Mountainsmith has forced me to add a new category to GearFlogger: Green. Not as in jolly toking giants, but as in recycled. Mountainsmith’s Recycled Day lumbar pack uses 25 plastic bottles (!) in its construction. Kudos to Mountainsmith for doing something with all my old malt liquor empties.
I’ve beaten it up pretty well over the past month, including carrying it comfortably with over 20lb for some double-digit mileage days. Bottom line: Mountainsmith has mastered this form factor. I’m not surprised, since I got my first Mountainsmith lumbar pack over 20 years ago and it was bomber then. The Recycled Day pack is even better: yellow interior for better visibility inside, plenty of compression straps to snug it up and two big water bottle pockets that will take 32 ouncers.
For urban/travel use there are reflectors, a ticket pocket, shoulder strap and tuck-away waistbelt, making the Recycled Day pack a great airplane to alps partner. Mountainsmith also makes a strap-on; who knew? Oh wait, that’s a "strapette" which is a not-nearly-as-fun-but-more-practical shoulder harness. Sorry kids! Note: models earlier than 2008 used fewer bottles and the product packaging may use old (lower) numbers.