brian barnes
Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Bivy sacks do not need to be overly complicated… They are essentially sacks that cover your bag with a bottom made of waterproof fabric (e.g. silnylon) and the top of breathable water-resistant fabric (e.g. momentum, pertex quantum, etc). They certainly boost the temp ratings but be very cautious using cheaper (e.g. less breathable) bivys. Essentially they become saunas and trap body vapor inside your bag, which leads to wetting of your down and loosing loft. I’ve made this mistake once and suffered a night of sit ups to generate enough body heat to stay [s:1tfndfrx]warm[/s:1tfndfrx] alive. If you are not in a rush, the lightest, most breathable, and functional bivy on the market is made by a very reputable guy (Ron Bell) in his garage. A cottage industry of sorts – Mountain Laurel Designs. Here’s the link:
At 6 ounces, this thing will drop in your fishpond waist pack and you’ll forget it’s even in the pack.
As for your sleeping pads, before purchasing top dollar pads, try adding a 1/4 to 3/8 thick closed cell foam “on top” of the inflatable pad next time. I bet you notice a difference in warmth.
Available here:
Thinlight Foam Pad – 1/8"Chris brings up a good point… size matters. Trying before buying is always nice. Though, many brands (especially Feathered Friends and MontBell) are not available in most “brick and mortar” stores. I modified my post above to include some size info. I’d suggest taking a flexible sewing tape measure and getting an idea of what would fit. I always add an inch or so to permit me to supplement my bags with a jacket and puffy pants to boost the temp ratings. Though, don’t get too over-sized as your body has to keep all that airspace warm while you sleep.
Zach –
Below is the short list of top quality, down bags for 10-15F. Keeping a down bag dry in the winter is not a problem. Down bags take up less room and weight in your pack and last a lot longer than synthetic bags (20+ years). It’s an expensive investment but worth every penny. I have several MontBell bags and love them. True to their temp ratings and often on sale. We also love that MontBell UL super stretch bags fit like a mummy bag (providing increased warmth and decreased weight) but stretch with you if you move around a lot. You may consider buying a bag that is 6 inches longer than you need so you can place your clothes in the foot box. This keeps them warm and dries them out some for the next day. Also you certainly don’t want to be compressing your feet in the bottom of a bag as it kills the loft and leads to cold feet.
Here is a shot of my son and I testing our 0 degree bags at -5F. Napped like babies with 20 mph winds…
Good bags are breathable but have wind and water resistant shells (tight denier microfibers) so that body moisture vapor can escape but you don’t loose heat from the wind). We camped in these bags on 4′ of snow, at 11K feet, for 5 days, at 0 degrees near Leadville CO and loved them. As others have said, good sleeping pads (either a single winter rated pad, or a few closed cell foam pads) are essential to keeping warm. Purchasing bags with high lofting down 800+ fill provide more warmth compared to a bag of equal weight and also compress much smaller. As you’ll find, winter bags are big!
To learn the ins and outs of winter camping buy this book:
“Allen & Mike’s Really Cool Backcountry Ski Book”
http://www.amazon.com/Allen-Really-Backcountry-Revised-Better/dp/0762745851/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1253049267&sr=8-15
Seriously it will be the best $12 you’ve spent.Variables listed below:
bag temperature rating (for comfort – not survival)
total bag weight
fill weight of down (down rating)
size dimensions (circumference in inches)
price – and if sales prices become available?
