Gregory Kiro 24

Gregory's Kiro 24 is a comfortable mid-sized day pack with good features—useful storage pockets in particular. The hydration pocket and hose opening work well, and the back pad and shoulder straps ventilate well for hot weather hikes. This pack has no frame, and the elastic hip belt isn’t my favorite. For a pack this small and light, it’s a solid day-hiking companion.

 BASIC INFORMATION

This Kiro 24 weighs in at 1.5 pounds on my digital hand scale. I day-hiked with it for most of the summer. Gregory markets it as a minimalist pack with enough features to make people happy and a design that encourages freedom of movement. This is a unisex pack, one size for everyone. Online, I saw Kiro packs in 20- and 28- liter sizes too.

The pack has no frame. Adjustments to the suspension are basic pulls for each shoulder strap and a thick, adjustable (and not removable) elastic hip belt. The shoulder straps have a sternum strap that can adjust vertically, and the sternum strap clip has a whistle built in. 

Aside from the main zippered compartment, it has a zippered pocket on the right that could hold a liter water bottle, an open pocket on the left that’s roughly the same volume, a big, partially-elasticized back stash pocket that could hold a rain shell, and a small, phone/wallet-sized zippered pocket above the big stash pocket. 

Inside the main pocket, there is a good-sized hydration pocket that can hold a three liter reservoir with a nylon loop and hard plastic clip to keep the reservoir from drooping; the port for the hose is on top, right in the middle, and emerges where the grab handle is stitched to the pack. Gregory sells its own hydration reservoirs, which you would have to buy separately. Lately, I’ve been using Hydrapak reservoirs. Mine fit in the pocket, and the top hard plastic piece hooked right into the Kiro’s clip, pictured below. 

All zippers  have  nice, easy-to-grab pulls. 

The panel next to your back is semi-firm foam with a lot of perforations for ventilation, covered by mesh; the shoulder straps are similar, but the foam is softer. Both shoulder straps have a loop to secure the hydration hose.

 If you want to secure your trekking poles, the Kiro has small elastic loops to do that. They work pretty well. The left open pocket is beneath where the poles are secured; the zippered pocket is on the right. The small center zippered pocket pocket is right under the Gregory logo, you can see the zipper pull. 

HOW IT CARRIES AND FEELS

The Kiro 24 is comfortable for its intended purpose, lightweight on a day hike. I wore it on more than a dozen half-day hikes along the Potomac River, up and around Sugarloaf Mountain (a Monadnock north of us), and in/around several marshes and wetland areas on Cape Cod. It could serve as a larger trail running pack quite well—a benefit of having no frame, just a flexible back pad. The elastic hip belt keeps it from moving around, but it’s not a weight-bearing belt. At times, the thickness of the elastic and very minimal ‘fin’ where it attaches to the pack, which is too small to sit on my hips, left me feeling like I would want that belt to be removable; I ended up clipping it around the back of the pack sometimes to get it out of the way.

Gregory touts this pack as being ‘designed to move’ and flex with your body. I think that’s right—no metal frame, no plastic frame sheet, just a flexible foam back pad and elastic belt. It would be a good choice for trail runners for that reason. 

Consistent with having no frame and no weight-bearing hip belt, the sweet spot for this day pack maxes out somewhere in the 15-20 pound range. I wouldn’t want to carry more than 20 in the Kiro 24 and generally ended up around 15 pounds max this summer, mostly water. Most of my DC-area hikes this summer, temperatures were between the mid 80s and high 90s, and dew points were often in the upper 70s and low 80s—in other words, a little like hiking in a jungle. 

Because we had a particularly hot, humid summer, afternoon hikes almost always above 90 degrees Fahrenheit and often over 50% humidity, I had a lot of hot-weather hikes this summer and appreciated how well the back pad and shoulder straps vented moisture. It may not be perfectly visible in the photos, but should shoulder straps have some significant salt stains.

It’s a very comfortable day-hiking pack if you’re carrying a layer or two, food, water and other essentials. The big back stash pocket is great for rolling up a wet wind/rain shell if you don’t want it in the main zippered storage area. Minor complaint is that the right-side zippered pocket is awkward to reach while moving—I could chicken-wing my arm to unzip it while walking, but it’s really intended to be opened and closed after you stop to rest. 

 HOW I USED IT 

I day-hiked with the Kiro all summer. We live near the Potomac River, where a trio of trails—Billy Goat A, B, and C—branch off of the C&O Canal towpath that parallels the river. Two of those are dog-friendly, and the third is rocky, a lot more up-and-down, and a harder hike. I also hiked up and around Sugarloaf Mountain in Dickerson, Maryland, one of the better hikes in our area and a fave for our dog. On a vacation in Cape Cod (Brewster, inside of the ‘elbow’), I hiked through wetlands and marshes to find beaches with relatively less foot traffic; also, when the tide goes out, ‘Brewster flats’ appears; you can walk so far out that you can’t see the shoreline. Given the hot weather, I rarely had to carry layers, so it was mostly for water, food, and other stuff.

The light weight and lack of a frame makes it an easy pack to toss into a duffel to use on trips and travel, and it might make a nice summit bag because it’s light enough to hide in a larger backpack. The perforations and the foam being textured to allow some sweat to dissipate, which make the Kiro one of the better back pads I’ve worn for hot/humid weather.  

Though I didn’t have occasion to wear the Kiro for any full eight-hour hikes, I think Gregory is being honest when they say this pack is ’all day comfortable’ - unless you’re consistently carrying weight at or over the pack’s claimed 20 pound limit, where I think it would cause some shoulder fatigue. 

TAKEAWAYS

The Kiro is a nice choice if you prefer a lightweight, frameless day pack with a good set of pockets and features. If you prefer to carry more weight, look at Gregory’s Citro packs, which have a light frame. 

Background

Three months as my primary day pack, and I hiked at least weekly all summer.