hiking daypack
Hiking Gear,  Hiking Tips

Are daypacks necessary for hiking?

When you finally decide to step outdoors and start planning your trip, you need to decide for how long you are going, based on that, you will need to think what size backpack or hiking daypack to take, what other gear items you might need for your trip. There are quite a few hiking essentials you will need, so you will need to think how you are going to fit all of your hiking gear in such tiny space.

If you are relatively new to hiking, or just going for a short trip, you won’t need a professional, heavy duty hiking backpack, you will be able to get away with a hiking daypack. As it has in its name, it is perfect for short day trips.

Daypacks

There are so many choices of daypacks out there that your head might spin and make it hard to chose best day pack for hiking. The majority of day packs are a form of internal-frame packs. When picking one think wether it will fit all your items or not. And the amount of gear you would want to take with you depends on many factors like terrain, time of the year, weather and so on. The reason a lot of people are using day packs is because they don’t need that extra room that backpacks have. For many people, the more room they have, the more extra stuff they will pack, stuff, you won’t really need on your hike.

Day pack does not need to cost a fortune to be effective. in fact, many of you already have the best day pack for hiking – a book bag or a pack in a closet that you can take on a day trip with you.

Here are some features that manufactures offer:

  • holster-like pockets designed for water bottles.
  • hydration systems. These can be either already built in, or purchased separately. They consist of a storage tank with a hose connected to the tank that allows hands free use while on the move.

A word of caution – bring a bottle of water just in case, even if you use a hydration system, in case water bladder gets punctured, causing it to leak.

Many outdoor enthusiasts start out with a daypack for their hiking adventures. Because the chances are, that you are not going to go on an expedition from a day one and would probably start hiking with short one day trips. Later, as you become more experienced hiker, you could use your knowledge to select right backpack.

Pros:

  • Comes in 7 different colors
  • Lightweight but large enough to fit lots of stuff
  • Has a lot of pockets
  • Made out of quality thickened nylon fabric

Cons:

  • Material could be thicker
  • Lightweight material could seem flemsy

Pros:

  • Neat and clean design
  • Has large deep pockets and some small ones
  • Good quality for the price

Cons:

  • Too flimsy for long trips
  • Small pockets might be too small to fit anything worthy