Tarp and groundsheet tips?

[Dustin V]

I’m noodling over a setup for warm nights where I use a tarp and groundsheet, with no bathtub floor or bug netting. What considerations, skills, caveats do I need to figure out to make the leap successfully?

I’m already planning on bringing at a head-net, as that will be useful in the evenings when bugs are worst in my area anyway. Should have been doing that all along. Does anyone here just sleep in a head-net?

It’s the potential water incursion that kinda worries me. Do I just need to do a really good job with site selection? If so, what more do I need to look for than a raised spot or at least one not in a drainage? Available wind blocks?  Are there simple mitigation techniques if/when I mess it up?

[Ratatosk]

There are so many variations of wind-and-weather factors that I dunno if there are any hard and fast rules, but tarp camping is a lot of fun. The short answer is: yes, do a good job with site selection. Tarping is nice because it makes you think about where you are and what you can use passively to help yourself. Trying to answer you I’m realizing that most of my tarp knowledge is geared around increasing warmth and shelter. But I really like tarps and here are some things to keep in mind –

– at some point, you will get wet.

-air rolls downhill as it cools. So the bottom of a valley at night will be a few degrees cooler than, say, halfway up the valley sides, all other factors equal. (So a tarp side facing uphill is effectively a windblock, if it’s tight to the ground.)

-big rocks, cliff faces, earth berms, etc are heat sinks, and can retain warmth and be good windbreaks.

-learn your knots! slipped tautline hitches (or a few inches of shock cord on each tie-out) will keep your silnylong taut or easily made so. The Evenk hitch is a three-second ridgeline knot.

-bugs tend to be worse in the evening than through the night.

-all sorts of animals are active through the night, but if they’re making enough noise for you to hear, they’re not interested in you.

I have a UL bivy that I really like, it’s great in shoulder seasons and in winter, but in July and August in humid weather it is a sweatbath. If bugs are bad enough, that’s the lesser of two evils, though. I’ve seen a few custom bivies with a strip of netting all the way down the middle on BPL, those seem like a neat option. I like a bivy for a) a windbreak in cold weather b) keeping windblown rain off my quilt c) bugs off.

Depending if you use a ridgeline or your hiking poles or custom poles or some other way to set up your tarp, you can probably engineer a few hacks based on whatever system you use. (I hang bivy bugnet, glasses and headlamp from my ridgeline at night, and my sleep gear over it in the mornings to air/dry it out, and make sure its all there, for instance.)

[dirtbag]

I Love tarp camping but I do use my bivies. Here is my bug bivy without a tarp. The daytime temperature was in the mid 80s and humid with overnight temperatures in the 50s. Bug presence in evening annoying but overnight, well, I don’t know because I was knocked out!! It keeps in some heat but I did feel cool breeze during the night enough to cover my legs and torso with quilt. Hard to tell but that big rock to the right of me cut back on the breeze a bit. Had it rained hard there that ground was packed hard so I would forsee a problem there and probably NOT slept in that spot even with the bivy.  There were trails down to the water near me also and I was concerned because the park was bone dry except for the lakes and figured if animals wanted water they would find their way to the lake.. And there I was laying. There were many ways to get to the water around the entire lake so its not like I was deterring them.. But it was possible something could come thru camp. No action all night.. I got lucky, again maybe they did pass by me but I was snoozing away!  Anyway, be Leary of animal trails close bye..

[Dustin V]

I was trying to work out how to not bring a bivy to offset the [significant] weight of a chair kit I grabbed recently. The chair kit envelops the sleep pad and is tough enough to lay directly on the ground. I also don’t want the chair to wear holes in my bivy or net-tent floor. You guys have me rethinking a bivy. I have a cheap, tiny sleeping bag cover that I could slip into on top of the chair if needed for quilt drafts and maybe bugs.

I was planning on using the Gatewood at first, so I don’t have to worry as much about wind or rain, but might try out a larger but more open hammock tarp with a ridgeline once I get more confident.

[dirtbag]

Ahhh.. yes I do love my Gatewood and the Serenity net tent also.. but really prefer to use my 5.8×9 tarp or even a 7×9 tarp if needed.. so much more open and I appreciate 360° views all around. Thats why I am out there!! I love seeing everything as much as possible. Use the tarp! A little trial and error but you should be fine ( barring any stupidity or big disaster) .. Be smart about camp site selection and be prepared for weather. Its ok to be a little uncomfortable sometimes.. overall you will be fine! “Life begins at the edge of your comfort zone”.

 

[Jerry Adams]

I sometimes sleep in a headnet.

A problem is when the netting is touching my face, a bug can bite through it to me.  The netting really needs to be suspended off your face.

Sometimes I use a 3 foot circle of netting laid over my face.  I wear a fleece watch cap.  This keeps the netting suspended off my face.  Pretty good.

