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By the creator of The Faithful Prepper and Zombie Choices.
We’ve talked before a bit about emergency sleeping luggage and a few of my ideas on these. They’re okay, and so they get the job performed more-or-less, however they’re definitely no substitute for an precise sleeping bag. And let’s be clear, you do want a sleeping bag in your BOB. Even in summertime, the outside will get chilly at night time.
However listed below are the issues:
Sleeping luggage are usually extremely cumbersome. Except you’re carrying a full-sized mountaineering backpack with you in all places, you’re not going to have the ability to match them.
There are extra packable sleeping luggage on the market, however they’re extremely costly. Except you’re feeling like dropping $200-300, they’re going to be out of attain.
And that’s the place we discover ourselves in one thing of a dilemma. We do want a bag, however we want one thing that may pack right down to an inexpensive measurement, and that received’t break the financial institution within the course of. I’ve spent a variety of nights out within the woods, and thus far, I can say that I believe one in all your finest choices to satisfy these wants is the Snugpak Jungle Bag.
Right here’s why.
For starters, this pack simply packs right down to smaller than a basketball.
That’s a game-changer on the planet of sleeping luggage. You possibly can simply match this bag into an assault bag with out working out of area. That’s not even on the desk with the sleeping luggage you’re going to search out at your native mountaineering retailer.
I packed this out for an evening hammock tenting deep within the mountains simply the opposite day and was completely impressed right here. Sometimes, I’m the oddball that prefers an exterior body mountaineering backpack. I at all times strap my sleeping bag into an exterior hammock/carriage that’s mounted onto the underside of my pack, proper on the high of the hip.
The Jungle Bag was really too small to suit there. Even with the straps tightened down so far as they may go, the Jungle Bag would simply slide proper out. To me, one of many causes I love external frames is that I don’t should unpack every part to get to sleep at night time. The sleeping bag is true there. I don’t like having to stuff in two basketballs’ price of sleeping bag and attempt to discover area for every part else as nicely.
This bag was sufficiently small that I didn’t have to fret about all that. It really has me contemplating trying into choosing up an inside body pack (You get higher stability with them than you do with exterior frames. Exterior body packs have a little bit of sway to them – not very best when shifting over rocky terrain.) If I can stuff a teeny sleeping bag into an inside body with out having to fret about how a lot area it takes up – that’s an enormous profit to me.
For those who’re the form of person who does a variety of touring and likes to maintain a sleeping bag in your car just in case, that is a straightforward toss-it-in-the-trunk-and-forget-it kind of bag that may assist to maintain you ready with out hogging up all of your area as nicely.
Humidity was simply 80+% once I went out, and temperatures have been simply 80+ levels Fahrenheit as nicely. In different phrases, it was dang scorching to be backpacking with a 30+ pound pack up a mountain.
It was so scorching, in actual fact, that I discovered myself drenched in sweat simply laying in my hammock on high of the sleeping bag. I believe a big a part of this was as a consequence of my tarp having a reflective floor on the bottom of it and blocking any small quantity of wind. This was simply the buggiest place I’ve ever camped in my whole life, although, so I needed to maintain the tarp current to assist hold a number of the gigantic flying issues (I’m fairly positive they have been new species.) off my face. One half-dollar-sized factor nonetheless discovered its method to my neck, however I saved the remaining at bay.
(Speaking about sleeping luggage…take a look at our free QUICKSTART Guide to emergency evacuations.)
The cool factor about this was that I didn’t have an issue with the Jungle Bag sticking to my pores and skin, regardless of being drenched in sweat.
If I had introduced my “regular” sleeping bag with that warmth, I might’ve been sleeping on fly paper.
Come midnight, the climate turned from smokin’ scorching to utterly frigid (my buddy tells me that’s what courting a bipolar particular person is like), and I rapidly woke to attempt to wedge my manner into the Jungle Bag. To anyone who’s ever tried to get right into a silky sleeping bag whereas laying in a silky hammock, you find yourself trying one thing like an inch worm on a treadmill. It’s fairly troublesome.
The bag saved me good and toasty, although, so I used to be joyful.
My again acquired chilly, however that was as a result of I didn’t have an underquilt on my hammock (I took it off once I thought I used to be going to have a warmth stroke at 9 PM.). Having your again get chilly is an extremely widespread hammock camper grievance often known as Chilly Butt Syndrome, so I don’t attribute that to being a unfavorable in the direction of the Jungle Bag, however as a substitute, simply a part of hammock tenting.
My buddy, Yankee, was hammock tenting along with his Jungle Bag as nicely and talked about even his again acquired chilly. It’s simply par for the course.
The bag is rated for a consolation degree of 45 levels Fahrenheit and can allegedly hold you alive right down to 36 levels. I wouldn’t pack this in your winter BOB, however within the hotter months, it can serve the job completely. It was barely bigger than the SOL Escape Bivvy that I’d beforehand examined, so I believe it makes a no brainer of a alternative between the 2: decide the Jungle Bag.
No bugs, no issues.
Mosquito netting is current across the face of the sleeping bag, so you possibly can actually zip your self fully up within the bag with out having to fret about buggies consuming you.
You are going to should put on a billed hat, although, as you sleep to maintain the netting off of your face. In any other case, buggies will nonetheless be capable of chunk you thru the mesh, and it’s probably not that enjoyable to wake with spiders the dimensions of your palm strolling in your nostril, even when there is a layer of cloth between you and them. Put on a hat.
I at all times carry mosquito netting once I go hammock tenting, to start with, however the Jungle Bag already having it makes me marvel if I couldn’t get by leaving it at dwelling. It will give me room for one more two meals if I did so and turns into redundant for those who’re carrying this sleeping bag.
We did discover that on the foot of the bag, the 2 zippers left only a tiny quantity of area between them the place one thing small might crawl in if it was fortunate sufficient to search out the opening. For those who’re hammock tenting, that actually wouldn’t be something to fret about.
For those who have been sleeping on the bottom beneath the celebrities, that could possibly be a difficulty. I don’t ever suggest sleeping beneath the celebrities, although. It’s too dang chilly, it’s uncomfortable, and creepy crawlies will faucet dance in your brow all night time lengthy.
Final time I slept semi-under the celebrities was in a 3-walled path shelter. Mice saved working throughout me, a bat saved flying about two toes over my face, and it was usually disagreeable. If that’s how a path shelter works, I’ve little interest in simply sleeping on the bottom in a discipline.
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What was the ultimate verdict?
I wholeheartedly suppose the Jungle Bag is a good deal. They run proper round $70, pack down extremely small, are light-weight, don’t stick with your pores and skin for those who’re drenched in sweat, are handy to hold, will hold you heat, and include their very own mosquito netting.
There actually isn’t any good motive I might discover to not just like the Jungle Bag. You possibly can pack it into actually any bag that you just carry each day, and it might simply help your entry into the semi-mythological discipline of ultralight backpacking.
My ideas? Test them out. We preferred them, and you’ll too.
Have you ever tried this sleeping bag? Do you may have one other alternative for summer time sleeping luggage? Let’s discuss it within the feedback.
About Aden
Aden Tate is an everyday contributor to TheOrganicPrepper.com and TheFrugalite.com. Aden runs a micro-farm the place he raises dairy goats, a pig, honeybees, meat chickens, laying chickens, tomatoes, mushrooms, and greens. Aden has 4 printed books, The Faithful Prepper, An Arm and a Leg, The Prepper’s Guide to Post-Disaster Communications, and Zombie Choices. You’ll find his podcast The Final American on Preppers’ Broadcasting Network.
