Poncho Tarps

This one gets asked once a week.
I won't go into details, but it depends.

Try the search function.

a lightweight 2-3oz windshirt will help you a ton in those situations. That's also the Ryan Jordan method.

"Remember the wind shirt? It's a poncho tarper's best friend. Wear it for short forays into the rain for pooping, retrieving water, cooking dinner, washing dishes, etc. Even if the wind shirt gets wet and soaks through, the clothing underneath it will remain remarkably dry, even in hard rain. The trick here is to plan your attack and be as efficient as possible with any chores performed outside the confines of your tarp."

As an alternative to a windshirt, I'd think a lightweight emergency poncho would also work. There's a DriDucks emergency poncho that weighs about 2 oz and is pretty cheap. I plan on using mine for this purpose and as my groundsheet with my Gatewood Cape.

John,

I recommend against using Driducks of any kind as a groundsheet – especially the 2oz poncho. The material won't last long.

Then again, for what they cost it may not matter…Until you need to get the poncho out from under your pad, in a storm, at 3am.

Really? The dri ducks emergency poncho material seems to be as durable or more so than polycro to me. I figure that a couple of punctures won't matter too much and both duct tape and packing tape stick to it really well. I'll see how it fares this weekend.

Buy a membership, and read Jordan and Dixon's definitive work on the subject.

I have been using a MLD poncho tarp for 2-3 yrs now with the MLD rain chaps.

Using a $1/1 ounce disposable plastic poncho with my wind shirt gives me enough protection to protect me while I transform my poncho into a shelter/tarp. (The wind shirt gives my arms some protection from the rain that is not provided by the poncho).

The negatives to this are minor:

1. difficult to impossible to fold up the poncho back to a tiny size

2. not very durable and flaps around in high winds

Note: This system has served me well in the mild conditions of the Sierras. For more rainy situations, I am currently moving to a MLD Mini Solo Cuben Tarp and O2 Rain Gear. For about 4 more oz. than my current setup, I think I will have "full rain protection" all of the time, but with a slightly smaller tarp and having to carry a pack rain cover. Side benefit that the rain suit can provide another layer of clothing warmth that the poncho tarp could not.

Like everything else, trade offs.

Hope this helps.

-Tony

The material is definitely not as durable, and I wouldn't want to use one as a ground cloth. I wore mine under my backpack last week for about half an hour. The straps from my pack wore fairly good sized holes in it.