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Why do women prefer a tent?
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Home › Forums › General Forums › General Lightweight Backpacking Discussion › Why do women prefer a tent?
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Jun 1, 2009 at 6:22 pm #1505082
Cuz,
bow wow chika chika bow wooow
wika chika!!!
Deep Voice "Oh yea you know what I mean"Jun 1, 2009 at 7:25 pm #1505094I like to be able to sweep my castle!
But seriously, it comes down to creepy crawlies and flying biting things. The biting is the BIG ISSUE, but stealing my food and making rustling or high pitched buzzing noises in my ear are a close second. Then there's the fiddle factor of carrying and deploying separate tarp, ground sheet and bug bivy or bivy bag (not that bivy bag is a serious option for me in bug country). Then there's doubling it all if, like me, you mostly hike with a partner. The weight for a decent Double Rainbow, when split between two people, is soooo worth it for the bug protection, rain canopy, double entries, bathtub floor and easy pitch that it's really not a choice for us to consider tarping. For solo trips, the Refuge-X likewise fits the bill with little weight penalty.
Jun 1, 2009 at 8:38 pm #1505110>Cuz,
>bow wow chika chika bow wooow
>wika chika!!!
>Deep Voice "Oh yea you know what I mean"That's when you just put your sleeping mats toward the large open ends and partially block the view…
Jun 1, 2009 at 9:09 pm #1505120>That's when you just put your sleeping mats toward the large open ends and partially block the view…<
I try and camp away from people so I can have the view regardless or maybe to enhance whats happening under the tarp or open sky.
Jun 1, 2009 at 9:11 pm #1505123I got thinking a bit after I posted my reply and realized something: until I was nearly of drinking age I didn't sleep in tents or even have a tarp over my head.
My first real backpacking trip was an awful (yet fun) experience. I went on a group trip of overgrown boy scouts (who had their copy of the manual with them…..from like 1982). We went for a week into the woods and they had us build a tiny city (oh the ravages of not being LNT) in 4th growth forest. I slept on a sleeping platform we built, sheltered on the sides and roof…by fern fronds I spent a day cutting with a dull pocketknife, that then we wove into the structure. I had a cotton bag and no sleeping pad. Froze every night, figured out if I slept between people dog piled I wouldn't be as cold. Somehow the idiots I was with didn't have us cut evergreen branches to sleep on! After all, that couldn't have been worse than the two shelters we built, the massive kitchen, walking platforms and latrine. Sigh! Dumb college kids :-(
After that and a couple more trips of sleeping in the open I got a tent. And never looked back. I don't go hiking to suffer pointlessly. If I can do it light, then by all means I will be more comfortable. I am fine with wearing the same clothes for 5 days. I can live without deodorant, without a hairbrush.
But for me….having a private space to myself is something that is priceless. And weightless!
Jun 1, 2009 at 9:44 pm #1505133I found the openness of the tarp the most appealing thing the first time I used it. I didn't know this until the first time I went camping in bear country, but apparently I'm afraid of the dark. Things that go bump in the night, to be specific.
The problem with a tent, for me, is that I hear something, wake up, yet lack the superman x-ray vision to see through the tent wall what's out there. It's probably nothing, but when I can't see it, my imagination goes into overdrive.
And it's not like a thin piece of silnylon makes me feel protected.
With the tarp, camping in Little Yosemite Valley, I woke up hearing something trodding through my campground. I was able to just glance up through the bug netting of my bivy and see that it was just a deer and go back to sleep. In a tent, I'd have been awake for the next 30 minutes listening really really hard any little sound, wondering what it was.
Jun 1, 2009 at 9:48 pm #1505135Are we forgetting the wild card here?
Bivys with total bug protection like the ones from MLD and the Meteor bivy and the Serenity shelter.
I would not be able to get a lick of sleep in the mosquito infested summer without total bug protection. I have whats known as sweet blood- the mosquitoes and black flies cant bite me enough. It would be impossible to sleep without protection.
Thats why I have a Meteor bivy for use under my tarp.I think its true that anyone starting out backpacking is going to get a tent, thats what people always used -a tent.
It will take time and experience before someone will even consider the more fringe alternatives.
