Sleeping Bag, A Camping Equipment Of Immense Use
The day has been relatively without any major mishaps except the few times one slipped and slid down the mountain slope. But weariness has caught on. The mountain sides are slowly being swept by an eerie grey stillness. The camping sites come to sight. There is another burst of energy that comes to push you into the vicinity of the camping site. The dinner must be cooking. May be a wash in the mountain stream to wash away the dust will be good. The thought of finally sliding into the sleeping bag for its warmth was just too enticing.
When you go camping or trekking or mountaineering or whatever, and far away from civilization, it is just not possible to think of carrying a bed howsoever attractive the idea seems to be. But then almost equally useful camping equipment that you can easily carry around is the sleeping bag. It almost serves the same purpose as the bed. It is actually a blanket with the sides closed with a zipper, and having soft cushioning or soft padding inside for giving the feel of a bed. The sleeping bag gives you warmth with its thermal insulations. Sleeping bags comes in two types. The normal ones are the ones that look like a blanket which can be folded and then rolled, tied with straps or cords and carried inside a backpack. Then there are the ones that remind us of the Egyptian mummies, and aptly these sleeping bags are called mummy bags. These have a larger opening at one end as compared to the leg side. It tapers down to the leg side. It cannot be easily folded or rolled. But it is better stuffed into a compression or stuff pack to be carried in the backpack.
The sleeping bags differ in their insulation capacities and ability to withstand water. You can get the sleeping bags suited to different situation and needs. The Marmot Hydrogen bag gives you the details of one such that leaves you warm at 30 Fahrenheit.
The sleeping bags have different capacities in its water absorption capacity, insulation capacity and heat retention capacity. The insulation is faster with the synthetic fill sleeping bag and it is warm even when the bag is wet. Its disadvantage is that it is not easily compressed and so takes up more space in the backpack. The lighter down fill bag though having lesser insulation capacity is able to retain more heat.
Tags: camp, camping, family, nature, outdoors, recreation, sleeping bags