Review: Ozark Trail 45 liter, Backpacking Backpack

With the added height of an inflatable pillow and sleeping pad my head height was indeed close to the curvature of the tent ceiling but there was still enough room. I did have a few inches along the edge for some clothes, a water bottle, and a headlamp, but that could have been made wider with a narrower sleeping pad. We like that this pack has a lot of pockets including a zipper that allows you to access the middle of the pack without opening the top. Includes Trekking pole attachment points, compression straps and a sleeping bag compartment.

When you have to answer nature’s call, make sure to stay at least 200 yards away from a water source and bury any solid waste at least 6 inches deep. The ozark trail backpack entire trail is open to hikers and offers easy and moderate hiking conditions. Much of it is also accessible for mountain biking and horseback riding.

I have to say that I am very impressed with the performance of the Ozark Trail 45Q cooler. This cooler is not only smaller in its overall size but also a fraction of the price of the competition. Cooler’s have become somewhat of a status symbol in the outdoors and many equate the bigger brands with better quality. A higher price tag should mean a higher quality product, right? No, that is not always the case and any outdoorsmen, gear junkie, or general abuser of products will tell you the same thing.

In a sheer stroke of luck for this test, we are having a very aggressive heatwave in Southeast Michigan with temperatures around the 90’s during the day and staying in the 70’s overnight. I’m using my North facing deck as the staging area which receives direct sunlight at almost all hours of the day. I also placed  a small weather system on the deck rail to help get a sense of how hot surface temperatures are in the area. On one of the hottest days, the remote sensor reported temperatures exceeding 107 Degrees Fahrenheit while the air temp was in the high 80’s. When I first got the bag, I had issues with shoulder straps that pulls the bag up higher/lower on the back. But now it’s settled and almost never moves on me.

ozark trail backpack

The coolers in competition were the Ozark Trail 45QT Rolling Thermocooler, The Pelican 45QW Elite Wheeled Cooler, and the Yeti Tundra Haul. I chose these coolers because they were the closest among the brands when it came to internal storage. If you need a good cheap bag you need to see if the Ozark Trail Back Packs will work for your needs. I checked all the hook and loop connections, the straps, the plastic clips. Get Backpacking Light news, updates, gear info, skills, and commentary delivered into your inbox 1-2x/week. Visit our Trail Directory for an overview of the sections.

Wear layers to be comfortable in any weather, and pack rain gear to stay dry. Yeti has clearly set themselves apart as the biggest player in the cooler space. Since they launched, they have carved out an incredible market share delivering products across the board from coolers to dog bowls.

During those five minutes of rain, he was a little more stressed as the risk of a wet sleeping bag had not been completely mitigated and he rushed back to the campground. I, on the other hand, could have stayed out longer. True, I wasn’t able to remove the rain fly to watch the stars or let the wind ventilate my tent, ozark trail canopy but I was able to enjoy the day hikes without any sort of worry. In essence, I had committed to the permanent rainfly option by default and there was a certain contentedness that came with that. The first good design feature is the placement of the door on the side, and more specifically on the long side of the tent.

Trail section pages include maps, directions, and downloadable GPS (.gpx) and Google Earth (.kml) data. Empty, the pack weighs 14.8 ounces on my scale at home. I saw this pack at Wally World and figured, $19 for a 28-liter pack, I’d give it a shot. If it doesn’t suit my needs, one of my daughters would be able to use it.