Plus I wouldn't want to use a bivy if I was going to share a shelter. There are different prioritys when on an outing with a woman.Jun 1, 2009 at 10:22 pm #1505142Jun 1, 2009 at 10:25 pm #1505145Because when it rains you can get in asap, and out when needed with your shoes on and not dirtying the piece of polycro/silnylon you will sleep on
Jun 1, 2009 at 10:25 pm #1505146Tents offer security (or a sense of it) for when the weather turns bad, or for when bugs get aggressive.
That being said, I have known many women who love to sleep on a tarp under the stars. On my first extended backpacking trip it was the ladies who convinced me to do likewise.
Nowadays, I only set up a tarp or a tent when the weather turns (or looks like it may soon), or when camping at high altitudes for warmth.
I also like to look and be able to see that it is just a deer moving around. And I don't like to go through the hassle of unzipping a tent when I do need to scare a brown bear from my camp. I am lazy when tired.
Jun 1, 2009 at 10:43 pm #1505150Seems the real question is, why might a *person* prefer a tent? Sometimes you have to question the question.
:-)
James
Jun 1, 2009 at 10:45 pm #1505151One of the things that made me hesitate about shifting to a tarp (from a tent) was the 'dirty' factor, eg getting my bag or stuff muddy/dirty.
But it really isn't a problem, a bivy bag keeps everything that matters clean. Arguably cleaner, since I don't have muddy stuff like pads, packs clothes in there, like I might with a tent.
Not feeling shut out from the world is fantastic, a good tent like the DR (I have one) totally unzipped gets close to the feeling, but a single drop of rain and you have to close it up (which involves pegging out the sides). Whereas under my Patrol (a tarp with a closed foot) I can just lie there and watch it rain.
Jun 1, 2009 at 11:00 pm #1505153Hi Sarah
Funny – that's sound exactly like Sue.
As OP said – a 'nest' or a 'cave', or 'home'.Cheers
Jun 1, 2009 at 11:37 pm #1505162NOT because I am female!
It's because to have a bug-free space for both my dog and me, using a tarp plus ground sheet plus bug net big enough for both of us adds up to the same weight as a single-wall tarptent-style shelter. Plus the dog thinks the tent is the same as his crate, so there are no issues with his getting restless or wanting to wander during the night. It's also far easier to pitch a tent (at least the ones I use) than to fuss with the separate components: the tarp, the ground sheet, the bug net, the bivy….
Some areas have lots and lots of ants, and it's great to have something that keeps them out, which a tarp definitely doesn't.
Jun 2, 2009 at 7:22 am #1505208Tad,
I think modern women prefer hammocks, but then so do men.
Jun 2, 2009 at 12:48 pm #1505281yep bugs. Unfort here in Alabama, if you don't have some netting could wake up like this.
Jun 2, 2009 at 1:43 pm #1505292Wow!
I'm flabbergasted when this question comes up. More blown away when people say that it's really only inexperienced hikers who prefer tents. Or comments that tents only give the psychological sense of increased protection. Get real!
I've been backpacking and traveling the backcountry for well over 20 years. I've slept in "survival" style brush shelters, snow caves, under tarps, and in tents. Last weekend I paddled 240 miles in two days (which I mention because I'm guessing most newbies couldn't or wouldn't). I have a book forthcoming on backpacking equipment. And I will really only sleep in a tent.
Do I have some kind of massive insecurity? Am I an idiot who carries a couple pounds "too much?" No. Of course not.
The joke around the areas I frequent is that mosquitos should be the state bird (incidentally, doesn't matter which state I'm in). Sometimes people get bored and switch it up, saying the black flies should be the state bird. Bugs are thick and they drive me batty. Sure, I could use a bug net under a tarp… but then, why not just use a tent? I could also use a headnet or a bug bivy… if I didn't mind locking myself into my sleeping bag or bivy any time I wanted to escape the bugs. It would make eating, playing cards, or otherwise doing anything other than hiking or sleeping more of a pain.
I think it's absurd to argue that a tarp gives better, or even equal, storm protection as a tent. A double-skin tent will be warmer and drier than a tarp, period. If you do most of your traveling in dry (or drier) areas, this probably won't matter to you. If you hike as I do in areas where 4 or 5 days of rain isn't unheard of, you come to appreciate the genuine shelter of a tent. For those who say a tarp is easier to set up, I say baloney. I can set up a tarp or a tent in about the same amount of time and with about the same amount of hassle. Although, frankly, the tent takes a little less hassle in tensioning guylines.
