Sleeping Bags and Turkey Creek

My first good sleeping bag was a The North Face Cat's Meow that I purchased to ride across country with. The best testimonial for it was when I woke up in late November in Ilinois feeling a little damp. Looking around, I saw that baseball park I was in had flooded, and the raised platform I was sleeping on was underwater about two inches. I moved my sleeping bag out of the water and spent the rest of the night drying it out while sleeping in it on a picnic tale under an awning. That sleeping bag served me very well for many years.

Next I bought a Wiggy's. It's an absolutely bulletproof bag and it was well suited to Search and Rescue work. When I took back up outdooring last year I decided to buy a new Wiggy's. Not because anything was wrong with my original, but because I wanted a lighter weight bag that wasn't quite as warm. They had a good sale on their double bags though, so I ended up with two Wiggy's that are 0F and 40F and which mate into a -40C bag. But in the long run, I'm still mostly in the SAR mentality with them. I decided over the past week that I was going to give down a try again. My experiences with down were all from Search and Rescue in the years before I bought my own sleeping bag. The team had many military issue down bags which were warm, but heavy, leaky, and susceptible to water. I shopped around on the internet on Thursday, but I didn't quite feel comfortable buying anything. I shopped around at REI on Friday, but I wasn't happy with what I saw. But having looked at some bags in person I went back to shopping around on the internet today, and I settled on a very popular Marmot 40F bag. Campmor (http://www.campmor.com) had a good price, and only $20 for next day air, so I expect to have it on Wednesday. I am going to Turkey Creek on Friday, and it would be nice to have a tiny little down bag that weighs nearly nothing.

My Turkey Creek plan involves leaving town on Friday afternoon after work and driving to the end of the road in the Gila. I'll camp the night, then hike in to the Turkey Creek in the morning. I'm going to try and pack light. Lighter than I did back in August when I last did this. My Vibram Five Fingers will play a big part in this. I will have no need to take boots, and no need to take sandals. That cuts a lot of weight out right from the start. A lightweight down sleeping bag will save me a couple of pounds. I'm debating skipping the water filter and just using the chemical tablets. I probably won't take a change of clothes so that will save weight. Although I don't need socks, they are nice to wear in the sleeping bag. But I doubt it will be cold enough so I should skip the socks too. Food will be ready to eat so I won't need a stove. I should be able to pack lightly.

The Gila Ranger District has a warning in red letters that the river is very high, cold, and swift. I'd already guessed that a couple of weeks ago without checking their website. I've done it before, I can do it again. According to the Gila's online water tracking website, the gauge height is over five feet right now. Not as high as it was several days ago, but still quite high.

It should be fun.