Sunday, August 12, 2012

A Feathered Friend

The loft resembles a light down sweater as opposed to a down comforter.
 I contemplated the more expensive but warmer version and realized
 it would've been nearly as heavy as my old synthetic companion.
In my quest to lighten adventures, I purchased my first down sleeping bag. I only intended to investigate at the first store, but the 1.5 lb weight, the compact packability, and the price was too hard to resist. Birthday gift money covered 95% of the cost, easily justifying the expenditure. The new bag comes with a compression bag and over-sized storage sack.

I'm ecstatic with the tiny package. It mimics the inflatable mattress size to the right.
I'll be able to pack sleeping bag and pad into one small pannier, plus room for other things.
A feather-filled sleeping bag is new territory for me. If the 40 degree rating holds true then it will cover most of my summer camping needs, replacing the worn Northface Cat's Meow. And, if the thermometer dips lower in the near future, I may even get a chance to test its merit before the European trip. But I'm not holding my breath with the way this summer's been.

With two successful lightweight bike tours already, on the Trek and Miyata, I'm looking forward to more of the same. It'll be interesting to see how we provision rented bikes on the Provence tour.

2 comments:

  1. Wonderfully compact Annie. It's smaller than my down bag, but then, I'm a REAL cold wimp and take a -10C bag and thermals in summer. I had such a chilled night up in the hills in Oct one year (I have seriously never felt so painfully cold in my life, the night dragged on forever as I shivered and snivelled wearing every item of clothing I had with me), that I think I've become a little paranoid :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nice! Although my camping days are over I still remember the joys of a really warm sleeping bag in a cold tent. I am sure you will get lots of good use from it in Europe Annie.

    ReplyDelete

Due to increased Spam, I am moderating comments. Thank you for your patience.