Roarmeister is correct. The Nahanni is a very remote location and you need a backpack that is at least 70 litres (4300 cubic inches).

Also carrying a pack this size requires you to be in top physical shape. The Nahanni is a beautiful area yet very unforgiving for those who are not prepared physically, mentally and gear wise.

SD.

Interesting idea, though I have to wonder about the weight that this bag would be! Hard shell, shelves, tons of velcro everywhere. Seems like you'd have 10 lbs before you got it packed. Never heard of anything like that, the closest I found is this:
http://www.fireauthority.com/style.html?assort=fireauthority&style=BG044&cat=4312

Essentially a duffel bag with smaller bags in it, so not very good at long distance camping.

http://www.thewaterproofstore.com/paragonpack.html has a backpack harness system that can be used with their drybags or hard cases.

This is an intersting harness. I once saw a lightweight hard sided rolling suitcase thingy at Costco, possibly it could be attached to that. Or to an ALICE frame with the little load shelf attached. Of course ALICE frames, at least in my opinion, are not very comfortable, and kinda heavy...

Our local outdoor shop carries something like these from MountainSmith and I'm told Kelty has something similar but I couldn't find them on their website.

They're not quite the backpack, but they are velcro lined and they sell smaller velcro "cubes" that can be put into the larger case. They seem more suited for car camping or RV...or a really organized car kit.

Hope this helps.

Oh yeah, the one the local store carries is fully zippered and the main "bag" looks more durable. I think it's a local company that makes them so I don't have a website.

Found the Kelty ones. Closer to the ones the local store carries, but still not it.

Interior velcro, not exterior. That's what they use on the International Space Station to keep things in place -- the walls have patches of the loop side all over the place, and any object that might drift off has a patch of the hook side on it.. Seems like a good system to me.

To be honest, I don't know what the volume of my old pack was. It was a gift when I was a teenager. I ran into a site that listed "normal" backpacking pack sizes as 40-60 liters, so I listed that number. I do have a fair amount of experience -- I've backpacked in the mountains in New Mexico, the Grand Tetons, Japan, and many other places before -- so this is nothing new to me. However, my old pack fell apart on my last trip, so I have to get a new one.

That Marauder is a neat looking pack, albeit a bit small.

I'm really not familiar with pack volumes; I just looked that up on a website, which listed normal packs as 40-60 liters, ultralight 30-40, and super ultralight <30. I don't know how big my old pack was, but it was about the right size for me. Unfortunately, while it's frame is still in fair shape, its fabric is shredding badly. It was a real bit of patchwork just to keep it together last time. We're talking "stuff falling out" bad.

I'm used to carrying everything I need. I've done dry camps before. In Japan, I averaged carrying around 60 pounds with a bulging pack. That trip was a bit annoying, gear-wise, because I had to bring lots of clothes (so as not to fall into the stereotype of a "dirty foreigner" -- they're very obsessed with cleanliness). It made for a lot of bulk -- and when things got wet (from the near daily rains), weight. My partner did have a bit of trouble with 50, though, so we'll need to keep hers lighter.

How well do the Osprey and MEC open up? With my old pack, it was just a zipper for the bottom third of the pack at the bottom and a typical flap opening at the top -- certainly not easily accessible.

I'm not too concerned about food volume. On the Japan trip, I discovered a great way to pack lots of calories into little space: pasta and sauce/rice and sauce packs like you get at the grocery store. I'm not sure if you're familiar with these things, but they're a mix of dry rice or noodles and a powdered sauce, in a wide variety of flavors (everything from cajun to chinese), coming in either little cardboard boxes or aluminized paper pouches. They're designed for you to cook them for a few minutes with butter, milk, or a little bit of other stuff, plus (of course) water. They taste really good -- usually far better than backpacking meals. However, their dry volume is just as small as backpacking meals, if not smaller, and they're far cheaper. Take them out of their bulky packaging, put them into small ziplock bags with the proper amount of powdered milk, butter-flavored powder, or whatnot, and then load the individual meal-bags into a gallon bag. I was very pleased with how that turned out; I was able to fit 30-ish, possibly more, into the gallon bag. Not sure of their calorie content; at home, 1/2 usually makes a good lunch, and 3/4 a good dinner. While hiking, I found myself eating about one for a lunch and two for a dinner. So, that works out to 3-4 days worth of lunches and dinners per liter of pack space. Say, 2 days when you factor in breakfasts, snacks, and overhead. 1-2 weeks out there, that's 3 1/2 to 7 liters of space needed for food per person. Not too bad.

There's a reason why I'm looking into packs at least one year, probably two or more, before I go there I managed a 60 pound pack in Japan, so I think I'll do fine, but my partner will need more practice hikes. I have a water filtration system that's good enough that I could drink industrial runoff if I had to (three stage gravity fed -- flocculant -> ceramic -> carbon), gortex rain gear, a reliable multi-fuel stove, and so on down the list. I'll probably be looking into a lighter tent and bag for the trip, but that's something for the future. Right now, I'm just checking into packs, since I'm currently lacking one

Huh. That's really interesting. And cheap, too. I'll check into that.