canteen, does a fine job holding a
1 qt Nalgene water bottle

Rumor has it that the Army wants to phase out the Assault Pack in favor of a larger medium rucksack with frame.  Operationally this makes sense since the next step up in capacity in the MOLLE system is the large rucksack, which can hold a Volkswagen and a case of beer.  The Army obviously needs something in between.  However, I can tell you from personal experience that the Assault Pack is extremely popular with Soldiers.  I work at a large hub airport that handles a lot of Soldiers flying to or from duty stations.  The majority of them carry the Assault Pack.  For a Soldier it is the perfect carry-on bag.  It easily fits a laptop computer, a change of clothes, shaving kit, books and snacks.  A medium rucksack with a frame would simply be too large and unwieldy to use as a carry-on bag and on many smaller flight legs would have to be checked as baggage.  I think we'll see the Assault Pack stick around for quite a while yet.

In my opinion the MOLLE II Assault Pack is destined to be a minor classic in military equipment, akin to items like the M6 gas mask bag, the Chinook helicopter, the Jeep and MREs; the right design at the right time that ended up filling roles the designers could never have imagined.

Stay sharp!

Brian