Expedition.Report
Explorer
In an effort to make overlanding as comfortable as possible for my significant other, I finally decided to bite the bullet and purchase a roof top tent last August days before a 4000km round trip down to Yellowstone and back. We enjoyed the added comfort and we very happy we made the investment, however there were a few things we wanted to sort out before our big overland trip this summer:
1- Where to put your shoes as you climb into the tent for the night?
Link to how I solved this problem:
2- What is the best blanket/sleeping bag combo for warmth when the mercury drop to around 0*C (32*F for my neighbors to the south)
What I am going to continue to review further below
3- How to make the mattress more comfortable for my special lady?
Still trying to figure this one out, third time is the charm (I hope)
Part 2 continued:
I have tried many different combos to see what was best for a good night’s sleep, and I think I found the answer. Simply put, it’s a purpose built RTT two person sleeping bag from Treeline Outdoors. Link
I had been eyeing up a bunch of different two person sleeping bags out there ranging from the low end of the market at $130 to some of the high dollar $450 bags (yes they are down filled, but I can’t justify spending that much!). In the middle of the range was the Treeline Outdoor “The Simple Man 2 person Canvas Sleeping bag” at $250 CND. From looking at the pictures on line and reading the description I figured that it has good enough spec’s and features that it was worth the $250 gamble of buying it before seeing it. But since we were trying to plan this trip on a strict budget, this purchase would have to wait a while before we would go through putting in our order.
As fate would have it the bag would be in our hands sooner rather than expected, I saw a post on Instagram from them announcing a 50% off sale for one week only (ending June 4th) on the Simple man. I had my order completed no more than 5 minutes after the post was made. As it seems at the time of writing this that many others jumped on this opportunity as well because the site now lists the bag as “Sold Out”.
Shipping was very quick once the product was sent, and communication with the company was excellent, always got a response back the same day as my question.
The bag made it to me 3 days before a big three day trip into the mountains with the local club, again it was perfect timing. The trail took us deep into the mountains and on our way up we knew we were going to be testing the limits of this bag, there was still 2.5’ of snow and as we made camp the mercury was down below 0*C.
Once we climbed into the tent for the night we were lulled to sleep by the sounds of the water rushing over the cliff face as the snow melt from the mountain above fed Ruby Fall with countless gallons of water per minute & we were warm, comfortable and couldn't think of a better place to be.
The sleeping bag has some great features that make the RTT experience more enjoyable, It features a soft flannel lining (nothing worse than slipping around in your sleeping bag all night). It has a built in pillow pocket that helps keep your pillow from running away from you in the middle of the night, this pocket could have been slightly longer to make full use of the bags size, 6” on either side, but still worked good as is. There are zippered pockets which worked great for tucking way our cell phone as we set an alarm to ensure that we didn't over sleep and were prompt to get back on the trail early the next morning and we didn't have to worry about the sound getting muffled by layers of blanket or body that could have ended up on top of the phone if it were not tucked away. Lastly it seemed to fit our CVT tent like a glove even though it was designed specifically for Treeline Outdoor’s own line of tents.
In the end I am sure there are many of you on this forum that don’t experience the cold night time temperatures that we do in the Spring and Fall and having a warm and cozy sleeping bag is not high on your priority when a nice little blanket will do. But for those of you that are tired of waking up with cold feet, or can’t seem to put enough layers on to keep warm, I would strongly suggest taking a look at this option!
1- Where to put your shoes as you climb into the tent for the night?
Link to how I solved this problem:
2- What is the best blanket/sleeping bag combo for warmth when the mercury drop to around 0*C (32*F for my neighbors to the south)
What I am going to continue to review further below
3- How to make the mattress more comfortable for my special lady?
Still trying to figure this one out, third time is the charm (I hope)
Part 2 continued:
I have tried many different combos to see what was best for a good night’s sleep, and I think I found the answer. Simply put, it’s a purpose built RTT two person sleeping bag from Treeline Outdoors. Link
I had been eyeing up a bunch of different two person sleeping bags out there ranging from the low end of the market at $130 to some of the high dollar $450 bags (yes they are down filled, but I can’t justify spending that much!). In the middle of the range was the Treeline Outdoor “The Simple Man 2 person Canvas Sleeping bag” at $250 CND. From looking at the pictures on line and reading the description I figured that it has good enough spec’s and features that it was worth the $250 gamble of buying it before seeing it. But since we were trying to plan this trip on a strict budget, this purchase would have to wait a while before we would go through putting in our order.
As fate would have it the bag would be in our hands sooner rather than expected, I saw a post on Instagram from them announcing a 50% off sale for one week only (ending June 4th) on the Simple man. I had my order completed no more than 5 minutes after the post was made. As it seems at the time of writing this that many others jumped on this opportunity as well because the site now lists the bag as “Sold Out”.
Shipping was very quick once the product was sent, and communication with the company was excellent, always got a response back the same day as my question.
The bag made it to me 3 days before a big three day trip into the mountains with the local club, again it was perfect timing. The trail took us deep into the mountains and on our way up we knew we were going to be testing the limits of this bag, there was still 2.5’ of snow and as we made camp the mercury was down below 0*C.
Once we climbed into the tent for the night we were lulled to sleep by the sounds of the water rushing over the cliff face as the snow melt from the mountain above fed Ruby Fall with countless gallons of water per minute & we were warm, comfortable and couldn't think of a better place to be.
The sleeping bag has some great features that make the RTT experience more enjoyable, It features a soft flannel lining (nothing worse than slipping around in your sleeping bag all night). It has a built in pillow pocket that helps keep your pillow from running away from you in the middle of the night, this pocket could have been slightly longer to make full use of the bags size, 6” on either side, but still worked good as is. There are zippered pockets which worked great for tucking way our cell phone as we set an alarm to ensure that we didn't over sleep and were prompt to get back on the trail early the next morning and we didn't have to worry about the sound getting muffled by layers of blanket or body that could have ended up on top of the phone if it were not tucked away. Lastly it seemed to fit our CVT tent like a glove even though it was designed specifically for Treeline Outdoor’s own line of tents.
In the end I am sure there are many of you on this forum that don’t experience the cold night time temperatures that we do in the Spring and Fall and having a warm and cozy sleeping bag is not high on your priority when a nice little blanket will do. But for those of you that are tired of waking up with cold feet, or can’t seem to put enough layers on to keep warm, I would strongly suggest taking a look at this option!
