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Sleeping Gear "When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid: yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet." Prov 3:24 This can be one of the most important pieces of gear you can buy...and the most expensive. My mantra has always been, "As long as I have a dry warm bag to crawl into, nothing can stop me." When it comes to lightweight hiking your sleeping bag can be one of the best places to cut weight and subsequent pack space. Below are some observations I've learned about sleeping bags and what works for me. Why I use down I've found that the old 'down vs. synthetics' argument is one of the most touchy subject hikers can engage in. There are as many advantages to one as there are to the other. I've heard them all and I still love a down bag. "If it gets wet you'll die!", I've heard. Hogwash! (No Dirtbag, that is not the call that your monthly bath is ready for you!) If your down bag gets wet you either didn't pack it right or you picked the wrong shelter. The only time any of my bags, down or synthetic, has gotten wet is by rubbing against a wet tent wall. I always carry my bag in a waterproof stuff sack and I've never had a shelter of mine fail to the point that my bag got wet. Even if it did there are ways of dealing with it as well as ways of preventing it. If my bag were ever soaked I always know I have a lawn and leaf bag that I can use as a vapor barrier inside the bag. Some manufacturers offer waterproof breathable outer shells that help to keep down dry. The advantages are that down looses it's loft far slower than synthetic (I still use a 30 REI down bag from time to time), it is far lighter, and it packs down smaller. In my humble opinion down can't be beat for lightweight hiking. "Ya here that Wiggy's!? He said down was better than synth...sinthet...cintheti...manmade materials!" "Shut up idiot! If you want to start a fight go do it on your own pages and leave mine alone! Got it?" "I's just tryin' to help...jeesh!" "If you want to help me go take some darn Gas-X and brush those nasty teeth!" Anyhow, here are some of the bags and pads I've used and how I feel about them.
This was my fist bag and it was a nice bag for synthetic. The temp rating was too generous as most are. I found the bag a bit slim because I'm built like a gorilla but it wasn't hateful. The only turn off was that it weighed like 4 lb. and was huge in the pack.
I got this bag for Christmas and it was my first down bag. It was even slimmer than the REI mummy but at least it was down. The temp rate was too generous on this bag too but I think my wide shoulders crushed the loft a bit making it colder than it really was. It is filled with 550+ down and weighs 3 lb. in the stuff sack. Getting closer but not good enough yet! I've been trying to sell this bag for a year and a half but I may just hold on to it now to loan out to friends when they go hiking with me.
I bought this light, wide bag from Campmor for $69 in an attempt to stretch the rating of my Sierra Designs bag without smashing the loft like liners do. It worked like a charm! I had no trouble sleeping with these bags at zero degrees. the only drawback was that the Slumberjack weighed about 2 1/2 lb. It turned out to be great for a summer bag but was just too heavy to lug along in the snow. I would say this bag is good down to about 55 degrees. It has a few cold spots and it's lost some loft over the last few years. But for summer it works fine. I let Dirtbag Darrel use it most of the summer because I have come to prefer my fleece bag at a little over a pound (see below).
AHHHHHH! Finally the bag of my dreams! I know you may have heard this before from a gear head but, this is the last bag I'll ever need! LOL! I finally drop the money and got a truly wonderful bag. This bag is nice and wide for my shoulders, is filled with 700+ down, the outer shell is made from a very dense weave of nylon and shrugs off water very well. The best thing is that even with 2 oz. over fill the bag still only weighs 2 1/2 lb. The only negative I've found about this bag is that because it has so much loft it doesn't pack down as small as I was hoping for, but I guess I shouldn't be crushing it down that far anyhow, huh? One little touch I really love is the stiffening tape along both sides of the zipper. There is no way to ever get the zipper caught on the liner. Ever had to pee at 3 AM and had the zipper stick on your bag? I have! As for the workmanship; I have never seen a single feather escape from this bag and I feel that you can't get a better bag than a WM bag. The most amazing thing about this bag is the fact that the temp rating is right on the money. They have so many different varieties of lightweight bags you just have to see them for your self (see links page). I paid $235 for my bag which may seam a bit much but when you factor in that I will not need to replace it for 20 years it pays off.
I also got this bag for Christmas in the hopes that it would extend the rating of my REI bag but it made the bag too cramped, smashing the loft down as to not add anything to the bag but weight. I sold the bag off.
This was my first attempt at making gear and it came out great. It adds a little warmth and feels great next to a dirty body. It weighs very little and cost even less. (see the homemade gear section for instructions and pictures)
This is the crowning achievement of mine when it comes to homemade stuff. I take this bag in the summer by itself and in the winter as a liner for my Badger when I expect it to get colder than 20 degrees. It is made out of light fleece from the local fabric store. It adds 10-15 degrees to my bag and weighs maybe a pound or so. It cost me $20-$25 to make. I hope to make a new one and perfect upon the one I have now. (For full instructions and pictures see the homemade gear section) What's out there? There are so many choices in the lightweight bag market now. Everything from Jardine quilts to zipper less bags, and everything in between. Some of the best manufacturers are Feathered Friends, Western Mountaineers, Marmot, REI, LL Bean, as well as some of the higher end bags from The North Face, and Sierra Designs. Do you have to have a $300 bag to go hiking? Not even close. It all comes down to what your needs are and what bag fulfills those needs...even if it's not a down bag. Sleeping Pads and Mattresses Is there anything worse than a bad nights sleep? You know the kind of night I'm talking about, sore back, sore shoulders, very little sleep. Been there done that! there are a lot of different pads and mattresses on the market but the industry leader is Cascade Designs. They make the Therma Rest mattresses and this mattress has been the standard of the industry for decades. I've never slept on anything but a pad/mattress from Cascade Designs. I've gone from both ends of the sleeping pad spectrum and back again and this is what I've found:
This was my first mattress. 26" wide and some 7' long, 2" thick and a whopping 3 lb.! This is by far the most comfortable mattress I've slept on. It was just too darn big though and the weight wasn't worth it. I sold it off and got a...
This is the pad I use the most. It packs down to a small 6" X 10" package and weighs just about 1 lb, 7 oz. It is 20" wide and comfortable. It takes some using to figure just how much air you need to get this pad comfortable. Too much air and it's a stiff sleep. Too little air and your hips and shoulder hit the ground. It's a great pad for Winter too as it insulates very well. They aren't cheap though. Mine cost me like $69.
I bought this pad when I was trying to drop some extra weight from my pack. It is 20" wide and is made from an egg crate kind of foam. It only cost me $24 but I found it a bit lacking in the padding department. It doesn't pack down as small as the ThermaRest UL either. I gave this pad to Dirtbag Darrel to use. I got tired of seeing him sleep in the dirt.
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