Author: Ben Brooks

This is the third part of my ‘Three XYZ Collection: Budget to Luxury’ series of posts (part one, part two). The idea is simple: building a three item collection for a given category, which should cover almost anyone — and doing it in three price brackets.

Let’s get started with flashlights.

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A while back, Filson sold a set of ‘Carry-On’ bags, and this was among the offerings (I am not certain of all the sizes, but I know there was a large too), this is the Small Carry-On, often referred to as ‘Style 240’. It’s a hybrid bag: bit of a briefcase, a bit of a field bag.

I snagged one as I thought it was a Field Bag, but with a zipper — I was wrong. And this is why I am keeping it, even though it duplicates a lot, because it is a shame this is not sold anymore.

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I was running into an issue: I keep my work iPhone and personal iPhone in the same front pocket, and one of the two will always scratch the other one. Specifically, the hideous camera bump, and metal trimmed sapphire lenses, will scratch the screen on the other phone. To combat this, I kept my work phone in a case to buffer the camera block from my personal phone — that only slightly solved the issue.

I decided I needed to make a change, and this phone case drew me in with the allure of something sumptuous to carry. It’s not a particularly convenient case, or perhaps even stellar, but I truly love using it — it’s pretty good.

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Note: this item was provided at no-cost for review.

I didn’t set out to find this bag, but the brand and bag kept popping up on recommendation engines over at YouTube and so I started to look into it. And after watching a few reviews, it seemed like something I should check out, Cravar was nice enough to send over a review sample of the F.C. 13 Messenger in Mocha.

It’s a very well made bag, and very different than what I was expecting.

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I’ve tried a lot of Filson bags over the years, and this is one (though the name has changed a couple of times if memory serves, so you might see it listed as ‘Padded Computer Bag’ or ‘Padded Briefcase’) — this one I have had the most mixed feelings about this one. I find most Filson bags pretty aesthetically pleasing, but the Rugged Twill Computer Bag ($625) always looked a little — meh to me.

I managed to pick this one up second hand, and once I unboxed it my feelings on the looks changed. It looks not great in product photos, but in person it has the solid Filson looks I have come to know and love.

So the really big thing here is: this is a seriously big briefcase. It carries a ton…

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A while back, Filson launched the Dryden line of bags. These bags are primarily nylon, with touches of leather, brass, and other ‘standard’ Filson materials. They are less expensive then their twill and tin cloth counterparts, but still far from being inexpensive themselves. I’ve taken a look at the Dryden Backpack already, today I take a look at the much more compelling, Dryden Briefcase.

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It’s getting to that time of year where people are going places, and if airline ticket prices are any indicator — many of you are traveling. Wanderlog came into my life this year, and I’ve found it to be a pretty great tool for travel — perhaps the only travel type app that has ever proven useful for me.

You should download and install it, but for those of you who want more convincing and less trust, I’ll expand on why…

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Note: this item was provided free of charge for review.

Mystery Ranch’s Coulee lineup has always been one that I waffled on — the past version sizing was always a little larger than I wanted for a day hike at 25L being the smallest. For 2023, Mystery Ranch revamped the lineup and released the Coulee 20. A 20L variant with a robust (but removable) hip belt and everything you could want from a day hiking pack.

It’s a winner for me…

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