So I'm just returning from just under 2 weeks in Alaska and I used the trip to try a bunch of things that I will be posting on. The first thing I wanted to discuss is my experience with a Borah Bug Bivy. The version I have is a long/wide model and I had a custom zipper setup installed. Anyway, I was just curious as to other's experiences with a bivy like this. Here are a couple of my observations:
1) When trying it out at home, it seemed like it would have plenty of room but "in the field" with my XLite pad and 30* EE quilt, I found that the interior space got fairly constricting pretty quickly. I move in my sleep and usually sleep on my side. One thing I was thinking about was to move the pad outside of the bivy not only for space reasons but also for reasons I will mention in my next point. Anyone else find it to be a little restricting or run the pad outside of the bivy?
2) It seemed like every night I was in a rodeo with the bivy. Every night I was on relatively flat ground but the combination of the pad inside the bivy (with silnylon floor) and then on top of a sheet of Tyvek caused me to be sliding around all over the place. I would often wake up to find that I had "rotated" in the bivy and would be laying on part of the bug netting. It would then take a bit of effort to get back to where I could get it unzipped.
3) The bivy has two stake loops at the foot but none at the head so I may add a couple to help keep it in place and in the correct orientation. However, if I stake it down, I may not have space under the bivy for the pad and have to keep it inside. Then again, perhaps it might work better to have the pad held in place tightly under the bivy. Anyone added additional stake points to a bivy to help hold it in place?
4) To reduce some of the slipping around, I plan to smear, drip, dot, etc. some silicone on the inside and/or outside of the silnylon bottom. I also need to do this to the bottom of my pad(s) and perhaps this would be a better place to start as it would help hold the pad in the bivy as well as other nests.
Overall I just wanted to post up these observations and see if anyone wanted to chime in with their experiences and suggestions.
1) When trying it out at home, it seemed like it would have plenty of room but "in the field" with my XLite pad and 30* EE quilt, I found that the interior space got fairly constricting pretty quickly. I move in my sleep and usually sleep on my side. One thing I was thinking about was to move the pad outside of the bivy not only for space reasons but also for reasons I will mention in my next point. Anyone else find it to be a little restricting or run the pad outside of the bivy?
2) It seemed like every night I was in a rodeo with the bivy. Every night I was on relatively flat ground but the combination of the pad inside the bivy (with silnylon floor) and then on top of a sheet of Tyvek caused me to be sliding around all over the place. I would often wake up to find that I had "rotated" in the bivy and would be laying on part of the bug netting. It would then take a bit of effort to get back to where I could get it unzipped.
3) The bivy has two stake loops at the foot but none at the head so I may add a couple to help keep it in place and in the correct orientation. However, if I stake it down, I may not have space under the bivy for the pad and have to keep it inside. Then again, perhaps it might work better to have the pad held in place tightly under the bivy. Anyone added additional stake points to a bivy to help hold it in place?
4) To reduce some of the slipping around, I plan to smear, drip, dot, etc. some silicone on the inside and/or outside of the silnylon bottom. I also need to do this to the bottom of my pad(s) and perhaps this would be a better place to start as it would help hold the pad in the bivy as well as other nests.
Overall I just wanted to post up these observations and see if anyone wanted to chime in with their experiences and suggestions.
