Sleeping bags

MEC Bags

– Last Updated: Mar-12-13 10:55 PM EST –

I have been very happy with the quality of MEC bags having just bought two for my kids. I only have experience with the down ones though but I assume the quality would be the same with synthetic. If you get opposite side zippers apparently they will zip together. They also provide a packed volume size in the descriptions. Happy Shopping.

http://www.mec.ca/AST/ShopMEC/SleepingBags/SyntheticBarrelBags.jsp

Edit, hopefully the barrel bags are rectangular enough.

Recommendations for others (not JackL)
Can’t answer Jack’s question because he wants sythetic, but for those looking for down, here are two sleeping bags that are hard to beat:


  1. LL Bean semi-rectangular 35 degrees. http://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/73136?page=llbean-goose-down-sleeping-bag-semi-rectangular-35&subrnd=0


  2. LL Bean 20-degree rectangular

    http://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/77723?feat=506849-GN2&page=l-l-bean-down-sleeping-bag-with-downtek-rectangular-20&attrValue_0=Mountain Red&productId=1287265



    I’ve been using exclusively down for the last 10 years for backpacking and kayaking, after 25 years with synthetics. I’ve never gotten a down sleeping bag wet. It’s really not difficult to keep them dry. For me personally, down has every advantage over synthetics.



    Some sleeping bags have a water-repellent coating. Bean’s uses “DownTek” which is treated to retain its loft when wet.

think I understood
You want:

  • full rectangle bags that open flat and mate top over bottom
  • 20 degree rated
  • synthetic fill
  • waterproof shell if possible



    The only waterproof shell bags I have found are higher-end down expedition mummies so I think your guess that a mild climate rectangular doesn’t come that way is correct.



    I listed those ones from Campmor because I had been looking at similar bags myself for us to use in our small camper trailer. Also, since I mentioned the Goretex “slipcover” I had made for the sleeping bags, I checked on Ebay and found some less costly Goretex than that from Seattle Fabrics. If you feel up to making something similar there is a guy selling military camo and also navy blue goretex nylon for under $12 a yard (58" width). At that price you could construct a double bivy bag for under $40.

Nope, that’s not a mummy
The fact that a sleeping bag has a hood doesn’t make it a mummy. “Mummy” refers to the tapered foot and being form-fitting throughout. Quite a few rectangular bags have a hood.



Big Agnes sleeping bags are huge rectangular bags. However, they are made specifically for people who sleep on their back. There is no insulation on the bottom bag. You insert your sleeping pad into a pocket on the bottom of the bag. The result is that there is only one sleeping position that really works: on your back.



Semi-rectangular is a very comfortable shape. It allows full movemet but reduces the huge air space that you have to warm up around your feet. At a temperature of 20 degrees, that air space is a significant concern.

Thank you
I’ll paddle with you any day !



Jack L

I’ll repeat:
It sure looks like a “mummy”

And I’ll add: vs. a conventional rectangular one



Jack L

If 15 degrees is ok
look at this. http://www.backcountryedge.com/kelty-callisto-15-degree.aspx.

Wiggy’s
has what you need if you’re willing to spend the cash.

Was trying to clarify
What you meant, thus the follow up questions. What is the scenario where you want it to be waterproof?



Jim

That looks good except for the size
the reason I was asking for 20 degrees, is the higher the degrees, the less insulation, which translates to a smaller bag which translates to taking up less room in the kayak compartment.



Thanks,



Jack L

Quilts?
Jack,



Here’s someone else you might want to consider. The latest craze in the ultra-light world are quilts. They are like a sleeping bag, with a footbox, but the bottom is open to save weight (to use the insulation of your pad). The bags have no zipper (so no zipper snags), you drape it over you. Cords are provided to cinch the bag around you in colder weather. If you roll around a lot, you might have trouble with drafts, but I love mine.



I used an Enlightened gear Prodigy 40 degree bag (wide cut) on the Everglades Challenge this year. It weighs only 22 ounces. I was able to get my total camping load to under 30 pounds (not including water).



They make Prodigy quilts for 20 degrees, 30, 40 and 50 degrees. http://www.enlightenedequipment.com/product-category/prodigy/



Greg Stamer

Not answering for Jack
but my reaction is how does that work if you are kayaking with a partner? How doe you snuggle up and, well, you know?

Google is your friend, Jack
I suppose I could research your four specs, but so can you, so therefore I won’t.



I’ll say to others that I have used rectangular LL Bean 20 degree, DOWN, sleeping bags for 35 years for all my canoe, kayak and car camping. I still have my original bag, with some seamstress patches, which I now use as a comforter on my bed. My second one, about 8 years old, still looks new.



These bags pack down sufficiently to get through the 6" hatches on my outrigger canoe, and I have NEVER gotten the down bags soaked in all those years. (Well, once a little soaked when I left my tent door open during a rain while I was chewing the fat under a tarp.)



The outer layer fibers they use on many down bags these days is pretty water resistant.

You mean you slept ???
I figure you just sleep while you are still paddling!



Thanks,



Jack L

When we summer camp
Patty & I use a double silk bag liner which stuffs into a fist sized bag and put it into two rectangluar polar fleece bags zipped together that we got at Walmart for under $20. You can put all 3 things into a small Sealine bag and stuff it in your hatch with no problem. It kept us comfortable to just below freezing.

indoor olympics
A quilt is less restrictive than a bag (but much draftier since the bag just drapes over you), so you can use that newfound flexibility for more acrobatic maneuvers :^)



The downside is that you are resting directly on your pad. Not a problem if it is cold enough to be wearing a base-layer, otherwise you might need a bag liner or small sheet to avoid sleeping directly on the pad.



I haven’t used them but have heard good things about the Big Agnes “doublewide” bags for couples – if you don’t need to separate the bags, https://www.bigagnes.com/Products/Detail/Bag/bigcreek .



Greg Stamer

onother option
Thinking back to my long ago days selling gear at an outfitter in the heyday of backpacking in the US (the 1970’s), another lightweight option a few manufacturers offered for tandem camping was top-over-bottom square bags where the two components were differing wieghts. You could have a 40 degree and a 20 degree bag and place whichever over you that suited the ambient temp. You could even get a bottom component that was uninsulated, basically a ground sheet to keep the top bag in place and eliminate drafts. Obviously your ground pad provided the insulation underneath. Some companies even made top components that zipped directly to the ground pad.



For mild weather camping I’ve also used the liner and fleece combo somebody else mentioned. I have a poly blend liner (like a folded over sheet stitched halfway up the side and with a pillow pocket) that I tuck inside a lightweight Polartec zippered bag – it’s quite comfy down to near freezing. Adding the Goretex bivy bag takes it down another 5 degrees, even more if you lay clothing like a fleece jacket and pants between the fleece bag and bivy for more insulation atop. The fleece bag compresses well and the liner is so tiny it fits in a daypack side pocket – in fact you could probably stash it in a Nalgene bottle.



I’ve also found for packing that changing the stuffsack shape can make it easier to stash bulky sleeping bags. It is just as easy to stuff a sleeping bag in a long narrow tent sack as it is the usual short fat bags they sell with them (which are designed to be strapped to a backpack frame.) A long skinny flexible “wiener” is easier to snake into a kayak hatch or wrap around other gear in a portage bag.



Anyway, it’s been interesting to hear the various strategies for camp bedding people are sharing.

Thanks Randy
That might be just the ticket.

We already have two polar fleece bags.



jack L


For a truly deep undisturbable sleep
http://outdoors.campmor.com/wp-content/uploads/shark.png


Very nice!
And, sharks are waterproof.