The Kelty TraiLogic Collection includes all of your base backpacking components, each one intuitively designed to work together or independently–the PK 50 backpack, TN2 tent, SB 20 sleeping bag, and PDa sleeping pad. The entire setup weighs just over 11 pounds. Given that an ultralight base pack weight is defined as 10 pounds or under, the TraiLogic Collection looks pretty great, particularly since you can split up the two person tent, or backpack in style with a lightweight solo palace.
During the summer and fall, my TraiLogic setup saw me through backpacking adventures all over California, from Yosemite and Desolation Wilderness, to the Lost Coast and coastal adventures closer to home. Below you will find my thoughts on each piece.
The Good
PK 50 Pack ($199.95)
- The centerpiece of the TraiLogic collection, the PK 50 is intelligently designed to organize all your gear so you can quickly pack or unload your backpack to set up camp and also ensure you have the right load balance on the trail. There is a dedicated compartment for all your essentials.
- The 15L front pocket, meant to store all of your clothes, detaches so you can bring it inside your tent and leave the rest of the pack in the vestibule. You can also ditch the pocket to save weight if you don’t need the extra space.
TN2 Tent ($249.95)
- Quick and easy to setup, the TN2 uses a two pole system–an X-shaped hubbed main pole and a spreader pole.
- It may seem like a little thing, but the twist on style tent pole clips are extremely simple to use, particularly with cold or gloved hands.
- Noiseless zipper pulls–there is nothing more annoying than being woken up in the middle of the night by the sound of your tent mate unzipping the door to head out for their midnight call of duty.
- The Stargazing Fly is the bomb–half of the fly rolls back to reveal almost full mesh for enjoying the night sky or the beautiful view from inside your tent. If it starts to rain, you can deploy the fly without getting out of your sleeping bag.
- Dual entry, dual vestibule, near vertical walls, and 27.5-square-feet of floorspace make for comfortable two-person sleeping.
SB 20 Sleeping Bag ($299.95)
- The sleeping bag is stuffed with 800-fill hydrophobic DriDown, meaning it will resist soaking up moisture and dries faster–a huge plus for cold or rainy weather backpacking. The last thing you want is your sleeping bag to wet out half way into the trip.
- Waterproof treatment on the hood and foot of the bag protects the insulation from any condensation that might form on the inside tent walls.
- Both Kelty and Sierra Designs use EN tested ratings to classify their bags. The SB 20 has a women’s comfort rating of 31°F. I slept a number of nights out this fall with temps in the 30s and found the rating pretty spot on. For those that sleep cold and want this bag for late fall backpacking, I found adding an emergency bivvy or space blanket liner helps.
- The sleeping bag comes with its own compression stuff sack.
PDa Sleeping Pad ($69.95)
- The lightweight PDa weighs 14.5 ounces (a couple of ounces more than a Therm-a-Rest NeoAir XLite) and packs down small.
- The sleeping pad is comfortable and easy to inflate without overtaxing your lungs.
- It doesn’t make a ton of noise when you roll around at night.
Tradeoffs
- The PK 50 backpack gets a bit bulky when you carry a bear canister. To get around this, I ended up stuffing more clothes in the main pack compartment and less in the front removable pocket, sometimes ditching the pocket all together. Although I like the organizational idea of the removable clothes pocket and stretchy tent pouch, I am still undecided as to whether or not I would prefer just a large 50L main compartment with the separate sleeping bag/pad section, especially when bear canisters are involved.
- The hipbelt pockets on the PK 50 are a tad too small for an iPhone 6 or larger camera.
- Both the PDa sleeping pad and TN2 tent come nicely folded in their square packing cubes. No matter how hard you try, you will never be able to fold them like that again. Resign yourself to that now.
Bottom Line
If you are looking for a complete, lightweight backpacking setup that works seamlessly together, the Kelty TraiLogic collection can’t be beat. This is a high quality base backpacking kit at a great value. For longer trips in bear country, you might need bigger than this 50L pack depending on how much other gear you take with you.