Pukaskwa National Park: A Journey Along the Coastal Hiking Trail

[Stephen Bradshaw]

Thanks for the positive feedback Ethan!

I went back into our gear to verify the mat dimensions because you raise a good point and we never found any kind of stretching of the flooring width area. I have to apologize for my previous post/comment, the dimensions of our Exped Downlite 5 Pads are 20˝x 72˝ NOT 25˝ width. Sorry. Which makes more sense now. Thanks for pointing that detail out! Only issue we found that you may be interested in as an annoyance regarding slippage of the pads on the Cuben Fiber floor when sleeping. If not pitched on a totally flat surface(which rarely happens in the backcountry) or any kind of tossing and turning, the pads slip and slide/shift around very easily. We use a Thermarest coupling system to strap our pads to help keep the pads together at night. (I’ve also heard of using silicon on the bottom of the pads also but have not gone that route yet).

As for getting the Edges flush to the ground question, no. There is a probably 5˝ to 6˝ gap and that is a good thing in my opinion for ventilation purposes when it’s sealed up tight. It is ideal to have at least one door of the 4 open for good air circulation at night if possible.

Hope that helps a bit with your decision.

Stephen

[Sam Haraldson]

It took me a month to finally get around to reading this but it was WELL worth it.  Thanks for sharing a trip report from this little unsung corner of the earth.  Those who don’t know or don’t care may never know but those who do… well…  Excellent stuff.

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