So if you love being bitten by bugs and hate having pret' near bomber storm protection, use only a tarp in my neck of the woods. If you go out to have fun, though, and are secure enough in your "status" as an outdoorsperson, you'll probably find that your experience in a tent isn't nearly as miserable. Again, your take on this probably differs depending on climate and such.
My cents.
Jun 2, 2009 at 1:49 pm #1505294"I think modern women prefer hammocks, but then so do men."
Ugggh. Me No Modern?? Me Get Motion Sick In Modern Hammock. Me Not Always Have Trees Either.
This un-evolved women prefers Refuge-X for solo use, and Double Rainbow for two people plus dog.
If you ignore the gender aspects of the question, then it is an entirely different question. There have bee many MANY posts at BPL of guys asking what kind of shelter they should get for their women coz the women won't go without a fully enclosde tent. I haven't yet seen the opposite question, ie what tent should I get for my man coz he won't go without one. So I think it's a legitimate gender query even though SOME men prefer tents and SOME women prefer no tent.
Obviously the answer is as varied as the women who are answering it. There is no single reason. I suspect that one big reason is that women are less likely than men to go solo. For a couple, a tarptent can be just as light as a double tarp/groundsheet/bivy bag/insect net combo, and more conducive to intimacy. For a solo hiker a tarp or bivy bag may be fine.
The point about the dog is also a good one I hadn't really thought about before. Without a tent, we would have to tie our dog up, and he would be restles and probably keep us awake. Inside a tent, he is very happy and secure. Again, nothing to do with gender per se, but a lot to do with the more social nature of many women's outdoor pursuits.
Jun 2, 2009 at 1:55 pm #1505298Hi Brad, I don't think people are quite that judgmental about tent users :)
For the record, I camp in a lot of rain and clouds of sandflies, and still prefer my 'tarp'-like shelter over my tent. That's all it is, a preference.
Jun 2, 2009 at 3:43 pm #1505334Hi Adrian,
Yeah, I was probably on a borderline rant there. Sorry. It does seem to be the inference here, though. What really gets me is the plethora of pics of wet, cold, miserable looking people under their tarps "building character." I've got plenty of character! I just wanna have fun.
I will say that I also psychologically prefer a tent to a tarp… as do my dogs. It's our little den, cave, hut, home away from home. Or, to build on what Lynn said, it's our portable fort. Guess I'm a kid at heart, too.
In a sense, I think the tent vs. tarp debate is much like the quilt vs. bag debate: there are people who strongly prefer one over the other, not always for rational reasons, and sometimes for rational reasons that apply to a limited circumstance. As we say so often, HYOH…
Jun 2, 2009 at 3:44 pm #1505335I like a tent because I am a wimp.
My wife likes a tent because she does.Autumn trip (very long), snow not expected, bail-out not possible.
Cheers
Jun 2, 2009 at 3:51 pm #1505338Ooo pictures… !
Here's a tent:
Here's a sort of tarp:
Jun 2, 2009 at 5:24 pm #1505361I'm remembering some of my earlier 'cowboy' camping trips as a teenager with my mates in Yosemite. The weather was fine but cool one night, no bugs around, ideal weather for sleeping out. Come morning, one of the girls in our group awoke to a snake in the foot of her bag. Turned out it was just a harmless rosy boa, but it was a life-changing experience for me. It COULD have been a rattler. I like tents a lot. It may be irrational, it may even be a primitive instinct that goes back to our cave-dwelling days. Controlling my sleep environment to keep me safe, warm and unbitten is not something I feel a need to justify. It just feels right, and if anything has a lot more to do with plenty of experience being in uncomfortable or in dangerous situations where I wished I'd had a tent. Nothing at all to do with being a newbie. Quite the opposite…It's the reason why I will carry a tent even though I'm going to where a perfectly good hut is located. I can't keep insects, rats or other snoring, coughing, drinking, smoking late night hikers out of the hut!!
As for being a woman, it is well documented that the 'average' woman is less risk-taking and more harm-avoidant than the 'average' male. Nuff said.
Jun 2, 2009 at 5:31 pm #1505362"As for being a woman, it is well documented that the 'average' woman is less risk-taking and more harm-avoidant than the 'average' male. Nuff said."
This might help explain why women live longer.
Jun 2, 2009 at 6:23 pm #1505379AnonymousInactive"This might help explain why women live longer."
Yup, and when was the last time you saw a woman in the running for the Darwin Award?
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