Sleeping bag for end of Aug/early sept in CO

[Luked]

Girlfriend and i are planning a hiking/camping/fly fishing trip around the Basalt area of CO at the end of Aug.
we are taking my big outfitters tent with a stove but also planning on hiking in for a day or two to do some fishing in the back country and are looking for a couple of decent bags to use.
have been looking at REI some but the choices are huge. i would assume we would have some cooler temps that time of year up high and looking at 20 degree bags.
can anyone suggest a decent bag that wont break the bank. they wont get used a ton but we will use them back home also for hunting trips in the winter when it can get pretty cold here also.

 

[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

I think you'd be fine with a 30deg bag at that time of year unless you specifically want to go 20deg. The marmot cloudbreak 30 has always caught my interest at 2lb for a synthetic bag that supposedly packs down reasonable. Lots of other bags for cheap if you want to carry closer to 3lb instead of 2lb.

 

[mtwarden]

20 degrees will be plenty warm for late August early September, synthetic bags will be substantially less than down; they will be heavier, more volume and not last as long- I'd look at both the Mountain Hardwear Lamina and the Marmot Cloudburst for quality syn bags rated at 20 degrees

Shop around as there are many sales going on and the prices will vary widely, worth perusing the web a little

 

[Luked]

i had thought about Down other than just pure cost difference over Synthetic.
for this trip we arent going to be back in long 2 nights at best i would say so weight i wouldnt say will be a huge issue. just mainly looking for a quality bag really for the both of us.
if i was heading in for 5-7 days it might be a vastly different story but for jsut 1-2 nights i dont see the huge benifit of Down really

 

[Tsnider]

i live in carbondale, during that time of the year at around 10000 feet a 30 will do you just fine man.
might get her a 20 because she is a she.

 

[slow]

An EE quilt for me, and a REI Joule for my wife. The Joule is a really nice bag. She absolutely loves it. REI has a men's model also, but I'm not sure of the name. I can't do mummy style bags. I've seen the Joule go on sale and expect it will again, but I think it's worth it even at full price.

 

[Felix40]

A 30 degree would be fine if that's the only time of year you expect to use it. That said, we saw temps below freezing at the end of August in Colorado this year.

I couldnt go back to a mummy bag at this point so I'd recommend either an EE prodigy or finding a revelation out of the garage sale. They have a pink women's revelation in the garage right now

 

[mtwarden]

good point on temp vs you and girlfriend- if you want to keep your girlfriend, insure the rating you're looking at is for woman- they need more insulation for the same EN rating (often any weight penalty is offset by a smaller bag for women)

 

[slow]

The REI Joule takes this into consideration. It's a women's specific bag. Higher fill and lower EN rating than the men's version.

 

[oldgoat]

Me and my wife love our Big Agnes bags and you can get a left and right zip so you can connect the two bags.