[pct-l] Sleeping Bags and Pags

[ed faubert]

Meadow Ed here...........
I just got back from 3 weeks winter camping in the Grand C., one of those weeks was with Billy Goat. Cause of the time of year and the location we were "forced" to stay in our bags over 12 hours each night where temps got down to high 20s. Out side of a 3 night camp where i pitched only once we cowboy camped the entire trip. Lets see here, first 4 nights there was 5 of us  cowboying so thats 20, then 6 nights alone but only three night CBing, 23 then 7x3 is 21, so adding it all night our group had 44 wintertime bivwacks, Two sticks pitched the whole time. Most of you remember i use a piece of sheepskin to sleep on but i added a thermal rest pad and a goretex  bivy sack under me. so with tyvec i had 4 layers under me and still did not zip up my bag. A few nights i slept in both thermal pants and sweat pants other night just one or the other, granted i had wool hat and gloves on all night. I slept toasty must nights. Billy Goat slept each night in
 all his layers of clothes and seemed to be warm enough. Those of you who has camped with him and knows his style of hiking til dark, laying down right away and roll out the bag and reversing it in the morning where he packed up everything laying on the ground still (even eating Bkfst) changed his habit for this trip. He too was spending 12 hours on the ground or longer. Cloud Walker had a 3/4 size pad and was the only one who was cold each night. Our last night was in Indian Gardens where the ranger loaned us all extra pads so we all slept better.
I did not get into who had what bag and its ratings but 3 of these folks post on PCTl all the time so maby they will chime in, Nano, Jellybean and Tom the increadble hulk.......To my way of thinking its more about what your sleeping on then what your bag is rated. We all were there for multiple nights and it was below freezing for almost everyone of them, the exception was the night on the river. So again i said layers below your butt is better then the bag. Billy Goat also mentioned using your backpack to put your feet in or as i do at times place it under my lower body. If you have extra clothes lay on them. 
Depending on when you start your hike will govern how many hours you will be 'down' at night and i dought if many of you will sleep 44 nights as we did below freezing. Remember as the old time hiker pros will tell you the "Coldest night on the PCT was a night in SoCal desert." So stay warm out there and disregarge Montys motto about the fun begins the lower your gross weight is. If your freezing at night thats not fun folks!!!!!   

--- On Tue, 1/27/09, montypct <montypct at gmail.com> wrote:

From: montypct <montypct at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [pct-l] Sleeping Bags and Pags
To: "E A" <afishnamedcarl at gmail.com>, "PCT MailingList" <pct-l at backcountry.net>
Date: Tuesday, January 27, 2009, 11:53 PM

I've used the Gossamer Gear Nightlite 6000 miles.
I'm using it again this year

Bag  Westerm Mountaineering 20 and a 32

monty



The fun goes up when the weight goes down
-Warner Springs Monty

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "E A" <afishnamedcarl at gmail.com>
To: "PCT MailingList" <pct-l at backcountry.net>
Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2009 6:29 PM
Subject: [pct-l] Sleeping Bags and Pags


> Hi All,
> What are people using for sleeping bags.  20 degree, 30 degree, 40 degree,
> no bag...
>
> Also along those lines what pads have you found comfortable?
>
> Has anyone tried the GossamerGear  pad---->
> http://www.gossamergear.com/cgi-bin/gossamergear/nightlight_3_quarter.html
> or  http://www.gossamergear.com/cgi-bin/gossamergear/thinlight.html
>
> The first one looks like it would be pretty comfy.
>
> --Edan
> _______________________________________________
> Pct-l mailing list
> Pct-l at backcountry.net
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