Backpacking Backpack

With more trips in the way I have decided to leave my suitcase behind and start looking for good backpack for backpacking. With the information I've gathered I'm now going to share these tips with you. Mostly now that I've learned that a simple school bag won't do. Like 3 countries in 6 days across Europe, just saying not the most enjoyable.

From what I knew from my education, I am kinesiology major, which means that i know a lot about the human body and ergonomics. I can alway tell you to reduce the weight from your shoulders with straps at the waist and the bust, if there are some with the lumbar bump it's even better this will help distribute the weight and will make it less painful. Remember that any time you increase the weight of the pack over 30% of your body weight it changes your walk which really isn't good for you. From what I know this is what I found:

As I have said you want to make sure the weight is distributed all over, and it's better on the hips.

Make sure everything is adjustable, from the  shoulder, bust and hip straps to the backpack's pouches itself.

Don't be cheap, look for good seaming, strong fabrics, well made zipper etc. Because if you go cheap, your backpack will break and you will have to spend more money one a new one instead of just getting a good one.

Try it on at the store to make sure it fits, if the shop assistants are nice you could probably ask if you can stuff the pack with stuff to see how it fells stuffed.

You don't need a huge backpack, you should be okay with a maximum of 6000 cubic inches of space.

Make sure you get a backpack for the type of backpacking you're doing, if you plan on camping on your travels you can get the ones with the loops at the bottom for a mattress but if you don't plan to use it to go camping you don't need these.

Don't go for a fully loaded model, the extra pockets, straps, zippers, elastics or whatever it may be just adds weight and gives you more places to misplace your stuff, you don't know how many times this has happened to me. Plus chances of these extras breaking are just so much greater and may cheat you of space in your pack.

Make sure it's waterproof or has a bag to put on the top of it because no one wants their stuff to get wet when they're trekking.

These are just guidelines but I hope they help. Now to face the world and find the pack to do it. Good luck to you on your adventures and until I share my next adventure.

It's Christmas morning and I got my back pack (yay!) I followed all the steps, I'm making sure i can fit everything I might need in it and I adjusted all the straps accordingly (FYI it's a 50L ASOLO, all it needs is a few Canadian flags and i'm good to go)