[at-l] my new sleeping bag

[dah8@cornell.edu (David Hollman)]

Susan Buchanan said:
> OK, I bought it without knowing anything about it, when I came across
> it at Neels Gap, after sleeping way too warm in my 3 season bag.  Barb
> commented that, when stuffed, it "looks like a football".  I was really
> impressed with how light it was.  And the cost was really reasonable
> (only $99).  So, I bought it.  Now, I'm doing my research, and it seems
> that I lucked out on a really nice summer bag (been needing one
> anyway!).  Here it is:
>
> http://www.backcountry-equipment.com/catalog/FERRINO/hlmicro.html
>
> anyone else have experience with this one??

I bought this bag last year in Hot Springs for the same price. Its weight
and size and temperature rating all seemed too good to be true! And maybe
they were... after a few weeks (I don't remember exactly but it wasn't a
very long time) I started to feel something funny by my feet. After a
couple nights of ignoring this I turned the thing inside out and discovered
big tears in the seams. Exposed insulation. Yuck!

Duct tape served very well to patch it up (although it feels pretty weird
next to your skin) but I was really surprised at the poor quality. I
eventually got off the AT in Harpers Ferry and in the intervening time the
bag continued to slowly fall apart. I still have it, not really sure what
to do about it.

To be fair I have no knowledge if this is a common thing with Ferrino
products. It could have been isolated to my bag. However, even the stuff
sack started to fall apart too... so draw your own conclusions.

Have a great trip,
David