Awesome story, thanks for sharing.  Nice bear.  Nice packs too.  How do you guys like them?
They worked well! 100+ lbs is still that, but you can tell in the loaded up picture I'm still getting plenty of load lift on my shoulders.
I did notice that as we headed down hill, the shoulder straps would loosen just a little bit to where I would tighten them. I think this was a function of lots of weight bouncing as I went down the steep slope. 
But really they were a life saver:-) 
Also, measured the hide last night, 64 long, 74 wide with a squared score of 5.75. Not the biggest bear in the world, but im really happy!
Big thanks again to FTF!