On the Mystery Ranch Flight Monster Duffle

Zë Au Sol

— 1 min read

I’ve been known to by bags, normally something around the size of a day pack (20–25L), but every so often I need something bigger. This is one of those times, and with an imminent move to San Francisco, I knew I’d need something large and strong. Having been impressed by Mystery Ranch before (I have their Spartan and ASAP, and convet the CamelBak Tri-Zip that was licensed from them), so I was aware of their Flight Monster bag, aimed at transporting a backcountry fireman’s kit from A to B via an aircraft. It can hold 123L, and never has a bag impressed me so much when I took it out of the box.

Due to its size, and despite having read its webpage, taking the bag out of the box was a wonderful voyage of discovery: what is this? What does this connec to? Oh, so this goes there… My goodness! And so on.

The features:

  • A duffel shoulder strap
  • Normal carry handles
  • Mystery Ranch backpack straps, complete with lifter pulls that attach at the top
  • Bright, yellow interior so you can find your things inside it
  • Orange loops to indicate that you should pull here to unveil hidden feature {a,z}
  • It’s very, very large, and has been designed around the maximum dimensions that an airline will accept

As it’s made by Mystery Ranch, it’s very well made. The backpack straps are well padded, and not cheap, awful straps. They have lifters, allowing you to raise the (monstrously sized) pack up. A chest strap is included. Every way that this bag can be moved, aside from wheels, has been thought of, and well implemented. It has a very generous, well-segregated laundry compartment, that’s also accessed separately. This means that not only is it a laundry compartment, but a convenient second compartment for anything you might want to access without a massive rummage. On one end, not only is there a clear window for baggage tags, but also a loop Velcro panel for your extra ID tags.

In a couple of weeks, I’ll be taking two monsters with me on a British Airways flight as I move to San Francisco, and living out of them as I look for my own shoebox in the sun to live in.

The Flight Monster is $199 and can be found here: http://www.mysteryranch.com/hot-flight-monster-duffel

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