The Ozark Trail: A Guide to Hiking Missouri’s Mountains

The Hiking Backpack Eagle bag is our top choice for the best Ozark Trail backpack. This backpack is a hiker’s dream thanks to its spacious 40-liter volume, shoe compartment, attachment points for trekking poles, and hydration pouch compatibility. This bag comes with a rain cover in its lower compartment, which gives you the freedom to tackle your next climb even with some precipitation.

The next section along Trace Creek is an enjoyable, quiet walk in the woods. Some hikers may choose to continue on Trace Creek to the Taum Sauk section, but OT thru-hikers should head west onto Middle Fork/John Roth Memorial section to complete the longer route. This hilly ozark trail chair 26-mile segment gains over 2,600 feet of elevation over a contoured landscape crossing brooks, streams, and wetlands, as well as small savannahs of oak and hickory hardwoods. Camp at Highway DD trailhead near the section’s start or Harper Spring around the 15 mile-mark.

As we performed all of these tests, we gave scores for insulation, design, capacity, portability, and durability (on a scale of 1 to 5) for each cooler. Before heading out on your next hike or other outdoor adventure, make sure to grab the Ozark Trail 14 Liter Hydration Hiking Backpack. This 14L pack is designed for maximum versatility so you can focus on the great outdoors. It features two main compartments for maximum storage and organization, as well as a shove pocket with a clean, gusseted design for carrying extra items.

When my bag got wet from a few rides, it easily and quickly dried because of its thin material, I really liked that. The bag has one large compartment and then a smaller one on the front/side. Overall this is a great small bag ozark trail canopy to take along with you. I like how you can put water bottles and snacks in the main compartment and cell phone/wallet in the smaller one, so you don’t have to worry about them getting covered in crumbs or spilled water.

Just about every other daypack I’ve had falls apart under the weight of my books (med school). I also like the fact that for my outdoor activities, it’s designed to hold a hydration bladder. It even has a rain cover built in, which is great when I’m riding my bicycle across town on a rainy day. Because backpack coolers are a type of soft cooler, many use ozark trail backpack open-cell foam because it’s more flexible while still insulating, though not as well as the closed-cell foam of a hard cooler. However, there are a few backpack coolers that do use closed-cell foam. Closed-cell insulates better but generally costs and weighs more, so be sure you’re willing to pay literally and figuratively for the increased performance.