I line the bottom compartment of my backpack (this is a separate compartment from the main one) with a trash compactor bag, then stuff my bag in there. It is afforded complete protection from the weather, yet not stuffed so small that it does damage to the loft. (It's a pretty big compartment). I like making my bag "as small as a loaf of bread" but I have the room to carry it less compressed, so why not?<br><br>Wheeew<br><br><b><i>Greg Kesselring <gkesselr@whidbey.com></i></b> wrote:<blockquote class="replbq" style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); margin-left: 5px; padding-left: 5px;"> <meta content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type"> One more point that's kind of a follow-on to Steel-Eye's suggestion of not using a stuff sack: If you do use a stuff sack, use the largest sack you can get away with.<br> <br> I like a stuff sack because I feel I stand a better chance of keeping the bag clean that way.<br> <br> Greg
Kesselring wrote: <blockquote cite="mid:4799107C.90009@whidbey.com" type="cite"> <pre wrap="">another way I like to look at it is this: If you bend a fiber and then <br>unbend it, how much damage will there be to the fiber? Maybe none. But <br>if you bend it in an extreme way--for example, creasing it--how much <br>damage will there be? Probably some damage. Keep creasing it in the <br>same place again and again, and eventually the fiber will break. This <br>is what we do when we want to tear a piece of paper--crease it along a <br>line, then crease it in the other direction, do this a couple of times <br>and the fibers that hold the paper together break, and you get a clean tear.<br><br>Using a compression stuff sack puts all the fibers in the down under <br>extreme pressure. It will be like creasing those fibers that are bent <br>in an extreme way, resulting in damage to those fibers. Down is <br>extremely resilient, but it will wear out eventually. IMO a
compression <br>stuff sack will only accelerate that process. <br><br>Greg<br><br>Steel-Eye wrote:<br> </pre> <blockquote type="cite"> <pre wrap="">Good afternoon, Neil,<br><br>In my opinion, compression sacks not only add cost and weight, and require<br>time to use, but the repeated compression of down is damaging to its loft.<br>One noted writer of PCT hiking, and an ultra-lite guru, states that the<br>first compression of a new sleeping bag causes a loss of 18% of loft, and<br>each subsequent compression reduces loft by an additional 3%. Based upon<br>that algorithm a new bag with 5.00" of loft would be reduced to 0.20" of<br>loft at the end of 100 days .. a fairly quick PCT hike .. and would be<br>further reduced to 0.04" thick after 150 days. I think that's total<br>baloney, but I can't prove it. Suffice it to say that compressing will<br>cause undesirable and unnecessary damage.<br><br>I never compress my sleeping bags, nor even sack-stuff them. I just
poke<br>them loose in whatever space remains in the pack, and doing so doesn't take<br>long. As a result, my pack usually looks full regardless of the consumables<br>I have on board at the time.<br><br>Steel-Eye<br><br><br><br> <br> </pre> </blockquote> <pre wrap=""><!----> _______________________________________________ Pct-l mailing list <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:Pct-l@backcountry.net">Pct-l@backcountry.net</a> To unsubscribe or change list options (digest, etc): <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://mailman.backcountry.net/mailman/listinfo/pct-l">http://mailman.backcountry.net/mailman/listinfo/pct-l</a> </pre> </blockquote> <br> _______________________________________________<br>Pct-l mailing list<br>Pct-l@backcountry.net<br>To unsubscribe or change list options (digest, etc):<br>http://mailman.backcountry.net/mailman/listinfo/pct-l<br></blockquote><br><BR><BR>-Wheeew-<br>www.trailjournals.com/wheeew/<br>---->MexiCan---->
2008<p> 
<hr size=1>Be a better friend, newshound, and
know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. <a href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=51733/*http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ "> Try it now.</a>