The Woodlore/Nonok Golden Eagle Sleeping Bag - The Grainiest Review you'll ever get

[HeltorChasca]

One of the trickiest things I have found since moving to a temperate climate zone from southern Africa is the seasonal variance in temperature and the fact that kit is REALLY important when it comes to being comfortable at night.

Although I’ve been sleeping out “in this neck of the woods” for 14 years and in various other exciting places in the World sleeping comfortably has become particularly important to me. This is partly due to the fact I am 36 and not as knock fit as I used to be; I tend to cram as much canoeing/walking/cycling as I can into the next day, as time is precious due to work and young family commitments; and if I am honest I genuinely don’t seem to be as warm at night as I used to when I was younger. Oh and there is the simple matter that when I’m not “marmallowing it up” with the family I am with the faithful dog and my trusty hammock. In no particular order of loyalty you understand.

The point was: I purchased a Woodlore / Nanok Golden Eagle sleeping bag!

http://www.raymears.com/Bushcraft_Pr...-Golden-Eagle/

So much is said about the Golden Eagle’s cold weather attributes, which I trust and why I got this beauty. However not much is said about the rest of the year. For no particular reason I set off on my push bike last night to a distant wood down here in Somerset and strung up the Hennessy between a Hawthorn and a Hazel. I sat quietly by the fire; my guest for the evening: a badger with very similar face markings to mine and a cup of peppermint tea (ok two). Wrong beverage I know but it was a school night and I had work the next day.

Tired; as you might be, owning a beautiful wife who lets me out into the woods, an 8 year old “school’s out for summer” daughter, a nine month old “I’ll take you on Judo style if you try and change my nappy” daughter and a Springer Spaniel who is just simply my mate; I was in my hammock by 22:00.

Terrified I would dry up, dehydrated as a Butcher Bird’s worm, I settled into my Golden Eagle for the night. (Now this is the bit where I have to confess my story writing abilities don’t go beyond Kindergarten level and I have no way of concluding this story in an exciting fashion by any means.)

I slept extremely well. I was able to regulate a perfect temperature by closing or unzipping the CENTRAL zip. When the Sparrow Hawk family got me up at sparrows’ fart I was able to get up, out, and back into bed without the usual Saturday night World Wrestling Federation fiasco you get in hammocks. Got to say: why do they have left and right hand zips? Who ever joined their sleeping bag to their partner’s? Has anyone met anyone who has? I think it’s one of those “watch out for swans – they can break a man’s arm” scenarios. Go for a central zip – It is the way forward.

I’ll do my best to sleep out one frosty, snowy night and give you all a cold weather review one day on Woodlore’s Golden Eagle. I imagine this may happen some day this winter when I spend the family’s income on hobo stoves, skandis, more ingenious fire-lighting devices, GB axes, leather goods for men, various pointy things, more books on trees and associated fungi, moth traps “for the children I swear”, cattys and marbles, a beer making kit and the ultimate “if only someone thought of me for Christmas but as they didn’t, I bought it myself for myself present”: 101 Uses for Nettles. And ultimately get kicked out and have to wild camp for a true purpose.

Hoh hum. It’s going to be a great start to Lammas: We’re off to a human circus in Gloucestershire on Friday telling the story of a talented horse trainer. Better not tell Rihannon...................hc

[Barn Owl]

Well,yes ,exactly...

I sold mine but i've a snugpak central zipper and Tenniers mss anyway.

However it was a great bag and I intend getting an Osprey as well as a down of some description.

I'm usually running hot but as I age that becomes a bit tempremental at night.

Certainly a good piece of kit.

[Darkaz]

Glad you are liking your Golden Eagle. Just watch out for the vencro chest closures (inside and out) as if you leave the "hooks" part uncovered and free it tears into the surrounding fabric something rotten. Mines looking shabby after very little use.

The cental zip is very nice. It has a stiffer fabric strip like the Snugpak SF series for quick release and no snagging, however it's a lot more refined on the Ray Mears bag. The zip is my major gripe about the bag though in that for some reason it has a sealed bottom i.e. you have one zipper that runs from the top down, whereas most bags have a second zipper at the bottom which can unzip from the bottom upwards. Unfortunately I do have issues with overheating in this bag in the UK and normally I would part unzip down to the chest and also unzip up from the bottom to open venting at the legs leaving the middle section zipped to hold the bag around me. Due to the sealed bottom of the zip this is impossible with this bag which is a real shame and oversight I feel.

Hanging loops on the bottom are also annoyingly absent. It's a shame as these are nice bags, great quality, and very well designed hoods, just in my mind let down by a couple of omissions that I can't even see would have saved production costs.

They also seem very bulky compared to my other bags, but I'm not sure how much that is down to the ludicrous temperature ratings. I've just packed my Osprey to go to the moot tomorrow, then found I couldn't fit it into my luggage abd so swapped it out with a Snugpak SF1 at a fraction of the packed size

Have fun at the circus and let us know how it performs in the cold