Waking up after a night of trying to sleep on the cold hard ground will quickly remind you how important something as seemingly simple as a sleeping mat can be. This year I was equipped with the Trekker Mat and Trekker Self-Inflating Pillow from Pak-meister.com.

Since receiving my new mat and pillow before the spring snow melt I have logged more than 80 nights of sleep on this mat and pillow set. The guys at Pak-Meister were great and stated that the trekker would hold up for whatever I had in store for it… and they were right! This is truly a four-season mat and has done an excellent job of shielding me from both the cold (sub 30 degree nights in Mexico) and heat (way to hot rocks in Moab, Utah). You may think that all self-inflating mats are equal but this mat is far sturdier than some of the other high quality mats I’ve used in the past, and at under $60 it’s a bargain, too! The pillow was a bonus and performed just as well, and I expect both to last for many years.

Lessons Learned

Like all self-inflating mats there is a compromise between packing size and comfort. To keep the packed size small the foam is relatively thin (you can buy thicker mats but they are too large to carry conveniently). One trick I found to overcome this is to blow a little extra air into the matter after it’s self-inflated. This worked very well when sleeping on rocks or other rough surfaces.

The Trekker Self-Inflating Pillow is large by camping standards at 15¾″ x 11¾″, but only adds 5 oz to your kit. The pillow was a good performer as well, but was not perfect. Someone at MultiMat had a great idea and included a Velcro strip to attach the pillow to the mat—a good idea that failed to last. In just a few nights the self-adhesive strip would come off the Trekker Mat allowing the pillow slide out of place. Unless MultiMat sews a strip of Velcro onto the mat, like they do the pillow, it just isn’t going to work. With the changes in temperature and the rolling and folding of the mat, the adhesive just can’t hold on. My solution was to wrap my shemagh around the pillow like a case, making it much more comfortable. This technique also kept the pillow in place, and worked better in the end.

I give the Trekker mat and Self-Inflating Pillow two thumbs up—one for durability and the other for price! These are well made, well performing products. MSRP: $58.50 (mat), $25.00 (pillow) Pak-Meister.com