Where I go there usually aren’t that many bugs

[dirtbag]

here I am using my bivy as a ground sheet and just laying on that. The tarp was pitched strictly for shade from the hot beaming sun. I had my helinox ground chair on this trip and I did use it. I was able to move bivy aside and sit in the chair under my tarp, if I wanted too. Keep in mind, that is a small tarp 5.8×9, and the weather was beautiful with ZERO chance of rain.

[Dustin V]

@DirtBag you know it’s hard to move away from the Gatewood; it’s like a security blanket. That’s part of the idea of trying to go without a bivy or net, and then to an open tarp. I sometimes get weirded out that I can’t see what made that noise. I’m sure I’ve made bears out of squirrels in my mind because I couldn’t see past the silnylon.

[dirtbag]

Hahaa.. exactly.  I still get weirded out when I am laying there so vulnerable and open, but then I remember,  I would rather see what is really out there.. and truth be told,  I have not seen or been bothered by anything over many years. Im sure its inevitable and may happen.. so I will deal with it when it does, but that thin 20d silnylon is a false sense of security!!  For the most part also, as long as i have no food or smellables with me I am pretty confident no animals would want to come near me much less eat me!!! I am not in Grizzly territory and black bears usually eat nuts and berries and are “usually” petrified of humans..  After sleeping out in the open a few times and going solo, it has become normal now for me and I wouldn’t have it any other way! When I wake up during the night and see the world around me glimmering in the moonlight.. and then when I wake up in the morning with the sun and birds I think.. whew’ Im still alive.. Im So alive!!!

[Bruce Tolley]

+1 to Dirtbag’s comments. Once you get used to sleeping out in the open, you will not want to go back (well unless the snow is blowing sideways…_)

One technique I tried with the headnet is to wear a baseball cap and use the brim to keep the net off your face so the critters cant just bite you skin through the netting.

But I eventually moved to a 6.5 oz bug net with a silnylon bottom. Most of the time I sleep on top of it.  It is not clear where you are camping, but my experience in the Sierras is that the mosquitoes are active around sunset and sunrise. So there are times I dive into the bivvy right after dinner but once the stars are out and the mosquitoes are done foraging, I sleep on top of it.

If budget is an issue, check out the square and shaped tarps from Oware Gear which are very well crafted.

BTW, in the early days of BPL, many of the articles were about techniques for tarp camping. You could try searching the archive for articles from 2007 and 2008.

[Dustin V]

Yeah, it’s not the bears I worry about. Cats, a bit. It’s only been the small critters that have actually come to bother me over the years, chewing on the sweat-soaked pack straps, etc. Being able to watch the deer and elk walk by overnight would be nice. I feel like I’ll get there after I work out the particulars.

[Brad W]

I personally won’t use anything less than a bivy-Katabatic Pinon. Where I camp there are always lots of ants, scorpions, snakes, ticks. I can leave the tarp in my pack when no rain in the forecast-that’s just me.

[Jerry Adams]

“+1 to Dirtbag’s comments. Once you get used to sleeping out in the open, you will not want to go back (well unless the snow is blowing sideways…_)”

yeah, there’s something about just sleeping out in the open so you can see and hear things

I’ve had rodents run over the top of me.  Once chew a couple small holes in my quilt.

[Dustin V]

I don’t blame you about the Pinion bivy. I love mine. It fits inside the Gatewood like it was built for it.

Either way, I am definitely going to start bringing the head-net because the bugs in CO like to feed on me in the evenings but they stop flying when it gets cold, so I don’t necessarily need to sleep in it. I already wear a ballcap because I don’t enjoy molting like a lobster, but I can sleep in it, too. I’m not crazy about the idea of mosquitos right next to my face, but the cap should help a lot.

I have had mice run over me at night before, but of they chew my quilt, I’ll cry. Maybe I will stick with the bivy and just push it aside when in chair mode.

[dirtbag]

Yeah I always carry that headnet in late spring to late summer here in NY. Even if not needed its stuffed in shoulder strap pocket of my pack and does not get in my way or add any noticeable weight.

[Jerry Adams]

the mouse holes in the quilt were small enough very little down leaked out.  Then I put a few drops of Seam Grip on it.  The only problem is, now, when I look at it, it looks like there are a few drops of water on it.

[Dustin V]

@Jerry Adams If that happened to my Purressshhhussss, it would be wet with my tears. I don’t spend a lot on my gear, but that quilt was pricey and I’m not going to be able to drive to Salida for emergency quilt surgery anytime soon. Katabatic used to be just a couple of miles down the road. I think I’ll protect it with the bivy. You guys have talked me back into it.

