I got home from work today and a box was on my front porch. As I bent over to pick up the box, my first thought was, “I sure am glad Brown is comfortable with leaving a box on my front porch. At least that’s a vote of confidence for safety.”
But my mind quickly turned to the matter at hand: namely, “what goodie is in the box.”
Life has been busy, so I had forgotten about the fact that I had nervously shipped off my trusty Eagle Creek Expandable Journey backpack. After over ten years of loyal service, it had succumb to the stresses of abuse. Tossed around in the back of my car for countless road trips, schlepping around the British Isles, bouncing around the floor of a bus traveling over the Andes, and numerous abuses through airport screenings and luggage handlers took its toll.
I loved that my E.C. bag was a piece of luggage that was also convertible into a usable backpack. It wasn’t as serviceable a backpack as the internal frame pack I used to hike along portions of the Appalachian Trail, but it would suffice to get from airports to hostels. This was accomplished by the well-padded shoulder straps clipped onto D-Rings affixed to near where the hip belt joined the bag.
It was this clasp that was the main feature that broke on my pack. The piece that allowed the clasp to swivel stripped and pulled through its harness, rendering one shoulder strap useless. Additionally, some of the plastic hard wear, most noticeably the hip belt buckle had been cracked and, while serviceable, did not work as well they did the first trip I took it on.
Now, I know that other, better travel packs have come along in the twelve years since I bought that bag, but I want to laud the virtues of the Expandable Journey. First, while some of the plastic might not have lived up to standards, the E.C. bag was the first bag I ever purchased where the zippers never broke. I’ve stuffed and overstuffed that back more times than I care to remember but not one single tooth has ever left its proper place.
Also, I love the fact that the shoulder straps and hip belt is well-protected from the abuse so many bags get in transit. The shoulder straps tucked neatly into a zippered pocket that ran the width and length of the bag. Both straps of the hip belt tucked into the same pocket via slits on the sides of the bag. While that solution was never ideal, it did the job of protecting while allowing quick and easy access to the belt straps. Also, the internal frame–2 braces running the length of the pack and connected to the hip belt–helped with weight distribution as well as kept the bag from collapsing upon itself when the bag was not filled.
But its key feature was the wrap-around zipper that exposed a panel of material giving the bag considerably more space than when the zipper was closed. What makes this bag unique is that the hidden panel is of the same quality material as the rest of the bag. Lesser quality bags use lesser material, so I usually rolled with the zipper open.
But until the advent of airlines experiencing “incredibly shrinking luggage compartment”™, the Expandable Journey passed for carry on luggage when it was in “zipped up” mode. This came in handy when I was traveling to the U.K. for the first time for work. I did not have to pay to check a 3rd bag. An until recently, being able to walk through without claiming baggage was a dream. I was able to head for the Heathrow Express and get into my room quicker. That let me recuperate from flying trans-Altantic so that I could morph back into a human before my afternoon meeting.
Now, this expandable panel made it hard on me when I began training myself to travel with one piece of luggage. The first time I tried this, I started off with the panel unzipped, thus leaving no room for purchases.
I was so sad when I sent that bag off. All the memories. All the experiences. All the adventures. Eagle Creek has this fantastic warranty-for-life program. But they do not guarantee whether they will repair or replace the bag. I wondered whether they would consider my bag a loss, with all the little things needing to be repaired, and replace it with a new one.
So it was with apprehension that I opened the box. There’s no need for a drum roll, as the title of this post gives it away. I got my bag back, in as good as new condition. There it is, now, leaning against the hearth in my den. It begs to be packed up for our next excursion. Soon, my friend, soon.
Eagle Creek, I love you.
Hello Old Friend
I got home from work today and a box was on my front porch. As I bent over to pick up the box, my first thought was, “I sure am glad Brown is comfortable with leaving a box on my front porch. At least that’s a vote of confidence for safety.”
But my mind quickly turned to the matter at hand: namely, “what goodie is in the box.”
Life has been busy, so I had forgotten about the fact that I had nervously shipped off my trusty Eagle Creek Expandable Journey backpack. After over ten years of loyal service, it had succumb to the stresses of abuse. Tossed around in the back of my car for countless road trips, schlepping around the British Isles, bouncing around the floor of a bus traveling over the Andes, and numerous abuses through airport screenings and luggage handlers took its toll.
I loved that my E.C. bag was a piece of luggage that was also convertible into a usable backpack. It wasn’t as serviceable a backpack as the internal frame pack I used to hike along portions of the Appalachian Trail, but it would suffice to get from airports to hostels. This was accomplished by the well-padded shoulder straps clipped onto D-Rings affixed to near where the hip belt joined the bag.
It was this clasp that was the main feature that broke on my pack. The piece that allowed the clasp to swivel stripped and pulled through its harness, rendering one shoulder strap useless. Additionally, some of the plastic hard wear, most noticeably the hip belt buckle had been cracked and, while serviceable, did not work as well they did the first trip I took it on.
Now, I know that other, better travel packs have come along in the twelve years since I bought that bag, but I want to laud the virtues of the Expandable Journey. First, while some of the plastic might not have lived up to standards, the E.C. bag was the first bag I ever purchased where the zippers never broke. I’ve stuffed and overstuffed that back more times than I care to remember but not one single tooth has ever left its proper place.
Also, I love the fact that the shoulder straps and hip belt is well-protected from the abuse so many bags get in transit. The shoulder straps tucked neatly into a zippered pocket that ran the width and length of the bag. Both straps of the hip belt tucked into the same pocket via slits on the sides of the bag. While that solution was never ideal, it did the job of protecting while allowing quick and easy access to the belt straps. Also, the internal frame–2 braces running the length of the pack and connected to the hip belt–helped with weight distribution as well as kept the bag from collapsing upon itself when the bag was not filled.
But its key feature was the wrap-around zipper that exposed a panel of material giving the bag considerably more space than when the zipper was closed. What makes this bag unique is that the hidden panel is of the same quality material as the rest of the bag. Lesser quality bags use lesser material, so I usually rolled with the zipper open.
But until the advent of airlines experiencing “incredibly shrinking luggage compartment”™, the Expandable Journey passed for carry on luggage when it was in “zipped up” mode. This came in handy when I was traveling to the U.K. for the first time for work. I did not have to pay to check a 3rd bag. An until recently, being able to walk through without claiming baggage was a dream. I was able to head for the Heathrow Express and get into my room quicker. That let me recuperate from flying trans-Altantic so that I could morph back into a human before my afternoon meeting.
Now, this expandable panel made it hard on me when I began training myself to travel with one piece of luggage. The first time I tried this, I started off with the panel unzipped, thus leaving no room for purchases.
I was so sad when I sent that bag off. All the memories. All the experiences. All the adventures. Eagle Creek has this fantastic warranty-for-life program. But they do not guarantee whether they will repair or replace the bag. I wondered whether they would consider my bag a loss, with all the little things needing to be repaired, and replace it with a new one.
So it was with apprehension that I opened the box. There’s no need for a drum roll, as the title of this post gives it away. I got my bag back, in as good as new condition. There it is, now, leaning against the hearth in my den. It begs to be packed up for our next excursion. Soon, my friend, soon.
Eagle Creek, I love you.