Pad

Ahh... That all camp sites had a thick, dry bed of pine needles.

Unfortunately, most camp sites have an abundance of small stones and sticks that prick one in the hips and shoulders all night.

A pad is the best solution. It can be cheap or more expensive. Having used most of them, I really favor the Thermarest pads. They are filled with open cell foam and are covered with a an airproof covering. To use the pad, you open the air valve and lay it out in the tent to self inflate. Before laying down, you close the air valve. To roll it up and pack it away, you open the valve, roll it tightly so the air is squeezed out, and then close the valve. I find that the narrow and short pads are enough to give comfort. As long as it is long enough to allow me to put my hips and shoulders on it, I can sleep.

For couples, a couple kit is available that holds two pads together as a single mattress. See sleeping bags for options on using joined pads for two.

One of the hot new items on the market is the down-filled air mattress. This looks like a conventional air mattress, with several long tubes running the length of the pad and one larger one across the top (like a pillow). However, for insulation, the mattress is filled with down. The mattress comes with a self-contained air pump so that it can be inflated while keeping the down dry. These are quite comfortable and pack quite small.

Another new entry in the insulated air mattress category are air mats filled with synthetic insulations. Unlike down insulated air mats, they can be orally inflated, since the insulation is not as affected by breath moisture as down would be.

Both down and synthetic insulated air mats have advantages and disadvatanges compared to self-inflating foam-filled matresses like Thermarests and its imitators. On the down side, you'll miss simply unrolling your mat, popping open the valve and closing it later. It takes a few minutes to inflate air mats. If you're using an orally inflated mat, it's less dizzying to blow it up on the installment plan: puff a bit in, do some other camp set-up work, blow a bit more in, and so on. Insulated air mats can insulate quite well. Where insulated air mats really shine is in the amount of cushioning they provide - usually more than all but the biggest "car camping" models of self-inflating mats. For maximum comfort, do not over-inflate them. Try inflating them fully, and then lie down and bleed air off the valve till the mat is soft and cushy, but still supporting you off the ground. While insulated air mats are not always lighter than self-inflating mats, they are significantly more compact for any given inflated width and thickness - perhaps half to a third the packed size of equivilent foam-filled pads. And bulk tends to matter more than weight to kayakers, who aren't carrying the gear on their backs. The high-insulation air filled mats pack down to about the same size as the latest, modest insulation, full sized self-inflating mattresses like the Thermarest Prolite 4.