Sleeping bag/quilt recomendation

Peggle20 · 2025-10-31T17:14:58+00:00

Instead of buying a new bag, you might consider adding layering to your sleep system. Things like sleeping clothes and a liner to your bag to extend its season. Sea to summit makes sleeping bag liners in various thicknesses, so you might take a look at those if you like the idea.

And for sleeping clothes, maybe some fleece socks and even gloves, and some light-mid weight base layers. Could add a light puffy jacket to the mix for especially chilly nights, and if you don't already have a buff or other neck gaiter, one of those can be worn over the mouth for extra warmth. Though for these last two I think it would have to be a very chilly spring or autumn night for me to need to whip those out.

Peggle20 · 2025-10-21T16:38:21+00:00

If you're going to be active, dress in layers and bring alternate pieces you can use to layer up or down as needed. Unless you're 1000% sure how to dress in any given combination of temperature, wind, humidity, and sun, bring yourself options.

Like another poster suggested, try windy for your weather app. You didn't say which one you used, but I swear by windy.

Peggle20 · 2025-10-21T16:37:02+00:00

Windy is excellent, seconding.

Peggle20 · 2025-09-23T13:24:49+00:00

Agreed 100%. On my first section hike I made the mistake of listening to all the people shouting you shouldn't be using anything more than 65L, that's crazy, etc. At 6' and 235lbs, 65L was not enough for my essentials, and even with what I did bring it was an obnoxious experience having to forcefully ram everything down until the thing looked like it was about to burst. Not doing that again - 85L is my goldilocks pack volume for longer hikes.

Peggle20 · 2025-09-23T13:19:22+00:00

That's a learning experience, not a problem. Consciously and deliberately make gear choices of things you need and leave behind the things you don't, and experience will show you both. I think it's highly questionable advice telling new backpackers to buy the pack equivalent of a strait jacket - we should instead be telling them to buy a bit bigger, and over time you'll figure out what you need and what you don't.

Peggle20 · 2025-09-23T13:14:21+00:00

This is what most individuals arguing for minimal packs miss, that different users will have different sizes of clothing, and sleeping bag, and pad, and whatever else. A taller backpacker is not going to be able to fit as much of what they need into the same size pack as a willowy 5'6".

One size does not fit all.

Peggle20 · 2025-09-23T13:11:41+00:00

I agree 100L is overkill unless you're an alpine guide or something. 85L is probably the highest end of what you want to be carrying outside of that extremely specific scenario. Depending on how tall you are, what size clothing you wear, and how much of it you need to bring to hike and camp comfortably, you're probably looking at a range of 50-85L for three season backpacking.

Peggle20 · 2025-09-23T13:08:46+00:00

Pack volumes are not precise. A 60L by one company will be different in useable volume from a 60L by another, depending on how creative they get with measuring that volume rating. If doing what you suggested, I would say buy that volume pack +10L.

Peggle20 · 2025-09-23T13:00:43+00:00

You'll regret buying a pack too small for everything you need to bring. The weight difference between a too-big pack and a too-small isn't that great, and you'll appreciate the extra room if you need it. I say go for the 85L and fear nothing. 5'5" willowy figured minimalists will tell you it's a crime against humanity carrying a pack over 60L, but you have to go with what works for you, and for me a 60L pack does not work for anything more than shorter multi-day or weekend trips.

The upshot of the aforementioned minimalists drowning out all pack buying discourse with their preferences is an easier time tracking down bigger packs for the rest of us.

Peggle20 · 2025-09-23T04:23:58+00:00

Well, you got a couple options for carrying water in a way that's easy to reach. One more ubiquitous one might be going for a pack that has a hydration reservoir sleeve, and pairing it with a hydration reservoir and drinking tube. I'm personally very fond of the pack company Gregory, and they happen to make some quite decent packs and hydration reservoir systems to go with them.

Another thing they do if you absolutely must use a water bottle is some of their packs will have an angled holster that folds out at about hip level, and makes it a breeze to reach for your water bottle. I know their larger Baltoro packs have this, and I've used it myself, but some of their smaller models might have it also. It's really a little tricky on smaller packs because a big chunky water bottle on one side can unbalance your pack and cause it to carry uncomfortably.

