someone got a new backpack this year!
welcome back guys and gals matt and wanda back again today
we got a really special one for you guys Wanda has been super excited
to tell you guys all about her new backpack the mountainsmith k9 pack
so without further ado here's wanda
all right obviously we're just kidding here but uh just gonna jump right into
this one uh the k9 pack for mountain smith comes
in three different sizes it comes in a small medium and a large
now each size pack is a different size in terms of the panniers or the saddle
bags if you want to call them that on either side of the pack
and they also do weigh a little bit different pick which size your dog needs
mountain smith has an awesome sizing guide
which i'll post a picture to you right here so if you guys are unsure of how to
size your dog for a pack you can check out this sizing guide or
if you need to see a better picture of it i'll put a link to mountain smith's
website down below in the description box
they've got instructions on how to use their sizing guide and everything
wanda's pack here is the medium-sized pack that's what we went with for her
now real quickly the differences between the three sizes the small
is three liters on each side or six liters total the medium
is 5 liters on each side or 10 liters total and the large is a whopping 9
liters on each side or 18 liters total carrying capacity
and they all do weigh a little bit different small being 16 ounces
the medium being 19 ounces and the large being 22 ounces now weighing this at
home on my scale this medium came in at 18.9 ounces so
mountain smith is extremely close on the wait listed on their website for this
pack so with the sizes out of the way we'll jump into the materials of the
pack real quick basically three different materials i
mean there's a bunch of different webbing and straps and stuff but
the three main materials that this pack is made up of 420d
rip stop nylon a 630d nylon and the inside of the pack is a 210 denier nylon
which adds a little bit of extra waterproofness
i don't really know if it's waterproof or water resistant at all i mean
if you guys have seen any of our videos of one and i out hiking wanda lays in
pretty much every piece of water that we come across
and everything inside her pack gets wet anyways so i ended up bagging all of
wanda's stuff in a garbage bag inside the pack i just use like a pack liner
like i do my own pack but mountain smith does say that the two tendonier
inside the pioneers does add a little bit of extra water resistance to the
pack so now that we've gone over the features
and the specs and the sizing of the pack let's go over some of the details of the
pack itself we'll start with the saddle bags themselves so when you started the
pack you've got one saddle bag this being the medium like i said it's
five liters per side so you've got one big compartment i do
like that it's the bright yellow inside it makes it really easy to see
everything that's inside the pocket so when you're digging around the yellow
kind of contrast with all her gear which is really nice makes it really
easy to see what's inside the pack and you've also got a zipper on each
side which has got these two little nice side
pockets which is great for having you know like quick easy access to little
things i carry her booties and that kind of stuff in here and as i mentioned that
if you guys are interested in what wanda actually carries in her pack for all of
our backpacking trips what it'll do for you guys is up over
here i'll put a link to the video that we did recently on all awanda's gear
that we carry on our backpacking trips so if you guys are interested in what
she carries on our trips head over there and check that one out
keeping going on the features of the pack
you've got glove friendly zipper pulls all the way around which is awesome
and you've also got a couple little attachment points on the front
and the back of the pack which is really nice to have the other saddlebag on the
other side is the exact same thing yellow on the inside of the pocket with
the same side pocket and the same two attachment points when you go to the
back panel of the pack you've got a really nice grab handle
that's got foam insert inside it's a really nice size even with gloves
on and i mean i've got pretty small hands but
you know if you're one of these people that's got the massive gorilla hands
you'll definitely be able to grab onto this grab handle got a solid metal leash
attachment point at the front of the pack which is really nice
and looking at the top of the pack you can also see the side adjustment straps
now to me the adjustment on this pack was the main selling point in us being
absolutely interested in this pack when mountain smith reached out to us
and asked us we wanted to check out this pack
i looked at it and when i saw the adjustability on this pack
i said absolutely we would totally be interested in checking out this pack
this right here is one of the low pack this is the rougher approach pack
another fantastic dog backpacking pack but the main difference between the
rougher approach pack and the mountain smith canine pack
is the adjustability of the harness system as you can see the rougher
approach pack is one solid piece between the saddle
bags whereas the mountain smith pack you've got this adjustability so what i
didn't like about the rough wear pack is that
with the saddle bags not being adjustable it sat so high up
on her back that with weight in the pack the saddle bags were prone to sliding
