Don’t give up the bivy. Here’s an inspiring story you can share around the campfire:
I picked up an REI Minimalist Bivy in a parking lot sale in May 2016 for $12. I want to make that day a holiday. I took it to Japan and camped in hot humid nights and in high winds and blowing rain at over 9000 feet (Kitadake Hut – outside). I had all these elaborate rain fly ideas, but never got around to making any of them. On Kitadake when the rain started I was sleepy and didn’t want to move…but the mesh panels faces straight up. I had no plan until it was obvious: I just cranked the thing over to one side with the ‘back’ facing the wind and rain. I got some, but not much water inside. On another rainy night, same thing. It wouldn’t take much to make a 3/4 waterproof bottom bivy that can turn 90 degrees without letting ground water in. and have a velcro mini fly that could attach on either side. (This bivy also has a warning label to leave it partially unzipped so you can breathe. A deal breaker, right? like the mosquitos won’t notice? In my living room it was indeed stifling, outside this never seemed to be a problem–but it could be better.)
I loved it, It didn’t make odd noises and block the view like a tent, and I looked like a commando, rolling out my bivy, brushing my teeth, bear locker my stuff and in bed, five minutes. I thought I should get a ‘better’ one. The first ones I found all weighed almost as much as tents. I sewed some grosgrain loops on the mesh so I could tie some line to keep it from laying on my face. I usually stab my hiking poles into the ground for this and also for a rain fly. But the more I looked into a better bivy the more I liked the one I had. It looks like an unmade bed. It’s mostly just a sack. A lot of times I just let the air out of my mattress, and loosely roll the whole thing up and tie it to my pack. One minute. (Eventually I found several, lightweight, simple, better bivys– but never got around to buying one of them.)
The best examples of how a bivy shouldn’t be made are those Kickstarter revolutionary! bivy-hammock–yoga-thingamabobs: They look great. Big geodesic bubbles, and they would work great to distill your breath into a pre-wash soak for your sleeping bag. I also kind of figured out that what a tent really is is not an enclosure, it’s a mosquito net with a rain fly designed to keep rain off you while continually venting your moist breath. (I’m a bit over the top, but I think there’s a point here, somewhere).
So first feature of a good bivy is that most of it is just a limp sack that lays right on of your sleeping bag until above your belly button or or chest. (No volume: no moist air) Then it’s a lot of mesh with some kind of rain protection that can block wind and/or blowing rain from one side. A bag and then a vent.
Next I want to pull the mesh away from my face. Mesh needs to be away from your skin because mosquitos have long pokers. It doesn’t have to have a nice shape, so a functional bivy probably won’t make a pretty picture. It’ll probably look like someone forgot the poles. I also like stuffing all kinds of gear up around my head, flashlight, my bag of wallet, passport, eye glasses, a book, journal, water…. That’s it.
How to stay warm? Well I like scarves and I like wool caps (but I lose them, so if your head is cold and you see me on the trail, just follow me.) So I wrap up, . And light wakes me up, those eye blinder things are cute, but everyone of them leaks light. Know what works better? A t-shirt. So every night bivy, my car-bunk, my home, a 4 star hotel: t-shirt over my eyes. If it’s really cold just my nose and mouth will be visible. Maybe I got the wrong idea from my Big Agnes Tent that a tent is just supposed to block the wind, rain and keep off the mosquitos off, but not to keep you warm. I also use my bivy inside my tent and my car-bunk for extra warmth. I’ve found that a sleeping bag liner, the bivy (my bag) and zippers give me lots of temperature range.
And while I’m being a busybody. I looked at the Titanium Goat. I wouldn’t hike up the mesh high enough to leave a lot of volume at the bottom. The mesh isn’t condensing much moisture is it? Or I’d sew another loop higher up (towards the top end) so the mesh stays off your face but lets the fabric part lay on your bag. The MLD bivy I found a picture of is all mesh. If it’s the mesh that’s condensing moisture then I have no clue. Also, I don’t sweat much when I sleep, if that’s an issue then I’ve just wasted your time. If I’m that hot I unzip and kick off stuff. My experience is that even if it’s a warm night and I unzip my sleeping bag inside the bivy I don’t get much moisture.