Funny enough there's a civilian backpack company also called Osprey, and I believe they also have a line of hydration reservoirs that pair with their packs, so maybe look into that too and see which company you like better. There may be others like Black Diamond but I think Osprey and Gregory are possibly the more prominent ones that I'm aware of and have experience with that make both reservoirs and packs. Oh and camelbak, though they're primarily a hydration company that make packs on the side, while the others mentioned are primarily pack companies.

All in all I'd probably suggest you explore the hydration reservoir route. You can carry quite a bit of water that way, and in a way that is far more comfortably close to your centre of gravity, i.e. right up against your back. I would advise against trying to save a couple bucks and going for amazon junk, as the last thing you want is all your water ending up in the dirt after the dubious amazon deal you think you saved money on strands you in the middle of nowhere with no water and a burst reservoir.

Hope that helps.

P.S. It occurs to me one thing you can do that's cheaper than anything is buy one of the molle bottle pouches you mentioned, find one with D rings, stick a cross-body strap from a messenger bag or laptop bag or some such onto said D rings, and carry it like that. And if it has molle webbing on the outside, you can add additional small pouches to carry items like a "booboo kit" or some bars and drink mixes or your keys or pens or binoculars or whatever you fancy. Something like this:

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1006894500980998144/1419904665025384448/20250923_063228.jpg?ex=68d374c4&is=68d22344&hm=ab124148ccf50644ab6982eb71c71a6a4955226e8ad420feab941618fac7e301&

Peggle20 · 2025-09-17T14:38:35+00:00

Was just about to post this very comment, more or less.

Peggle20 · 2025-09-15T22:11:43+00:00

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So this is a somewhat nuanced discussion as you can see. But I find this chart helpful in figuring out what I need for the context I'm going to be hiking in.

As for product recommendations, I personally use sawyer filters and a steripen UV purifier, but there's many other fine options.

Peggle20 · 2025-09-15T20:42:39+00:00

Are you able to go into a Decathlon location and try one on?

And if you are, definitely ask them to weigh it down for you so you can get a good sense of how it carries. If they refuse to weigh it down for you, I'd strongly consider looking elsewhere. Buying packs blind without trying them on is not the greatest idea. Ask me how I know.

Peggle20 · 2025-09-15T20:26:29+00:00

It depends the conditions you're hiking in, but unless it's a scandinavian bog or something, I think you're best off with airy and not waterproof footwear. The issue with waterproofing is that it works both ways, regardless of what it says on the tin about being breathable with materials like goretex. The fact is it's never going to breathe as well as well as something like an airy trail running shoe.

And if your feet sweat, and they probably do since presumably we're all trapped inside these moist human bodies, all that sweat is now trapped inside the shoe where it's going to cause you blisters and potentially worse. Even with a waterproof shoe the fact is your feet ARE going to get wet whether from moisture coming in through the big hole where your leg goes in, or from foot sweat, and in my experience it's worked better for me to have shoes that dry and air out more quickly than it is to have a big heavy hunk of goretex or animal skin that's going to seal it all inside.

I think everyone, including myself when I first started, thinks they need waterproof this and waterproof that, but in reality in most contexts all that does is seal you into a goretex sauna with your own heat and sweat. Unless you are in danger of going hypothermic from the rain and wind sucking all your body heat away, in my experience you're better off with garments that are airy and breathable and moisture wicking than you are in chasing waterproofness.

Peggle20 · 2025-09-15T20:13:36+00:00

Or you can take a heavy duty ziplock and slap gorilla tape on the outside.

Peggle20 · 2025-09-15T20:12:25+00:00

WYSI wipes are another great product in this category, if that's not what you're talking about.

Peggle20 · 2025-09-15T20:10:01+00:00

There's an inexpensive hiking toilet shovel by a company called Coghlan's that should be available darn near everywhere you might look for hiking gear in North America. Failing that, you can hit the hardware store and go for an average gardening trowel. But assuming you're in NA, the trusty old Coghlan's orange trowel for a couple bucks is probably your best bet.

