If you鈥檝e never slept on a while car camping, you鈥檙e doing it wrong. They鈥檙e the plushest, most durable sleeping pads around聽and have a longtime cult following among river guides鈥攊ncluding me.
I was resistant at first. During my first year聽guiding,聽I thought sleeping on a 笔补肠辞听辫补诲 would make me look soft聽and spoiled, so I roughed it on a regular one. But then I realized that I wasn鈥檛 just camping for a few nights; I was聽living outside for weeks at a time, and my fellow guides had the right idea. I鈥檝e never gone back.
The pads, which run聽between $200 and $350,聽were first mass produced 34 years ago by Jack Kloepfer, founder of , a rafting business located in Aztec, New Mexico, just down the road from Durango, Colorado. He originally called them the Grand Canyon Pad, because they were designed for聽guides going down that stretch of the Colorado River. But his buddy Nels Niemi (a legendary Grand Canyon guide) renamed them after Jack鈥檚 nickname, Paco. It stuck. (Nowadays there are several brands that made similar pads, but 鈥湵什钩Υ翘璨够邂 is still the most-used catch-all noun.)聽
What makes them so plush is a thick,聽high-density urethane foam that鈥檚 inserted into an industrial-strength PVC covering聽similar the kind聽used to make river rafts. They also have a self-inflating valve, so that some air gets between the foam to add extra cushion.听There are various sizes, but the most common are three inches thick and weight a little over ten聽pounds鈥攚ay too much for backpacking, but perfect for car camping or river trips.听The high-density foam conforms to and absorbs rocky ground. Think of the design like a long-travel fork on your mountain bike: rocks that should present a problem聽don鈥檛. On cold nights, the padding also does a great job fighting off frosty air rising from the ground.
The high-density foam is important for longevity as well. Jack聽didn鈥檛 want his pads聽to pack out too quickly when compressed with a person鈥檚 body weight, and he knew people would be rolling them up and wrenching them to boats or cars for long periods of time. He wanted them to feel as soft but sturdy on day 300 as they did on day one.
The PVC coating is part two of the secret sauce. It鈥檚 so durable,聽it lets you treat the pad horribly. Those jagged rocks won鈥檛 pop it in the middle of the night, and it holds up to repeated exposure to sun and water. In fact, the coating is so durable that, in the winter, the pad can function as a.听People have even used them as floatie聽toys on hot days or to run .听
I get that the pads are expensive. They鈥檙e also huge. Rolled up, my pad is the size of 40-pound dog. Some聽of you might argue that, for those reasons, a 笔补肠辞听辫补诲 isn鈥檛 necessary. Why not just clear the ground and use a smaller, more affordable聽camping pad? I鈥檓 guessing those naysayers have never found themselves the last person to choose where they sleep at a site. As a professional guide of any sort (I guided float trips for ten years), you get used to giving the best to your clients.听
Trust me, once you use a 笔补肠辞听辫补诲, you鈥檒l never go back. It takes a minute to get used to the strong plasticy smell coming off the PVC, but once you lie聽down after a long day of rowing, or hiking鈥攐r even just a long night of drinking鈥攁nd realize there鈥檚 nothing poking you, your sleeping bag isn鈥檛 sucking in cold air, your back isn鈥檛 hurting from a too-soft air mattress, and you proceed to sleep almost as well as you might back at home, you鈥檒l realize the genius and tell all your friends to invest, too.
My final bit of advice: get the 聽from Jack鈥檚. The one-and-a-half-inch-thick Small Paco is plenty to get you through a summer of rough-ground sleeping, but you aren鈥檛 buying a Paco to save space or money, so go all in. NRS鈥檚 聽are also a good option, but a tad less expensive.