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Am I the only one who didn't know sleeping pads have an R-value that changes with what you wear?
I picked up a cheap closed cell foam pad at a garage sale in Tacoma for $8 last month and figured a pad is a pad. Then I read the little card stapled to it and it said R-value 2.1, which I had never even heard of. Down the rabbit hole I went, and it turns out R-value measures how well a pad blocks heat from leaving your body into the cold ground, and 2.1 is basically a summer only number. What really got me was finding out that adding a second pad underneath can push you into the 4 to 5 range, which is the number most folks want for shoulder season camping. I tested it two weekends back near Mount Rainier, one night on the single pad and one night with a second thin pad under it, and the difference was not in my head. I slept warm the second night with the same bag and the same clothes. Now I want to know if anyone else has stacked pads like this, and what combo of cheap pads actually gets you to a real 4 or 5 without buying the fancy inflatable ones.
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