One of the things I need with me is a pillow. I'm not alone here, and there are literally thousands of camping pillows out there. Walmart alone probably has a few in the store. I used to use these little cheap pillows when I would go camping a decade or so ago. When I got back in the game a few years back, I started off without one, stupidly. The built in padding in my mummy sleeping bag just wasn't enough to support my head and neck. So the search began. At my local Academy store, I found an inflatable pillow on sale for around $4, and it sounded great based on the tag attached. The "self inflating" foam was pretty much a joke, but the pillow wasn't hard to air up. I used it a few times, and had a hard time getting it to the right firmness for me. Also, it tended to slip and slide around a lot in my bag, and was too big and rigid when inflated to fit in the pillow pocket in the hood on my bag.
So I kept looking around the online, and bugging some fellow campers. "Mr. Thermarest", the guy famous for helping me find a mattress pad, told me that the company made great packable pillows too. He described one to me and I found them on the site. I did some price checking, sale watching, begging, offered to horse trade and barter, and was finally able to get my mitts on one of these for around $15. They usually go for about ten bucks more, so I felt pretty good about the deal. I opted for a pillow like this versus another inflatable one for a couple of reasons. First, the compressible pillow would be much softer to sleep on. Secondly, it would be easier to stuff into the pillow pocket on my sleeping bag. It is also textured so that it would not slip and slide as much. Finally, while it would not pack down as small as an inflatable, and would definitely weigh more, I would be able to squish it up a bit. One interesting side note: this is another bedding product that they recommend you keep fully expanded for storage, to keep the memory up. Having said that, they let you know that tossing it in the dryer for a few minutes will puff this thing up something fierce, and they aren't wrong. You just can't get that with a flotation device.
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| Compressed. |
The first trip out I took with that little pillow paid for itself in neck and head relief. It was a little harder to get into my sleeping bag pocket than I thought, and the added poof of it actually made the geometry of my sleeping bag a little funky, but I found a way to make it work. I can't recommend this thing enough. It is just as comfy as your best pillow back home, but rolls up to go with you. You won't be sorry for grabbing one.
I know you can stuff a sack with leaves or Spanish moss or peat or whatever you have growing around you for a pillow. I know that some guys take off their high heels and sleep without a pillow of any kind. If you don't need that kind of creature comfort, then good for you and enjoy it while you can. As for me, I can only get my gear down to a certain point and it becomes painful to go, which defeats the purpose. Maybe I can get in an extreme primitive trip sometime this year when I am up for it, just to say I did it, but for average trips, I'll take my pillow, thank you.
-Owen
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