url to manufacturer pageMarmot Helium
15F
2#5oz
19.5 oz (850fill)
shoulder 62, hip 57, footbox 40
$440 – occasionally on sale
http://marmot.com/fall_2009/equipment/sleeping_bags/ultralight/helium_eq_reg/info/detailsMontbell Ultra Light Super Stretch #1
15F
2#7oz
20oz (850fill)
shoulder 53-70, knee 42-57
$379 – frequently can get on sale for 10-20% off):
http://www.montbell.us/products/disp.php?cat_id=28&p_id=1121724Feathered Friends Raven
10F
2#10oz
23.4oz (850fill)
shoulder 64, hip 58, footbox 40
$444 – rarely on sale
http://www.featheredfriends.com/Picasso/Bags/Product/10Degree.htmlWestern Mountaineering Versalite
10F
2#0oz
20oz (850fill)
shoulder 62, footbox 39
$440 – rarely on sale
http://www.westernmountaineering.com/index.cfm?section=Products&page=Sleeping%20Bags&cat=ExtremeLite%20Series&viewpost=2&ContentId=20After posting this, I’ve been thinking… this guide (Seth Vernon) was such a dynamic and nice guy I think he’d make a great podcast interview for Zach. He’s a major player in redfish conservation and fly fishing education in the area. I’d also like to hear more about the cast and blast trips they have in the Cape Fear coast area.
Neal – I’d be seriously considering northern arkansas for your half way point. Others know that area better than I but I’ve looking at Crooked Creek and the Buffalo River… I’m sure there are other great places as well.
Just for fun, below are a few photographs I took last summer of the drainage we’ll be in:
The origin of the Colorado river, sitting at about 11,000 feet:
The surrounding peaks tower above at ~13,500 feet:
I might add that speaking to the spin casters with boats, depth/fish finders, they all commented that the larger fish were deep (20-25 feet). In retrospect, I’d bring a sinking line to get down deeper. We most of our success (albeit small fish) in coves around structure (downed trees, saddles, etc).
My son and I just canoed from the Ash River Vistor Center to Crane Lake (crossing part of Kabetogama, heading north to Kettle Falls, then heading south to cross all of Namakan, and Crane Lakes). We had a blast paddling 56 miles in four days! It is a beautiful area with lots of wildlife. We saw tons of bald eagles, beaver, had a bear very near our campsite, fell asleep listening to common loons, and were very thankful we treated our clothes with permetrin to ward off the plentiful mosquitoes.
We did bring our fly rods and fished some of Berry Reynonld’s fly patterns with marginal success from his book “mastering pike on the fly”. The weather was always changing and the waters were really rough (30+ mile/hour winds) so fishing wasn’t all that great. However we didn’t have much time to fish as we were focusing on my son earning his 50 miler award (via canoe) for boy scouts and not so much fishing.
We each brought 8 wt rods, floating lines (with sinking tips), 20# Fluoro leaders (with perfection loops to our fly line) + Rio’s steel leader (attached via an Albright knot) as tippet. We used the jam knot that Reynolds outlined in his book to attach flies to the tippet. I picked up a Lippa-4-Life to help land toothy fish in the canoe.
Despite the lack of focus on fishing we had a great time and I can’t wait to get back there some day with only my son (and not the other 18 boys scouts).
As for lake maps (with campsites, lake bottom topo, etc) I really like the navagation maps you can buy at the visitor center or here: http://www.bwcamaps.com/ If you have any specific questions about the above areas feel free to ask!
JT – If you are willing to drive 90 minutes and hike a mile or so, I’d highly recommend Rocky Mountain National Park. $20 gets you into the park for a week and there is tons of places to fish for wild CO trout (including the greenback cutthroat).
I’ve posted a few trip reports from the Park on this forum. Here are the links:
http://minomdeplume.wordpress.com/2008/08/09/200807_rmnp_backcountry_trip/
http://minomdeplume.wordpress.com/2008/09/21/trip-report-rmnp-backcountry-september-2008/
Of equal importance is that Fat Tire can now be found in an aluminum can! Now mind you, I prefer my beer in a bottle, but this has become important since our curb-side recycling stopped taking glass bottles here in Kansas City. Though, I had to procure some freezer space from the wife for frosty mugs in the absence of beer in the bottle.
Aren’t those crane flies? Check the links below to verify.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crane_fly
http://www.troutnut.com/specimen/760I’d suggest a Golite Jam2 http://www.backcountry.com/store/GOL0324/GoLite-Jam-2-Pack-3100cu-in.html… I love mine… it weighs next to nothing, is expandable/collapsible depending upon what you are carrying, cheap, durable, comfortable… can’t say enough good things about it. Use the following discount code: 475-7-YZRKU to save 20%