Your right. My absolute misunderstanding. I had to look up what I was talking about.
I took a leather chamois, of which everyone was joking was a dead mole, leading me to believe it was actually mole skin. Apparently it was more likely goat skin. I never looked into that before. Your comment just brought it back that memory back to me and i didn't think about the other mole skin.
Break your boots in well before you go. Start by wearing them at home while watching TV or similar laced as tight as you can for about 40 hours. Then hike about 50 miles in them starting 2-3 miles at a time and working your way up to ten+. If you get blisters go back to wearing them as tightly as you can while stationary.
You are better off in tennis shoes than boots that don't fit or aren't broken in.
If I get blisters in the back country its ducktape for me. The only place I have ever gotten blisters with any shoes from hiking walking is my heel, and duct tape slides well in the heel of my shoe.
I use
wiggy's bags. I once climbed into the 20* bag wet at 40*, temp dropped to about 25*, I woke up in the morning warm and dry with a thin ice shell on the outside of my bag. This was done in order to dry out my clothes as having a block of icy clothes next to my bag in the morning would be no good. My body heat pushed the water away from me as designed.
I also soaked the 40* bag once and dried it out sleeping in it overnight when the temp was a little over 50*.
Wool and down should also dry similarly as long as there is body heat in the bag.
The coldest i have slept in my 20* bag was 20* and I was comfortable except my exposed face, although I was scrunched up in my bag by morning so my face would not be exposed.
All that is on a thermarest z-lite foam pad over a blue construction tarp with no tent. Zipped together I'd probably be ok at -10*(the combined rating is 0*). They cost me about $150 a piece, but I saved $120 on my last business trip camping instead of staying in a hotel.