Gwen uses the Gregory Deva 60 pack. Gwen realizes that this pack is more than a tad on the heavy side, but fell in love with it the first time she tried it out at the store. After looking around for several weeks, it remained the most comfortable pack she put on. With a 17" torso measurement and a 28" waist, Gwen fell just in between the small and medium ranges. After playing with both sizes, adjusting the shoulder harnesses and hip belts, she decided the small fit her better.
The Deva 60 is a women's pack, meaning that it has a curved women's harness, and a narrower backpanel, both of which are suited to fit smaller women. The pack features Gregory's Multi-Cant Waist Belt, which attaches to the backpanel using large areas of velcro. Each side of the hip belt can be removed and positioned to the best height and angle to fit your hips, and the velcro holds extremely well. The pack has top, front, and bottom access, plus a front pocket, two side pockets, and a mesh outer pocket. All outside zippers are water resistant.
Gregory reports that the small Deva 60 is 3500 cubic inches and weighs 4 lbs. 14 oz. When Gwen weighed the Deva at home (removing only the tags and filler) though, she found it to be 5 lbs. 2.1 oz. The Deva 60 is part of Gregory's Escape Series, which they say is meant to accomodate "weekend warriors on overnight trips and carry light to medium loads". The Escape Series suspension is meant to carry an up to 40 pound load.
Gwen was happy with the construction of the pack. Gregory has a reputation of making quality products and standing by their warranties. However, there seemed to be a bit of extra stuff that didn't need to be there. So we got out the scissors and matches and went to work trimming the pack down. The top pocket was the first to go. While Gwen saved it for possible future uses, it was an extra 5 oz she just doesn't need to carry most of the time (not to mention it just adds space to fill up with more weight). The compression straps on the side of the pack serve only to compress down the side pockets and don't effectively compress the whole pack, so they were next to go. In the back of the pack, there are three straps to hold on the top pocket; Gwen thought only two were necessary, so the middle one was cut off. The water bottle holder on the outside, while handy for some, wasn't needed because Gwen drinks from a hydration hose on the trail, and any extra bottle can be clipped to the gear loops on the front of the pack. Next, we loaded up the pack, adjusted it to Gwen's frame, and cut the excess off all the adjustment straps, being careful to leave a couple inches on each one. The last casualty was the inner shelf meant to keep the bottom of the pack separated. Gwen found this to be an "extra" that just got in the way, taking up space and adding weight. After burning all the cut edges to prevent fraying, we weighed the pack again. With no top pocket, it was now down to 4 lbs. 8.5 oz. Not a huge weight save, but every little bit helps!