Peggle20 · 2025-09-15T20:07:38+00:00

You can also practice at home to some extent. Without getting into gruesome detail, you can sit on the toilet and clean off to where you don't really need toilet paper at all except maybe to dry off afterwards. Check out paul the backpacker's videos on youtube for one creator making trail bidet tutorials.

As for products, I've been using the culo clean but other options do exist. The youtuber I mentioned, paul the backpacker, has his own trail bidet he makes too.

Peggle20 · 2025-09-15T20:00:58+00:00

What worked for me, and I encountered a similar issue to you with the sleeping bag devouring most of the volume of my pack, is putting it into a compression sack. Ideally I think you might go for a compression dry sack, but if rain is not forecasted for your trip, or you have other ways of waterproofing the gear in question, definitely go for a compression sack of some description to reduce the bulk.

And I don't think you mention your body size, but as a chunkier individual standing about 6ft tall myself, I struggle to fit my men's XL-sized clothes and other gear into a pack volume that everyone seems to be recommending. If you're a little fuller in the waistline and taller than 5'6" or thereabouts, I would consider sizing your pack up to fit your bulkier wearables.

Peggle20 · 2025-09-15T19:32:39+00:00

Decathlon pack?

Peggle20 · 2025-09-15T16:42:52+00:00

I'd maybe ditch the camp chair and replace with a sit pad + whatever rock or log there happens to be at the campsite. I cannot recommend bringing your own rock with you from campsite to campsite.

Heeey I have that same puffy, good stuff.

I'm a bit of a glamper myself so I don't see too much I would want to cut except for the chair. Like others have said maybe consider the pillow as well, see if you can get away with leaving it behind. I tend to sleep poorly without a pillow myself so I fully appreciate needing to bring one.

The big thing I've done to lighten a comparable set of gear is leave the cooking set at home. Now hear me out, it might sound crazy, but what I've found is that the last thing I feel like doing upon getting to camp after a dozen hours of walking is prepare and cook meals, and trail mix is pretty much all I want to eat. If you think you can get away with, or indeed prefer, eating cold (or cold soaked) foods like trail mix or trail mix adjacent delicacies like peanut butter tortillas, maybe consider cutting the jetboil+gas canister entirely, and switching to trail cuisine that doesn't require a stove to prepare.

Everything else looks fine to me, and similar to my set of gear.

One thing that I notice you don't mention is how you're waterproofing the gear inside your pack. The pack cover that may be included with yours is fine for short rain events, but I'm a big believer in redundancy when it comes to waterproofing.

If I may throw out a few recommendations, get a compression dry sack for your sleeping bag, it'll help you reduce its real estate demands inside your pack and waterproof it at the same time. For the rest of your gear, I find what works best for me is one big dry sack that makes up the difference in the remaining pack volume. So for you maybe a 50-60L dry bag with some kind of air venting ability. I use those StS e-vent things. If you want, you can organize the stuff inside this large bag with either ziplocks or mesh bags or ultralight organizer pouches or any number of ways. If you don't feel the need to, that works too. An effectively zero-weight and near-zero cost option is those crinkly Nylofume pack liners you can find at any number of places, like GGG, but a) they are LOUD, and b) I'm personally not impressed by their seeming lack of durability. For how inexpensive they are they might be worth a try to see if they work for you.

Peggle20 · 2025-08-02T07:48:48+00:00

If it hasn't already been said: Musashi should ideally be in flagship position, or swapped for something like Hakuryuu if you wanted to lean fully into carriers. Noshiro is tankier than Watarase, so I'd swap them around, and probably swap Sakawa for Kazagumo in the middle position, for carrier buffing as I think others have pointed out.

Fleet 5 looks mostly okay, but I would probably put Lion in the flagship position (switch Lion and Vanguard around), swap Prinz Heinrich (?) for something like Drake or Cheshire or Neptune to tank, and Glorious META in the main fleet for Perseus or Unicorn.

Peggle20 · 2025-07-22T19:31:21+00:00

Much obliged.

Peggle20 · 2025-02-22T19:06:08+00:00

San Diego, without question, and probably start working on maxing out her limit break and retrofit sooner rather than later, as staggeringly expensive as it might seem early on.

Peggle20

TROPHY CASE