I had purchased a Western Mountaineering MityLite sleeping bag and mine came with two sets of zippers. The second set allows me to unzip the foot end and the other will zip up the side which makes the bag a tube of sorts.
This got me to thinking one day while reading about top and bottom quits. I had previously tried sleeping in the bag while it was in the hammock and experienced "cold butt syndrome" for the first time. It made me realize that when I was sleeping "in" the bag I was compressing the feather down I was sleeping on. After reading about bottom quilts I started trying to figure out a way to use something like a vest as a bottom quilt (being a light weight backpacker I always look for items that can do double duty).
Then it hit me that I could take my sleeping bag and run the hammock through it and then zip up the foot end as much as possible and tie the end of the sleeping bag to my suspension system so that end wouldn't move. I then put my silk mummy liner in my hammock and used the sleeping bag as both a top and a bottom quilt.
I have done this a couple of times now and once it got down close to freezing and I was snug as a bug in a rug, so to speak.
Has anyone else tried this? What were your results?
Yep.
Its known as a pod or pea-pod system. It works, but can limit the sprawling leg room that most folks like. I did similar systems with a few different bags. I have some pics in my profile, if your interested.
Quite a few folks do it and like it.
I did not realize the pod or pea-pod system was what I had discovered on my own. I guess the name should have told me what it was but sometimes without a picture it is hard to image. I have just recently gotten into hammock camping and I have found that I can easily sleep on my side or back using the pea-pod system with my sleeping bag.
I added a couple of more pictures to my gallery of my trip to Lost Maples State Natural Area. Here are two more shots of my setup which may show better how I am using my sleeping bag as a Peapod.
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