new.bag.

I got my sleeping bag! I went over to rei today to check them out since this weekend is packed, and I needed to use my 20% off coupon by sunday. I was still pretty torn between the north face cat's meow, and the mountain hardwear bag I liked, so I figured I'd try them out and talk to a bag-smart employee who could steer me in the right direction. This is what I learned. The benefits of down bags over synthetic are mainly the packing size and the weight. They tend to compress more, and are generally lighter than synthetic bags. Other than that, synthetic bags (at least the good ones- not target ones) appear to beat the down in the areas that would be important to me- mainly warmth. Once down bags get damp, they stop insulating, and you get cold, cold, cold. Synthetic ones can apparently get pretty wet, and still keep you warm. They also dry a heck of a lot faster, and the loft stays around instead of flattening out. Some of you non-campers out there may question how often sleeping bags get wet. You're probably thinking that the chances of this happening are nil, and I'm sacrificing weight and compactibility for something that will never come in handy. Let me tell you- every year since my sister started camping with us, up until a couple of years ago, it has rained. Not light showers either- but drenching, squish to the middle of the tent and don't bump the sides, downpours. Once or twice (when we had our old canvas tent) my brother and I moved to the car and left our dad and *j* and *k* to weather out the flood. Needless to say, we've taken many trips to the dryer section of local laundromats over the years. Even now, with my own fancy water "proof" north face tent, there are times I wake up and condensation has built up on the floor of the tent under my sleeping bag, and everything's a little damp. Don't get me wrong- this tent stands up great in rain and wind, and keeps things remarkably dry. When it comes down to it- if you're sleeping outside under a few layers of nylon, there's no way to stay completely dry. So, after climbing into many sleeping bags on the raised platform at rei, I finally decided on the cat's meow. It's not as claustrophobic as I was expecting, there's extra padding in the feet and hips region (where women tend to lose more heat) and it actually weighs less (at 2lbs, 14 oz) than the down bag I was considering. Not bad, not bad! Now I just need to find a campground that's open before memorial day weekend.