Well, somebody is smoking something in this tale, but I can’t tell who. I’ve thought about this, researched it, called around, thought about it some more, and I can say definitively that I am not aware of any external-frame packs that use titanium and Kevlar. Certainly not Camp Trails, which makes perfectly fine packs (for example, their McKinley, $150; www.camptrails.com) but nothing like the high-end variety you mention. I mean, that would be a pretty exotic frametitanium has certainly dropped in price as it’s found its way into mainstream consumer products, but it remains a challenge to shape and weld, plus is still a moderately expensive material from the outset. The other main external-frame makers, Kelty and JanSport, similarly have no Ti-Kevlar packs in their lineup. These days the “best” external-frame pack is commonly held to be the Kelty 50th Anniversary model ($240; www.kelty.com). Your Longbed, alas, no longer is made, which is too bad.
So I’m stumped. Maybe one of these wandering souls was carrying a prototype? Maybe they made their own packs? If anybody has seen or heard about a titanium-frame pack, please clue me in. To my knowledge, there is no such creature as an external-frame pack weighing less than four-and-a-half pounds with a capacity above 5,000 cubic inches. If there is, and it costs less than $1,000, I want one, too.