CamelBak Rogue 70 oz Hydration Pack (Black/Charcoal)

Good for biking, running, and even driving. During my recent trip to Colorado I discovered how much easier and safer it is to have this hung over the back of your seat than to try and drink from a cup or unscrew a bottle.

The Camelbak Rogue hydration pack is a small backpack that holds 70 oz of water and a has two small areas for cargo. It has a long plastic tube that comes out of the water bladder and ends in an L-joint with a valve. To drink from the tube, you bite down on the blue bite valve and suck on the tube. The L-joint has a valve that lets you shut off the water to prevent accidental leaks. Unlike older Camelbak designs, you can fill the bladder without removing the bladder from the pack, by simply lifting up a flap towards the top of the pack.

Camelbak makes way too many different hydration packs, but this one is my current favorite. Here's what I like and don't like about this one:

1. This pack holds 70 oz of water. Other models hold more and some other ones hold less. I've found that 70 oz is a good balance between too little water and too much water (too much water is too heavy).

2. This pack has 2 small accessory compartments which are the right size for holding keys, sunglasses, cellular phones, MP3 player, and your wallet (and not much else). One compartment is towards the bottom and the other is part of the flap which you flip up to access the filling area for the water bladder. Both are zippered. Camelbak also has a separate phone holder which can be mounted on the front of the backpack straps, which keeps the phone closer to where you need it.

In my view, it has just the right amount of storage for a day outside and reflects a good balance between storage amount and weight.

3. The pack insulates the water bladder, so if you fill it with ice, your water will stay cold for hours. I usually fill the bladder 80% with ice, then add water, and then put into the pack.

4. The pack has padding strategically placed on the back of the pack to allow air to get under your back. This keeps you from sweating directly onto the pack.

5. My only criticism is with the external fill port. Because that filling cap is not insulated like the rest of the bladder, when you have ice water in your pack, water from the air condenses on the plastic screw cap and then runs down the outside of the pack. It also gets absorbed into the flap that covers the fill cap (which contains storage as well). It hasn't been a major problem, but my earlier camelbak packs (which didn't have the external fill port) didn't have condensation problems at all.

I have really enjoyed using this pack. In reviews for hydration packs I often read about the water tasting like plastic, but I have not noticed that with this pack. The hydration bladder is easy to remove and clean. The pack has room to hold a few small items. It fits comfortably. The sternum strap is a nice feature. It is a very good pack for a good price.

Es una exelente mochila, la uso para hacer bicicleta de montaña en mi pais Honduras y me parece un producto muy practico y de buena calidad, justo lo que necesito para llevar agua y herramientas basicas.

I wear this backpack all day about 35 hours a week while I work at a Texas canopy zipline course. It's small enough to not get much in my way while I have 10 people crammed on a treetop platform but enough water to hold me all day. The only issue I've really had with it is it's too easy to drink way too much water and end up needing bathroom breaks constantly. So the trick is to just take little tiny sips all day to end with some water in the tank (rather than drink the whole thing twice in one day which is nearly a gallon of water!).

The back is useful for a camera, sunscreen, a little bit of food and sometimes I clip things in on the strap that flips up to let you put water in the blatter.

I don't really like the clip that is supposed to hold the "hands-free" drinking device. I still end up using my hand to push it to my mouth and the clip nearly took a dive out of a tree the other day.