Outdoor Products Firefly External Frame Pack (Moss)

This pack offers so much at such a great price. It is perfect for a young Boy Scout as it is adjustable and will grow with them.

The Outdoor, Firefly backpack, is great pack to take on overnights. It has good storage compartments, and a very comfortable support frame on it. The shoulder and waist belts were padded well. My friends pack didnt even have that much padding. The tilted bottle holder worked well for reaching your water without taking the pack off.I also liked the way you could separate your clothing from your food and cooking goods. overall it worked just the way I wanted it to.
Mark

I took this pack on it's first trip last week. I packed it with just over 30 pounds of gear. 5 hours into my hike one of the shoulder straps tore off at the seam. I used another piece of strap to rig the shoulder strap back together and carried on. The next day I was tightening the top flop down by the strap and it also tore away at the seam! I had to use a bungee cord to help keep that part of the flap down. Coming off the trail I noticed one of the internal pockets had completely ripped open, also at the seam. My hiking buddies couldn't stop laughing at the ridiculous pack I was using. Obviously this pack is very poorly manufactured and will not hold up under normal hiking conditions. It comes with a replacement guarantee, but why would I want another one of their poorly manufactured products? Fortunately Cabella's will give me my money back. Stay away from this one.

My 10-year-old is small and skinny, finding a backpack with a fitting hip belt was a nightmare. Found the Firefly at the local scout shop, but had to return it as the hip belt was too big. However, saw it again at another local store, for some reason, that hip belt was smaller and this bag is perfect for his size and frame. Sidepockets come in very handy and it did survive a week of being tossed around in Boy Scout Camp. It is true that it is difficult to attach sleeping bag, mat and tent, although a mat can be strapped at the bottom, a non-bulky sleeping bag fits into the bag itself, tent on top. Not ideal, but than, if you want a sturdy backpack that is smaller than your kid yet surprisingly roomy, I can definitely recommend it.

To be fair, I have not yet used the pack, but am preparing to go on a 5 day trip with it. Three things that you need on any backpacking trip- a tent, a sleeping pad, and a sleeping bag. But there is no room for these three items! Right now I'm just lashing the tent and sleeping pad to the the frame, but that leaves no space for my sleeping bag. I could sort of bungee/lash it below the sleeping pad, but it then would rest against my rear end while hiking and would sit on the ground each time you put the pack down. The pack looks cool and there are plenty of individual compartments, but I have to believe there are better packs out there with a better design.

Also, you can get this pack much cheaper on other sites.