Alaska_Lanche I love that you check our family blog. I hope you don't have to dig through too many kid pictures to get to the hunting posts.
Also I'm impressed you are off for the South end goat hunting. It'll be cold. I've heard about quite a few others down there this year, and I almost went in the new year myself. Good Luck! Also funnily enough when you are down here I'll be up at meetings in Anchorage and Fairbanks.
And to return to the thread, I too own and very occasionally use synthetic bags. There is definitely a time and place for such bags. But I really do believe that you can get by in most anything with a down bag. But it does take some experience. I've taken people out in the field who seem to manage to get everything they own wet. For those I recommend synthetic!
I have a set procedure that seems to keep my bag dry even in very humid wet circumstances. Number one I use a very breathable bivy bag. I once used a 'emergency bivy' and woke up with a wetter bag than if I had slept outside in the dew. And number 2 I get all the air out of the bag and stow it right away when I get up. If I am at a permanent camp and it is sunny I do leave my bag out to dry on top of my bivy.
Also I just did remember a very wet and miserable Kodiak river survey. We had to break camp in the rain, travel in the rain, and set up camp in the rain - for days. Worms were crawling up the sides of the tents it was so wet. I kept my down bag completely dry in the breathable bivy. Once I was out of that bag it was packed away and kept dry. And it seemed to stay dry too - even when the stuff sack was under water on the bottom of the raft.
Patrick
