[pct-l] Sleeping Bags

[Steel-Eye]

Good morning,

 

I have another reason for not stuff-sacking my sleeping bag.  I much prefer to sleep in the open, under the stars, pitching my shelter tarp only if there is a threat of rain or snow.  An example of such a camp can be seen at:  http://www.trailjournals.com/photos.cfm?id=222935&back=1

 

One down-side of sleeping without a tent is often the sleeping bag outer fabric is damp with dew in the morning, and first light is not the time to try to dry anything. As a result it gets packed as-is, then at the first opportunity to take a break in sunlight, the bag is spread out over some bushes, grass, or a rock to dry and air out. The incredibly thin fabrics in use today may look sopping wet, but in just minutes in the sun they are dry. An example of such a break can be seen at:  http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=189618

 

Awakening in the morning to find a heavy frost covering the bag is not uncommon, and it's usually more easily dealt with than dew.  It can be brushed and shaken off, leaving the bag mostly dry.  

 

It I were to stuff or compress the sleeping bag, I would be less likely to remove it for drying during a limited break, and the moisture on the bag cover could accumulate and be forced into the down. 
 
Whenever there is a likelihood of having to ford a creek I carry a plastic trash compactor bag, but to avoid moisture retention I don't put my sleeping bag inside the plastic until I reach a ford.

Steel-Eye



^^^^^^^^^^  Join other hikers at:  http://www.aldhawest.org/  ^^^^^^^^^^



  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Greg Kesselring 
  To: pct back country 
  Sent: Thursday, January 24, 2008 2:28 PM
  Subject: Re: [pct-l] sleeping bags


  One more point that's kind of a follow-on to Steel-Eye's suggestion of not using a stuff sack: If you do use a stuff sack, use the largest sack you can get away with.

  I like a stuff sack because I feel I stand a better chance of keeping the bag clean that way.

  Greg Kesselring wrote: 
another way I like to look at it is this:  If you bend a fiber and then 
unbend it, how much damage will there be to the fiber?  Maybe none.  But 
if you bend it in an extreme way--for example, creasing it--how much 
damage will there be?  Probably some damage.  Keep creasing it in the 
same place again and again, and eventually the fiber will break.  This 
is what we do when we want to tear a piece of paper--crease it along a 
line, then crease it in the other direction, do this a couple of times 
and the fibers that hold the paper together break, and you get a clean tear.

Using a compression stuff sack puts all the fibers in the down under 
extreme pressure.  It will be like creasing those fibers that are bent 
in an extreme way, resulting in damage to those fibers.  Down is 
extremely resilient, but it will wear out eventually.  IMO a compression 
stuff sack will only accelerate that process. 

Greg

Steel-Eye wrote:
  Good afternoon, Neil,

In my opinion, compression sacks not only add cost and weight, and require
time to use, but the repeated compression of down is damaging to its loft.
One noted writer of PCT hiking, and an ultra-lite guru, states that the
first compression of a new sleeping bag causes a loss of 18% of loft, and
each subsequent compression reduces loft by an additional 3%.    Based upon
that algorithm a new bag with 5.00" of loft would be reduced to 0.20" of
loft at the end of 100 days .. a fairly quick PCT hike .. and would be
further reduced to 0.04" thick after 150 days.  I think that's total
baloney, but I can't prove it.  Suffice it to say that compressing will
cause undesirable and unnecessary damage.

I never compress my sleeping bags, nor even sack-stuff them. I just poke
them loose in whatever space remains in the pack, and doing so doesn't take
long.  As a result, my pack usually looks full regardless of the consumables
I have on board at the time.

Steel-Eye



  
    
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