[pct-l] Heavier Sleeping Bag versus Lighter Sleeping Bag & Extra Clothing

[John Abela]

Hello All,

I figured it has been a rather long time since I posted a 'which do
you prefer' type of question here on the pct-l and with many a hiker
prep'ing for the 2012 hiking season, I figured it was time to start
them up again!

So the first one I am going to start with is a rather age-old
question. It does not have a right or wrong answer - HYOH after all,
right!

Do you prefer having a heavier sleeping bag (say, a 15 or 20 degree
bag) and only the lightest of clothing for when you are breaking
camp.... or, do you prefer having a lighter sleeping bag (say, a 30
degree bag) and than also having extra clothing (say for example, down
legs and a heavier jacket) thereby giving you the ability to
dual-purpose your clothing.

Personally I have gone back and forth on this. I have tried them both
over the last few years and can honestly say I do not really know
which I prefer more. In many ways I like having the lighter bag and
than extra clothing, as it gives me the ability to sit around camp
when the rare situation arises that I do not just setup the tarp and
go right to sleep.

Either way the weight is pretty much dead-weight the vast majority of
the time. Just a matter of not having to fiddle with extra clothing
versus having more options. In the end both options work out to
identical weights for me (within 2 ounces).

John B. Abela
HikeLighter.Com