High Sierra Cove Island Wheeled Carry-On Day Pack
By Steve Mann

This High Sierra travel bag consists of a traditional carry-on bag, with in-line skate wheels and a retractable pull handle, but adds some additional features for the adventure traveler. On the front of the pack is a small detachable day pack with shoulder straps. The straps stay hidden out of view, and protected from hooking onto passing objects, when the day pack is zipped onto the carry-on bag. Zip the pack off, and you can quickly take the it on your way for day hikes, short trips, tours, or just around town.

The day pack is 16î X 12î X 4î (768 cubic inches), with a small zipper pouch on the front and a larger main compartment. The front pouch contains a slash pocket, pen and business card pockets, and a key fob.

The main bag measures 22î X 13.75î X 8.5î (2571.25 cubic inches), including the wheels and handle), and converts into a backpack. Zipped into a padded back pouch are two larger padded shoulder straps. When you deplane in remote locations, you can whip out the straps and carry the entire bag on your back to your destination.

Access to the main compartment is great. Two large zippers with leather pulls open the horseshoe zipper all the way to the bottom of the bag. Inside are garment straps, to help reduce wrinkling. In practice I found that for adventure travel, I didnít care about my nylon cargo pants or shirts, but when traveling for business I could count on significant wrinkling. Good thing thereís a iron in almost every hotel room nowadays.

The in-line skate wheels rolled smoothly. The bag rarely twisted onto its side or tipped over, a common problem with poorly designed or cheap carry-ons.

One design flaw I noted. The pull handle was two or three inches too short for meóIím six feet tallóespecially when traveling for business and attempting to place a laptop bag on top on the carry-on, leaning against the handle. (If you donít follow this, watch business travelers next time youíre at the airport. This is the standard method for managing two carry-on bags for most travelers.)

One note about standard sizes for carry-on bags. The Cove Island Carry-On meets all US federal standards for carry-on. However, that does not mean that if you stuff the sucker completely full, that youíll get it to fit into an overhead bin on most airlines. The problem is the day pack. Stuff the main compartment as full as you can get it, leaving the day pack empty, and youíll probably get it to fit in the bin. Take the day pack off (e.g. leave it at home for an overnight trip or short trip) and it will always fitóunless your fellow travelers beat you to the bin space. Fill the day pack and the main compartment and youíre almost guaranteed that it wonít fit. Then comes the challenge. I tried this and sure enough, I could no sooner get the plumped bag into the overhead bin than an elephant. Worse, it wouldnít fit under the seat either.

Then I discovered a secret that worked great, but might be a bit risky. I detached the day pack, put the main bag and my laptop bag in the overhead bin and put the small day pack under my seat. Nifty trick. The risk comes from recent airline regulations. Passengers are limited to two carry-on bags of any type. I had successfully managed to get three bags on board (they were attached as two bags when I boarded.) Should an inconvenienced passenger complain, or an astute policing-minded flight attendant catch on, and you might be checking one of your bags as cargo.

The bag has a stylish retro look. The main fabric is canvas, with oiled-leather trim. For the business traveler it is not the defacto black cordura, but it does have a sleek look, and the color scheme fits into the adventure travel motif. For those inclined to have their luggage match their outfits, the carry-on goes well with khaki cargo pants and most travelerís shirts. The canvas fabric is not waterproof, so for very rainy travel in remote locations where your bags are exposed to the weather, you should look for a more weatherproof bag. The bottom of the bag is PVC for durability.

A convenient handle on the side of the bag makes it easy to carry like a duffel bag when not convenient to roll it. There is also a handle on top to pick up the bag when you need to carry it, such when deplaning (aisles too crowed and/or too narrow), or on an escalator.

The Cove Island Wheeled Carry-On sells at a suggested retail of $250, about the same as comparable bags from other manufacturers.

Summary
A good solid bag. For taller buyers, consider another bag with a slightly longer handle. The bag works well as a general travel piece, good not only for adventure travel, but doubling as a business travel bag. Feature-wise the Cove Island bag matches, but doesn't exceed, other adventure travel carry-ons in the category. Price is also comparable.

By Steve Mann is a contributing editor for GearReview.com.

For more information, contact:
High Sierra Sport Company
1-800-323-9590.