[cdt-l] synthetic versus down... at/pct/cdt stuff

[cdt-l@mailman.backcountry.net (Sloetoe)]

--- cdt-l-request@mailman.backcountry.net wrote:
> From: HikerQs@aol.com
> Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2001 23:22:45 EST
> (I am convinced that, like that fleece stuff, synthetic bags get 
> good press because of their profit margin.)
### Oh, great. I've been a big fan of fleece for <counting now> 22 years.
### As an economist, I should point out that the profit margin will be bid
down to where the three types of insulation earn comparatively the same.
No one holds a manufacturer to a given type of insulation -- they migrate
to the use of that unsulation which best agrees with their designs,
construction costs, intended uses/buyers, and profit. The last two are
demand driven, and rule the day.

> For those who have heard the Uninformed whisper, "what if your bag gets
> wet," 
### The uninformed *and those informed by thousands of miles and decades
of experience.

> I says, "DON'T LET IT GET WET." It ain't that hard (see below).
### Fair enough, by it's too hard for me. Just this past Thanksgiving,
scooting through the Smokys with way below expected temps (10*F with a 20*
bag), I was disappointed to find my bag wet/frozen from trapped
evaporation/condensation from my not liberating sufficient heat to throw
trapped clothing moisture all the way through the bag. In all the winter
nights out I'd spent as a youth (camping between -10* and 30*F), I'd never
seen that. It was gone by the third morning (a balmy 24*), but two nights
were quite uncomfortable. But I'd HATE to think about where I would have
been with a down bag.

### Hmmmmm. I think I'm talking myself out of down now....... Dang.


Sloetoe

PS: Ginny, you asked "when cdt?" I have little idea, but if I don't
educate myself, I won't be positioned to take advantage of an appropriate
situation should it come up. In absolute terms, the last two years have
been wayyyyy too whacky for me to think a cdt through is not possible.
Hell, it would seem quite appropo.

And as much as I (will forever) love the AT, ...... , ....... , I'm scared
of the crowds. Even the PCT is sounding (as I learn more) a bit too
circus-like. (RonMoak, care to comment?) I'm not intending to sound like
an agoraphobe(sp?), but I'd be seeking the magnitude of my AT experience,
and as fun as the "social trail" thing is, it's not what I went for, nor
what I *would*go* for......

BTW, folks, Vermont's Long Trail is beauuuuuutiful.

OK, then....

=====
There is little use for the being whose tepid soul knows nothing of the great and generous emotions of the high pride, the stern belief, the lofty enthusiasm, of the men who quell the storm and ride the thunder.

T.Roosevelt 4/23/10

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