around and it was a real pain to get it perfectly balanced like you literally
had to have the weight perfectly balanced on either side
or the pack would just flop around and slide around from side to side
you guys may have noticed that in some of my trip videos when i've got the
shots of wanda walking up ahead of me her pack is kind of tilted when she's
got the orange one on but with this pack here
it's nice because you're able to get it slid down to either side
of her body and it doesn't slide around when you've got weight in it
so i really like the adjustment on this pack to adjust the harness straps on the
back side all you do is you've got these little buckles here
you pull the strap up loosens the buckle you can slide the
strap however you want it and then you just click it back into place
really easy to adjust it took absolutely no time at all to get this fit up on her
the adjustability on the harness system itself is awesome
going into the actual main harness portion coming down the front you've got
the two straps here that connect to this nice padded chest piece
which has also got a backing of foam and mesh which helps keep your cool
and then you've got two buckles that attach to the sides
of the saddle bags and on top of that you've also got a strap that goes around
her belly belly strap here actually connects
basically just behind her rib cage and it stops the pack from sliding off
forward when you flip the pack over just like on the padded
chest piece you've got the padded foam with a little bit of mesh on the inside
and that goes on the back panel and both saddle bags which helps promote
ventilation it helps keep her cool when she's wearing the pack
so far we haven't really had a whole lot of issues with wonder overheating when
she's wearing the pack you get the canine pack
on your dog it's extremely simple all you do is you find
the main opening here at the front
that slides over her head you take the chest piece
slide it down underneath her and you connect the buckles
and as i mentioned you've also got the belly strap which comes around
and helps give it a little bit of extra security as you can see with the pack on
her the pack sits nicely on her sides it's
nice and secure like i mentioned with the issue we had with the rougher pack
where it sat just a little bit higher up on
her body and when there's weight in it the pack was prone to flop around this
one sits nice on her side so the pack itself is hug kind of around
her side and it's not flopping around with her which i really like
as you guys can probably tell her pack is a little bit dirty
uh we just got back from a backpacking trip and i haven't had a chance to watch
it yet but i figured this was a great time to
show you guys because now you guys know that
we actually do use the pack and if you've seen any of our trips wanda
absolutely beats the crap out of this thing
just goes to show how durable this pack is now speaking of durability
this pack here does come with mountain smith's famous forged in fire warranty
or their lifetime warranty which is absolutely awesome to me
a lifetime warranty on a backpack for a dog that bashes against trees and bashes
into willows is an absolute win hopefully we don't
ever have to go and figure out how the mountain smith's warranty
program works but uh yeah the warranty is there it does come with a lifetime
warranty which is an awesome feature to have on a
dog backpack so our overall thoughts and impressions on the mountain smith canine
pack so far we're big fans of the pack i had to say i had one gripe about the
pack it's i do wish it had a little bit more for attachments on the pack
the rougher pack we had before had a little bit of daisy chain webbing on the
sides like i mentioned this one does have
these two little loops at the front and back
of the saddle bags which is nice i usually clip her little roll of
disposable poop bags to the side here i mean not having the
daisy chain webbing it's not a deal breaker for me in any sense
but uh it is kind of one of the things that i wish the pack had so i mean maybe
going forward maybe that's something mountain smith will add to their pack
one for just a little bit more daisy chain webbing
for a little bit more attachment i do wish maybe it was a little bit bigger
i believe the rougher one that she has is seven liters on either side so she
gets 14 liters carrying capacity total compared
to the 10 in this one but uh i honestly i haven't tried to
load it up with eight days of food but for the the eight day backpacking
trip that we've got planned coming up in september
i do hope to be using this pack so stay tuned to see if we are able to get the
eight days of food in the mountainsmith canine pack hopefully this
helps any of you guys out if you guys are looking at
the mountainsmith k9 pack so far one and i are extremely impressed with it
you know huge thanks to mountain smith for sending this pack to us to check out
when mountain smith reached out to us and asked us if wanda wanted to try out
the mountain smith k9 pack i asked her she was extremely excited to
check it out so thanks again to mountain smith for
sending us to check out you guys are looking for any tips and tricks on
backpacking with your dog well one of what i've got is up over
here we've got a playlist full of different videos we've done
on dog gear and dog backpacking tips so when you guys are done watching this one
head over there and check that one out but as always guys i am maddie
this is wanda thank you guys so dang much for watching
and we will see you guys on the next one