Exped DownMat 7

After 3 weeks, one of the air valves broke. Fortunately there are two of these valves. So not bothering to super-glue it I would blow the mat up from the other valve and leave the broken valve closed.
It did develop a leak and by the time I was about to complete the trail the mat wasn’t lasting the night inflated.
Having the bag the mat is stored in work to inflate the mat was great. I didn’t notice anyone else having this kind of sleeping pad, but I’m totally sold on it. However, after returning to California and returning the pad to REI intending to get a replacement I was told they don’t have stock in store or online. So it’s the REI Lite-Core 1.5 self-inflating pad for the Great Divide.

Backpacking Light UL 180 Quilt

This has to be my biggest disappointment. With the Quilt, Cocoon pants & Hoody on I was still cold during the night, even with temperatures in the 40’s. I attribute this to the draft that was coming under the quilt that I could not avoid. Every time I turned over during the night I would expose my lower back to this draft and then wake up only to try to pull the quilt in closer and eliminate the draft. It just didn’t work out for me. I did pick up a silk liner in Franklin that helped. I was tempted to have my sleeping bag delivered to me in Kent, Connecticut but by that time it was getting warmer and I thought my 15F(-9 Celsius) sleeping bag would be too hot.

I carried this from day one all the way to Mt Katahdin. Early on in the hike this made for a great base pillow as I was sleeping in the shelters and avoiding getting it wet. However, when I could find flat ground and wanted to get an early night and avoid the potential of noisy hikers coming into a shelter late I would set it up. My technique of setting up changed. I started with pegging the rear stakes then placing the trekking pole in the front and pegging the front stakes. However, I was finding that the rear risers wouldn’t stay upright as I went around to the front. So later on the hike I would put the trekking pole in first then the front stakes, walk around to the rear holding the tarp material taut so the trekking pole wouldn’t collapse. I would then peg the rear stakes. This approach seemed to require less adjusting to get the right tension.

The TarpTent is definitely quick to setup but somewhat tricky to achieve the right level of tension and placement of the stakes to maximize the tarp’s internal space. Internal space was definitely tight, I would either leave my pack under the small vestibule (which didn’t cover it entirely) or leave my pack hanging in the shelter. Some gear was also kept along the sides of my sleeping pad, however that sometimes compromised the bathtub floor. After Kent, Connecticut I made a decision to sleep in the tent as much as I could when the weather was good. I slept better in the tent. Twice I slept in thunderstorms and it held up well provided I had the right tension for the bathtub floor. I did put a couple of holes in it when the trekking pole came out of its grommet.

Once in the White Mountains, all that was available was tent platforms, which aren’t so great for tents requiring to be staked. Somehow I managed, but my view on that might have been different if it had rained on those nights.

Would I carry this again on the thru-hike?

Definitely. Apart from the difficulty of erecting it on a tent platform, the tent was great strategically to avoid needing to go shelter to shelter. It was also comforting to know when I went to sleep that I wasn’t going to get woken up with hikers coming in late. Finally, because I was protected all the way around with no-see-um netting, I could avoid the mosquitoes that would cause so much distress in Maine.