Another vote for quilt use here. I just switched to one for my last tour. We saw night temps of ~40 and up to the 70s. One really nice thing about the quilt is the versatility of it for different temperatures. I would highly recommend putting in a few hours of research on some backpacking forums. And I, too, am a boxer sleeper. If you do go on a backpacking forum, get ready for most people to tell you that you're supposed to be sleeping like a bound up mummy wearing all of your clothes at once and a sleeping bag that barely fits around you, like some sort of bike touring sausage. Another thing to consider is material. Some of those non-breathable materials are going to get clammy on bare skin. I was in nylon on my last tour and some of the warmer nights were a little clammy on the skin. I've read that some use silk on the inside of their DIY quilts.
Originally Posted by
Gyrine
Avoid at all costs synthetic fill of any kind mostly because they are huge, take up half your ruck, and are heavy.
Maybe 20yrs ago, but this isn't so true these days. There are plenty of ultra-light backpackers using synthetics for their quilts and bags. Also, you should look into inflatable sleep pads. Those don't have to be bulky anymore. Now they roll up quite small and the cold weather pads have insulation filling to keep you warm, even if you're sleeping on a frozen lake.
Originally Posted by
staehpj1
There are reasons why one might use synthetic insulation including some of the reasons you mentioned, but any synthetic insulation I have seen used in sleeping bags is neither as light nor as compressible as down. In fact no synthetic sleeping bag that I have seen even comes close to down for packed size or light weight.
For weight, synthetic is there now. They're making really nice, light weight hollow tube synthetic insulations. They don't compress as much as down, but they compress small enough. They certainly at least "come close" to down.