Sub 1lb <$300 PCT Shelter Options

I used a cf MLD Grace Solo Tarp with a cat cut (older 8' length) with a lightweight bivy on the PCT in 2009. Still use the same Tarp today so its held up well. My only complaint has been wishing it was 9' long instead (like the newer tarps tend to be) when using it without the bivy. But as I like cowboy camping, so the bivy matches well with my style of camping. On the PCT, I think I set up the Tarp 9 times. Bivy sack was used 80% of the time. What I like about cf. Strong and lightweight. Doesn't stretch when wet. While they don't like abrasion, that isn't a big concern for a shelters walls. What I like about silnylon (yes I've owned a sil Tarp). Slippery. Snow slides off it easily. Cheaper. I prefer smaller tarps. I can pitch them where a normally tent won't fit since I can narrow the pitch or overlap rocks, bushes, logs, etc. A longer one provides better coverage in rain with wind. But I wouldn't want to go wider as its harder to find space to pitch and it becomes a bigger sail in wind. Yes flat tarps have more pitching options, but I found I rarely used any of them compared to the A frame. A cat Tarp is simple to get a tight pitch in wind. A flat Tarp can need a lot of fiddling to get it tight. I don't even use line locks as I only use 3 line lenghts ( full length, half, or tie out stacked directly to ground). For a more tent like structure, many thruhikers like the zpacks hexamid. MLD makes a similar shelter with heavier cf or in silnylon.

My tarp setup for the Pct was: Cuben grace solo, 6 ounces polycro, 1.5 ounces Ti stakes, 2 ounces I didn't carry trekking poles or tarp poles and just used trees and sticks for setup which worked great. A sil grace solo only weighs 6 ounces or so more that the cuben version and is only $130, polycro sheet is $10 for two, and stakes are $2 a pop from zpacks/Lawson equipment. (I had 8) Far below $300 and under a pound.

Hey, sorry to derail but I'm also tarp shopping for the exact same use case ;) does a 9' x 5' front x 4.5' rear tarp sound big enough, or is the 9' x 7' x 5' of the grace the smallest you'd go?

I think my early 2008 vintage Grace Solo Tarp is somewhere around 4.7'x6.5'x8'. So your poncho Tarp is longer but narrower at the head end. What this means is you'll have more spray protection, but when you need to stake it down lower for really bad weather, you'll have less head room (think having to crawl in and out a narrow tunnel) and a lack of space to spread out sideways. In which case, changing clothes will have to be done laying down. Using such a Tarp for occasional bad weather isn't bad, but I suspect that many days of it will get old. It'd be fine for places with mild weather like summer in the Sierra Nevada, but I personally wouldn't want it in the Pacific Northwest. I'm fine with my tarps dimensions having used it on numerous trips including the PCT and AT, but the newer Grace Solo that I saw a hiker with at the ADZPCTKO last year,feels like a palace in comparison.

My current tarp is 6.5×8.5. I think it is a good size. Occasionally I do wish it was SLIGHTLY wider for when pitching in bad weather to have more headroom. but most of the time I find the size almost perfect. when pitched high and wide it's more than enough. and when pitched down to the ground its not TOO wide that I can't fit it in tight campsites. length is fine for my 5'8" frame. I usually end up putting my head closer to one end and having a lot of room behind my feet. I think with my experience of a 6.5' width tarp, a 7' would be the widest I would go for a solo shelter and 6' would be the narrowest. 6' I could imagine would start to become a little cramped and anything over 7' becoming a little unwieldy and extraneous for one person. Again this is just my opinion having only used this one tarp. I have had to pitch it low in bad weather in the sierras with the windward edge down to the ground and my poles as low as I could go to not create a sail out of a high A frame. Does anyone have input on tarp width for solo use?

Here is my article on the lightest fully enclosed solo shelters: http://hikelighter.com/2015/02/12/lightest-fully-enclosed-shelters/

http://hikelighter.com/2015/02/12/lightest-fully-enclosed-shelters/#more-1798

Six Moon Designs Gatewood Cape? You could then get by with no extra rain gear for CA and OR.