[Jerry Adams]

that’s the beauty of BPL – a wide range of information/experiences so each person can figure out what works for them :)

a full tent has some advantages

[Miner]

As for sleeping in your headnet, I’ve only done so maybe 10 times over the years.  When it’s really hot, I have sometimes done just that.  Works better with a baseball cap than a wide brim sunhat, though any hat with a brim can be made to work.  If you sleep on your side, you have to remember to turn the brim of your cap to face the otherway when you flip over.  When I hiked the PCT, there was one night in NorCal where it was too hot to use my quilt or even just my bivy sack, so the headnet was all I could use.  I slept in my hiking clothes exposed to the sky (they were long pants and sleeves), so having everything I wore (even my hat) treated with permithrin did helped.

At least out west, where the lower humidity levels means the temperature will usually drop at night, most mosquitos will disappear during the night, when the temperature drops enough, so you can take the headnet off eventually (or open your bivy sack if desired). Even with a bivy sack, I find that the 1st one or two in the pre-dawn morning, buzzing near my head, works as a good alarm clock and motivation provider to get me up and moving if I know they will be bad.

I’ve been mostly a tarp camper since 2006, and I can only remember 2 times a bathtub floor would have helped me.  One was completely my fault as I was sleeping where the water would obviously run, but i stopped hiking after 10pm after leaving town late, so I was just looking for any place I could camp, and I didn’t think it would rain just before dawn (especially enough to turn the trail next to me into a stream).

[Dustin V]

@Miner It’s usually cold enough that I have to sleep with a Buff on my face. The one I have has bug repellent which seems to work pretty well. That plus a cap should work if I can’t pull back the net.

What did you do to mitigate the water when you got caught in a drainage?

[Jerry Adams]

“What did you do to mitigate the water when you got caught in a drainage?”

First, I curse for not selecting a better site.

Then, maybe do some digging to direct the water somewhere else.  Either uphill, direct the water around, or downhill, direct the water away from me rather than making a puddle.

The worst example I can think of was when a puddle formed around me.  About 1/2 inch deep.  Fortunately, my mattress is 1 inch thick so I stayed dry.  In the morning it had drained away by itself.

Digging trenches is definitely not LNT, but I can smooth things out before I leave, and I don’t have to do this very often.

[Dustin V]

Cursing, I can do.

I tried to dig a trench around my tarp once when it was wet-snowing. My potty trowel wasn’t able to do a lot because the ground was hard-packed, which is something I should check for, I guess.

[dirtbag]

Site selection.  Site selection.  Site selection!!  Also helps a lot if you have a decent idea about weather conditions.  You may not know for sure because weather can change in a instant, or maybe you are out for a week long or more trip, but you should really have a general idea of the weather conditions in your area. If i know or even think its going to rain, then my SITE SELECTION is ALWAYS more particular then when i know for a fact it will be beautiful clear skies over night. That’s just how it is for me. I would rather not have to deal with it at 2 or 3 am during a thunderstorm in torrential down pour. Sure there have been many nights where it was a chance of rain and i took that chance and didn’t pitch my tarp.. and sure enough i lost the bet and had to wake up and get the tarp up.. but that was for a light rain or drizzle.. definitely not heavy rain, and I still picked a good spot to sleep knowing rain was possible.

[Roger Caffin]

Ah yes, site selection.
We were camped somewhere in Europe at the side of the road/track, near a (locked) shed. Hardish sort of surface. OK, no problem.
Someone else turned up and camped near us, on some nice soft grass nearer to the shed.
Hehehe. Why was the grass ‘soft’? Because when it rained later in the evening, that site filled up with water. Poor guy had to move his tent in the pouring rain, while it was full of his unpacked gear. We watched the entertainment from within our (dry) tent.

Cheers

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

Here are pictures from every night on my recent CDT trip. The last picture has some extra comments. https://imgur.com/a/wEHUS0o

Some tips…

• Use trees to tie your tarp in the wind. Much more secure than stakes. Even just a couple of lines tied to trees and the rest to stakes makes it much more secure so you can sleep without thinking about the wind.
• I never had difficulty with water underneath me in the rain. I usually did not sleep in established camp sites with depressions where water would collect. It would be dry under my tarp after it rained. Sometimes I had to make camp on wet plants. My polycryo made that more tolerable.
• I prefer to sleep on foam instead of inflatable. I found that a full-length foam, while heavier than torso-length, provides a little island. No worries about my sleeping bag being in the dirt. Water doesn’t go through the foam either. My polycryo provided a little extra clean space larger than my pad. If you like torso-length pads or inflatables, a 1/8″ foam pad gives you a little island.
• Site selection makes a big difference for handling wind and rain.
• Animals know where is a good place to lay down. Big ones like cattle and elk. Just kick their poop out of the way.

[Author]

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