Junction

I have the junction 40 in black, this is my 3rd year owning it. I really enjoy everything about this pack. Sometimes in winter I wish I bought the 55 liter because you can roll it down to the 40 liter, but have that extra room for winter layers, or a longer food carry. I have been through rain and snow and never had any water leak in. I also use dry bags( hyperlite dry bags) for down and clothes. It’s a little expensive but you get what you pay for with this one. After 3 years there is a little wear at bottom near hip belt but that’s it. I also use a compactor bag inside. I can probably fit 4 or so days of food with all my other gear.

After a hike with about 2 hours of medium rain half of the stuff in my backpack was wet. Further more there was even water on the bottom of the backpack. For a backpack which cost about 700 NZD and is advertised with videos where people dipping the backpack in a river is very bad.

After contacting customer support with the question if there might be a quality issue which might happens, the responds were just the backpack in not advertised as water prove just water resisted. In my opinion even water resisted would mean that not so much water is filling up the backpack.

Very disappointed at quality and customer support.

Purchased the 40l Junction (white) after having the 55l Southwest (black) for several years. I simply wanted a smaller profile for travel and short trips. Great pack and happy with it. Like others have noted the mesh isn’t very stretchy but that’s really not a deal breaker. Recommended for sure.

My input as someone who’s been backpacking for 30 years: put the small stash pocket that you have on the bottom of the Unbound on this pack and perhaps replace the stiff mesh with something that expands the capacity way more and still breaths.

The Junction 55 is a great backpack. I won't typically use it for over 30 lbs, but under that it has proven to be very comfortable. Above 30 lbs, it seems to pull a bit heavy in the shoulders, neck. I'm between 5' 9" and 5' 10" and have a 19" torso and went with the large size which seems perfect. I've had a bit of tearing of the mesh in the back, so it needs to be handled kind of carefully.