Mauthe Lake Campground — Kettle Moraine State Forest-Northern Unit-Iansr
Jimmy P.
Reviewed Aug. 4, 2018

Ranger Review: Renogy Solar Backpack at Mauthe Lake

Campground Review

Mauthe Lake is a solid campground with nice sites and a beautiful lake. There is ample hiking in the area being part of Kettle Moraine State Park. The 2 mile trail around the lake is very nice.

There is a good mix of options for campsites: full shade all the way to sunny. While most sites are good sized, there are a few small ones.

The campground has a central bathroom/shower building and each has its own pit toilet restrooms.

Overall, this is a nice campground and we try to go once a year.

Product Review

As a Ranger for The Dyrt, I get products to test from time to time, this time I got to test the Renogy Solar Backpack[https://www.renogy.com/renogy-solar-backpack/].

As a backpack it is great, and the solar panels are an added bonus.  

What's great

  • The backpack is stylish, has tons of pockets everywhere, and small features that add to its utility
  • It has a solar panel that can charge your stuff

What's not great

  • The solar panel part zips off and can be reversable on the backpack itself, but to access the inner pockets of this part while it is still attached to the backpack is somewhat difficult/awkward.
  • The solar panel is slower to charge than I thought it would be. It charged a little less than a quarter of my 13k mAh battery in about 3 hours with mostly sunny conditions. This was about 70% of my phone. I don't have much experience with this small solar kits, so maybe this is normal, but I was expecting faster. 
  • Mine was stepped on and it got some cracks in it. I would have expected it to be a bit more durable on a backpack. It does still charge, but looks all cracked. I'm not sure if the performance is affected by this.

Final thoughts

Overall I'm still very happy with the backpack and will definitely make use of it, though if I were to need a solar charging kit, I'd probably buy it separately from the backpack itself. I don't see the practicality of hiking with the solar panel charging…the pack would only be a day pack, but if you only need a day pack, your phone should be fine for just a day. You'd get better performance from a stationary panel, which is how I used this one anyway.

Month of VisitAugust
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  • Review photo of Mauthe Lake Campground — Kettle Moraine State Forest-Northern Unit-Iansr by Jimmy P., August 4, 2018
  • Review photo of Mauthe Lake Campground — Kettle Moraine State Forest-Northern Unit-Iansr by Jimmy P., August 4, 2018
  • Review photo of Mauthe Lake Campground — Kettle Moraine State Forest-Northern Unit-Iansr by Jimmy P., August 4, 2018
  • Review photo of Mauthe Lake Campground — Kettle Moraine State Forest-Northern Unit-Iansr by Jimmy P., August 4, 2018
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