THREE COOL THINGS: WEEKEND BAGS

By Paul Strubell of Dirt Orca’s – 7/13/18

This edition of Three Cool Things focuses on the weekend bag. A trusty piece of equipment we all find ourselves in need of every so often.

A good weekend bag will garner the best kind of attention while filling in to your seat first class. It will also stand up to a lifetime of being thrown in the back of a truck or strapped to a roof rack. The weekend bag has a different pedigree. These bags are the terriers of your luggage stable. Small, useful, and tough as nails.

There is certainly a place for the over-sized duffel that holds for your entire arsenal for a three week mountaineering trip. As there is for the ultralight day-pack to haul just your water bottle and a few snacks. However, neither of these are right for the long weekend.

A timeless piece of kit that holds just a few outfits, a jacket, your toiletries, and your weekend necessities like a laptop and required charging equipment.

Here are a few of my favorite weekend bags.

Overland Sheepskin Heritage Canvas and American Bison Leather Duffel Bag – $499 – While many people visiting this site will be looking for “overlanding” of a different sort, this company is actually headquartered right here in my hometown of Fairfield, Iowa. Overland makes quality, statement pieces that are built to last. I have a leather travel bag from them that is now 18 years old and looks as good as the day I bought it. Investing in a bag that will last and never go out of style is money well spent. As long as your choose wisely.

Marmot Long Haul Duffel Bag – $79 – I love this bag. The D shaped zipper opening gives you better access to the bags contents than a conventional middle zip duffel and it’s made of a very durable material. The perfect bag for storing camping equipment on a car camping trip or for throwing on the back of a motorcycle for a weekend at the cabin. Marmot takes their duffels seriously and even the small size can handle quit a lot of gear. This bag can be carried with a traditional over the shoulder strap or worn as a backpack. It’s such a great duffel that the esteemed BMW GS Trophy opted to include this bag as part of the riders kit this year instead of a BMW produced bag.

Fjall Raven 28L Backpack – $110 – There are those days when you need to bring nothing more than a change of cloths, some toiletries, your camera, and a laptop. For those trips, a light duty backpack with a lot of personality does the trick. I like this one from Fjall Raven.

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