Sleeping Bag

[rickster]

Hi, I'm from SW Florida and I'm starting the Camino May 11th. Still undecided about whether to carry a lightweight sleeping bag. Also, do these bags stuff in your backpack or do you just attach them to the outside of the pack? Any recommendations?

 

[colinPeter]

Still undecided about whether to carry a lightweight sleeping bag. Also, do these bags stuff in your backpack or do you just attach them to the outside of the pack?

Hi Rickster,
Most people seem to carry a bag, most carry inside their pack (less vunerable to rain), but I have seen others attach them to the outside of pack. I think the size of your pack might determine the options you have. I use a slightly larger pack than most would suggest, my view is just because you have the space you don't have to "jam pack it". This way my sleeping bag goes inside, I use a waterproof stuff sack for it (larger than the sleeping bag stuff sack), this way it is easy to pack & unpack. Regarding recomendations, they tend to get lighter with price, mummy style packs smaller, nice to have a decent section for your head this acts a a pillow cover.
Buen Camino.
Col.

 

[rickster]

Col., thanks so much for your response. Very good feedback for a rookie trekker like me. Rickster

 

[dougfitz]

Hi, I'm from SW Florida and I'm starting the Camino May 11th. Still undecided about whether to carry a lightweight sleeping bag. Also, do these bags stuff in your backpack or do you just attach them to the outside of the pack? Any recommendations?

My recommendation is to carry a lightweight sleeping bag, around +5 deg C, but some people seem to have walked with just a thicker liner. The issue is whether you can find albergues that have blankets, and not all do.
I don't believe in carrying anything outside my pack if possible.

Regards,

 

[Deleted member 3000]

My nylon liner cannot be described as a thicker liner. It weighs about 4 ounces, but warms me about 10 degrees F. In May, June, and July, most of the albergues were so hot inside that the liner was more for modesty than warmth. I may have been lucky, but blankets were available the couple of times I needed them (though I also have a Tyvek sheet that adds another 10 degrees of warmth, and used it a couple of times). The liner is home-made and has a pocket/pillow case that fits the long European (French, actually) pillows. So I have a complete barrier against bed bugs (having treated the liner and sheet with permethrin).

Only you know if you sleep "cold." If you do, take a sleeping bag. If you don't, expect that the other 100 bodies in the dormitory will keep the place quite warm and stuffy at night. In either case, consider that you will carry for a month something that you might only need twice, and those times there may be blankets available that you don't have to carry at all. Taking anything that you "might need" should be carefully contemplated -- is there an alternative that might eliminate carrying the item?

 

[dougfitz]

I should have mentioned that I finished my Camino in May, and had used my own sleeping bag and liner every night in preference to using blankets. Many pilgrims seemed to pay scant heed to what I had considered sound hygiene practice, and didn't bother with a liner or sheet when using the albergue blankets. Only in Galicia did the albergues that I used provide disposable sheets and pillowslips that addressed this.

When I walked, there was only one place where there were anything close to 100 other pilgrims present in the dormitory, and that was at Najera. After that experience, I was happy to forego the prospect that there might have been some benefit from the close proximity of so many others, and avoided larger albergues where I could.

In any case, Najera appears to be unusual in only having the one large dormitory, and in most other places, the dormitory rooms were much smaller even where the albergue itself might have been accommodating more pilgrims.

I wouldn't change my recommendation, but clearly I was walking earlier in the year than you intend to, and my experience less relevant than others who have walked later in the year.

Regards,

 

[Deleted member 3000]

Información sobre el Albergue Ferramenteiro

Impresión general:
Estado de conservación: Muy bien
Disponibilidad del albergue: Según demanda
Precio: 10 euros el alojamiento
Plazas
Plazas totales: 130
Nº de plazas en litera: 130

One of the best, and the largest, of the albergues. It has one sleeping room with divider curtains, two kitchens, a lounge, separate toilet and showers facilities, lots of blankets (ask for them), a large covered drying area, lots of computer connections, and only one side with windows. On an early July night with all the windows open, it was sweltering.