Sitka Gear likes to push the envelope with their designs, and their Flash 20 technical daypack has a few tricks in its bag. The Flash is designed for hunting but photographers and other gearheads will like it too. It comes dressed for success in Gore Optifade, a camouflage pattern specifically designed to fool animal vision.
The 3lb 7oz pack is rated at 2,000ci, enough for an ultralight overnight or a day trip with room for small to medium game. The silent and waterproof StealthTex fabric is stretchy so you can really stuff it in. The Flash is a top loader (no floating lid) with pockets galore: the main compartment has a smaller zipped hydration pouch pocket with clip, as well as a smaller MRE-sized mesh zipped pocket. There are two fleece-lined pockets, a small one on top and a large one on the back, perfect for lenses and scopes.
Also on the back are two more pockets, one large sized, open at the top with a buckle closure and one smaller with a side facing zipper. All the zipper pulls are sausage-finger and glove compatible, with stay-open rubber half-rings. Finally there are two quart-bottle-sized open mesh bottle-pockets on the sides and two zipped compact-camera-sized pockets on the waist belt. For strap-on gear the two side compression straps and two rear straps give you plenty of options.
The removable aluminum frame and stiff framesheet do a great job of supporting the load, and the Flash carries better the more you load it. There's plenty of air on your back thanks to the curve of the frame, and in a pinch you could stash some of your load there. There are adjustments galore: the sternum strap has a good bit of vertical travel, and the waist belt is trick: the adjustment webbing routes through a cool little redirector that allows you to pull them forward to snug it up. This is a much more natural motion than pulling back and once you get used to it you resent packs that don't have it. One nitpick in an otherwise great pack: it's one size fits most and the limiting factor is the shoulder straps, which could use about six more inches of travel to fit longer torsos.
One response to “Sitka Gear Flash 20 pack”
This is pretty cool!