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The Great Smoky Mountains trip made me ditch my inflatable pad for good
Woke up on a rock ledge near Cades Cove with my pad deflated by 2 a.m. and my hip grinding into the ground. Switched to a closed cell foam pad after that night, and honestly, I think the hype around inflatables is way overblown for rocky terrain. Anyone else go back to the old school foam after one bad night?
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kimreed24d ago
Dang, I gotta push back a little on the foam being the fix for rocky ground. The real problem there is your inflatable didn't have enough insulation or thickness for the cold and the sharp stuff under you.
I've had that same 2 a.m. wakeup call, trust me. But the trick is getting a tougher inflatable with a higher R-value, and maybe a ground sheet under it. Foam pads are bulletproof, sure, but they're also like sleeping on a yoga mat for your whole body.
Plus, most folks end up adding an inflatable on top of the foam anyway for comfort, which means you're carrying double the weight. That night probably felt like the end of the world, but it sounds like the ground was the issue, not the pad style.
I gave up my foam after one trip on rocky trails, and my inflatable with a patch kit has been fine for years since.
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simonl1124d ago
R-value on an inflatable only matters if it's actually inflated, and a ground sheet under a pad on rocky ground does nothing for the bumps poking through. The cold you hit at 2 a.m. was more about the pad losing loft or shifting, not the foam vs. inflatable debate. A thicker inflatable with a good patch kit is fine, but let's not pretend the ground sheet is doing anything except keeping the bottom clean.
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