penguino

I have the REI flash 18. The pros: very lightweight and folds down into small bundle, especially if you remove the foam pad. The cons: it's a cylinder with a top cinch opening, and, in order to get to something on the bottom, you have to dig past the top and middle stuff, or just take out the top and middle stuff. I got tired of doing this. I ended up getting a Patagonia anacapa daypack. It's not compressible like the flash 18, but it has better access to bottom of the bag items due to the zipper as opposed to a cinch closure. I use the outside center pocket for my umbrella and this works really well. I also have a Sea to Summit ultra-sil daypack, bought at REI. It's very lightweight, compressible, and has a zipper. Of these three, unless I need to compress the pack, I like the Patagonia anacapa best.