I'll start off admitting I'm a hammock camper whenever possible. I have a few hammocks and a few 11' tarps that I use with them. Sometimes, however, I may have to sleep on the ground, because there's no trees, poles or rocks positioned that I can hang from. I plan to backpack in the desert this winter and also hope to go to Philmont with my son's scout troop this summer or next. The hammock won't work there. For those situations, I picked up a Bear Paw Wilderness Walled Net Tent 2 with the sloped ridgeline from a BPL forum member (sil – 19oz). My plan was to to use this setup with my hiking poles and a tarp. One of my hammock tarps is a Warbonnet Superfly, with an 11' ridgeline and 10' cat-cut sides and "doors" on each end. It's clearly overkill size-wize for the Net-Tent, which is just over 7' long, and at 19oz I know I can do better. I also have a very old Campmor silnylon 8'x10' rectangular tarp at 14oz that has lots of grommets – I haven't tried that, but it's not being used for anything else. Lastly I have a Zpacks 11' cuben diamond asym tarp at <6oz; I haven't tried it with the net-tent and I'm skeptical it will work because the asym tie-outs won't align. Other options I've considered include * BPW La Garita Tarp for $145 (sil – 17oz) – made for this net-tent, but not that much lighter than the Superfly. * Arrowhead Equipment Shangri-La tarp for $130 (sil – 11oz) – Longer than the La Garita, but without doors/vestibule on the front. This could also be used with a hammock. * Catch and release the net-tent and get something like a Tarp Tent Protrail, which would be lighter than any combination above. $209 – whatever I can get for this pristine Net Tent. * DIY a tarp or even use the campmor tarp and net-tent to make a pro-trail wannabe (Could cost a lot given my limited talents with the thread injector) I have trouble justifying another tarp that is specific to this net-tent when I want to be hammock camping whenever possible. If I could afford another cuben tarp, it will be an HG tarp with doors to replace my superfly. For those that have used Net-tents – how form fitting do you think the tarp needs to be? Do you think the Superfly or Campmor tarp should be good enough, or do I really need the doors/vestibule that the La Garita would provide? What do you think my chances are as a beginner to assemble a sturdy protrail wannabe from the net-tent and campmor tarp? Thanks in advance for your feedback and advice. -Bob
