Equipment Tips and My observations.
From a very young age I was introduced to camping and travailed over much of this country, it became a part of my life and tried to learn as much of the outdoor life as I could and I grew up in a rural environment so camping with friends I grew up with just came naturally.
I have seen my share of equipment come and go over the years and you learn a few things like how to deal with a sleeping bag zipper and today I read so many customer reviews with complaints about the zipper getting hung-up and saying it's a lousy and poorly made product and really more likely operator error!
For anyone wanting to go camping and dealing with the sleeping bag Zipper, first try slipping down into the bag so your feet are all the way down to the bottom and put one of your feet in the corner where the zipper is and at the same time grasp the top of the sleeping bag where the opening is and pull the two half's evenly tougher (you now have the zipper lined up) and then with the other free hand pull the zipper-pull up to close the bag up, in time you will learn to keep the draft tube out of the path of the zipper using the hand you use to pull the zipper with.
In the event it does get hung up just stop pulling and have a look and most of the time the fabric is just caught in the slider part of the zipper and can be pulled out easily and continue.
One other thing my self and some of the camping writers and sleeping bag makers are aware of and thats some people sleep colder than others and most woman and some man too have problems with staying warm in cooler or cold weather inside a sleeping bag. Many do not understand the sleeping bag does not warm you, but rather you warm it with your body heat and the insulation traps that heat and slows its escape into the great outdoors.
Now if your this kind of person it helps if the sleeping bag you pick has a temperature rating about 20 to 30 degrees lower than you expect to encounter.
You can do a little exercise before going to bed to get your body temp up a little.
In really cold weather you have to keep your water from freezing, so heat up some water and pour it into your canteen and make sure it does not leak and take that inside the sleeping bag with you and you now have a warm canteen to help warm up the inside of the bag.
Dressing for bed can help and sweet pants and shirt is good and wool socks and hat will go a long ways with staying warm all night.
Try not to pick a cold weather sleeping bag thats to large in size as you have to heat all that extra empty space, you can get away with it with some bags like one rated for minus -20F or -30F while using it in more moderate/warmer temps above zero degrees, but as the temps drop below that you will likely be needing blankets at some point.