Somewhat eschewing the last post's advice, I'm now backing out of my MLD pro poncho thinking – just got a bit nervous about the interim period of going from poncho to shelter (or vice versa) while it is raining, and getting very wet. I'm back into 'normal' tarp thinking and will take my 10oz gore active rain jacket which breathes well and allows me to leave out the wind shirt to offset the weight… However, tarp size is still puzzling me – reading things like: https://40yearsofwalking.wordpress.com/2011/07/04/the-bivy-condensation-conundrum/ and http://www.sixmoondesigns.com/for-what-its-worth/103-a-few-thoughts-on-bivies.html makes me think going 1oz heavier for a cuben Q-twinn from GG and just taking a S2S nano mosquito net for when the bugs are out is an overall more logical setup? The other bonus is that if my girlfriend joins me for a section I've already got a two person shelter…

The larger tarp with a S2S Nano Net is my modus operandi. It's under a pound, you don't have to deal with a bivy, plenty of room, and cheap(even in cuben). An 8×10 tarp offers a lot of rain protection. Ryan

I've read those articles on condensation before but their comments didn't match up with my own experience. As someone who has used a light water resitant (not proof) bivy for almost 9 years, I've not found it to be an issue with the more breathable fabrics. And this is after hundreds of nights sleeping in one. I've camped with some people who had far more condensation issues in their tarptent like shelter then my tarp/bivy. One common mistake people make is assume you always have to zip the bivy up all the way. Many nights I'll leave it portionally opened unless conditions warrant fully enclosing it. My first bivy from Titanium Goat was just a DWP nylon top and I'd get condensation at the foot end with some frequency. But once I moved to the more breathable fabrics in early 2009, I've rarely notice any and it was never very bad. Now granted most of my backpacking has been out west, but I also used a bivy on the AT without issues. I can't comment on the experience on using one in the mid-Atlantic or SouthEast when it's hot. I own the MLD Bug bivy with its all netting top for use in warm humid conditions when I'd anticipate some issues. I've found that even netting will block some spray. The advantage of a modular shelter system is you can change out components of it for others to match the conditions. Or use just the portions you want to.

Well guys, I took my s2s tarp out on the L2H back in october of this year and learned a lot about tarping in bad weather with my setup. with 3 days of heavy rain, hail, and strong wind it worked fine but many times I wish I had a larger shelter with more degrees of coverage. Setting up with umbrella and rainskirt as doors worked. but it wasn’t as effective as I would have hoped. high winds on the peaks and valleys of Death Valley had me pitching VERY low. and crawling on my belly trying to wrestle a polycryo ground cloth on wet sand and tie down my umbrella to the head trekking pole as a door and waking up to make sure it was still attached was not very fun. it worked, kept me warm and dry enough, but I have decided to ditch the tarp setup. There is only so much rolling around on my back and belly I can do, especially when weather is bad and everything is blowing around and under the tarp…Though, for the times where I could find a more protected location to pitch, I could pitch the tarp high and wide and not have to worry about side spray or wind and was rather comfortable with my setup, but out there in the desert and some of the rocky peaks, I didnt feel like walking a couple more hours to find a sheltered spot in the pinyon forest or in a canyon(hello flashflood), I just wanted to sleep.

Since then I have looked into the Six Moons Design Gatewood Cape and Wild Oasis, Zpacks Hexamid, MLD Trail Star and after much  research and contemplation, I purchased the SilNylon Six Moons Design Deschutes Plus tarp. Weighing in at ~1lb it is similar in weight to my current set up of tarp and net, but with much more coverage area and full enclosure on all sides. Something I prayed for out on the L2H this year.

The tarp shipped today and I hope to receive it by this weekend. Also I hope to do a video review of this tarp since it is slightly larger than the Wild Oasis, but all the videos and photos I could find online were of the Wild Oasis and not the Deschutes Plus.

In response to the last post, I really do like my s2s modular setup of separate tarp, net, and sometimes bivy. when I went hiked Big Sur I used just the net pitched for bugs near the hot springs, and when I hiked Morena to Laguna a few weeks ago I used the tarp to shield from the wind at night. I very much enjoy the modular shelter system, in fact and will most likely take it on all my week long or weekend trips when the weather is less crazy. but after my experience on the L2H, for the PCT I think I am going to like the Deschutes Plus for its simplicity and living space at the same weight.

I think you’ll find that staking is a pain in SoCal because the soils are frequently soft and sandy. Make sure you have good stakes (not ti hooks) and a shelter that doesn’t need too many of them. On a few occasions in 2014 we had to bury sticks in the sand as dead man anchors because it’s often windy too. If you bring a shelter with a lot of stakes you may find you end up not bothering to set it up quite a bit, which is okay except there will be a few times when you NEED it and you want to be prepared for those.

If you’re going with a tarp or single wall, make sure it’s big enough that you can ride out heavy condensation in Washington.

Yeah I live in socal. I didn’t use my stakes once on the l2h. Dirt was either too soft after the rain or too hard and rocky. I just used rocks the entire trip. And it worked fine. The stakes I do take are 6 msr carbon cores. 2 mini groundhogs. And 4 4″ titanium hooks for my net. But with the Deschutes I’d only need 6. It’s large enough to wait out a storm.