Tarp on the Colorado Trail?

[Adrian Adams]

I’m fixing to hike the Colorado Trail SOBO starting around August 1st.  I’m used to camping under a tarp which I’ve been doing for the past ten years.  My question is, would it be a bad idea to use a tarp vs. a tent on the CT do to the need to camp above tree line and mosquitos?

[bjc]

I use a shaped tarp and bug bivy in the summer on the CT or similar areas. That way I can use the bivy as ground sheet when mosquitos are no issue. I do think a duo size tarp keeps out splash and gives better cover in rainstorms than a solo shelter.

 

 

 

[Bill]

I’m leaving around the same time, so I’ve been looking into similar issues Adrian.  In August, and because this is going to be a dry year, I don’t think there should be too many bad mosquito areas.  If it’s planned right, I think there should only be a limited number of times you’ll need to camp above tree line, more often camping will be at or near tree line.

[bjc]

<p style=”padding-left: 30px; text-align: left;”>I agree with Bill about the treeline issue. I always try to be down to treeline or lower to camp. Having been knocked down a couple of times by lightening, I make it a point to get low whenever possible.</p>

[Dean F.]

I’m planning a SOBO with a Cricket Tarp starting June 1st (low snow levels this year), so I’ll let you know!

[Valerie E]

I did the CT in July-August 2015, in an El Nino year. Mosquitoes were worse than usual in July in the muddy areas (eg. Porcupine Lake), but they really cleared up by August. There are also a lot of biting flies on the CT, but not everyone gets bitten (unlike mosquitoes, who seem to like *most* people).

Storms can be brutal at times — and in that area (the CT) they are really random. Obviously, if you set up your tarp with a storm coming, you’ll pitch it on the low side, and you should be ok. Given your tarp choice, you’re probably not looking for “luxury”!

Even above treeline, you’ll find countless areas with good ground for stakes. The CT is not like the JMT, where you have big rocky areas with impermeable ground. I had a non-freestanding tent, and never once had to worry about how to stake it out.

Hanging a bear bag on the CT = HARD!

Staking out a tent on the CT = EASY

[Adrian Adams]

The tarp I would be brining would be a MLD Grace Duo that I had custom made a little long because I am 6’5″.  I may or may not use a Katabatic Bristlecone Bivy in addition to the tarp. As far as the bear bagging, I thought I would go with an Opsak instead due to the difficulties of finding appropriate trees for hanging a bear bag.

[Yoyo]

@Valerie,

I’m curious whether you felt that a bug net was necessary on the CT at night.  I am also considering / planning to take a tarp (Zpacks Hexamid).  This past year while on the CT I only ran into mosquito issues around the Holy Cross Wilderness, but even there I don’t recall having issues after dark when the temps drop below 50 degrees or so.  Was this your experience as well?  I didn’t pay too close attention since I had a fully enclosed shelter (Zpacks Hexamid tent).

I will be picking up the trail again this year at Twin Lakes in early July.  I was wanting to bring the tarp to save weight over my Hexamid tent.

To the OP, my concern with starting in August would be water.  I don’t know if you’ve been following the weather, but it is a terrible year for snow this winter, meaning that snow is way below normal, especially in the San Juans and other southern parts of the CT.  I’m wondering if I should start in June to have enough water to get through those long stretches like Sargents Mesa.  I don’t think mosquitoes should be a big issue this year.  I generally don’t have issues at all in Colorado with mosquitoes…But I’d like to hear from Valerie on this.

 

With regard to bear bagging…I wouldn’t rely on an Opsack.  I always hang in Colorado.  Trees are not like in the East, but something is better than nothing.  You’ll eventually find a tree to hang from, unless you are above treeline.

[Valerie E]

@dgposton — Yes, the bugs generally go to bed around dark, so if your hiking style is to get to camp around that time, you should be 100% fine. Worst case scenario, if it’s hot and you go to bed early, you could always put on your headnet. (Take one just in case — only a fraction of an ounce; can also be used as a stuff sack, or to filter out yucky stuff floating in the water.)

This year, mosquitoes should be virtually non-existent, it’s so dry.  IDK if those biting flies have the same habitat as mozzies, but I assume so.

Those “waterless” stretches weren’t waterless in August 2015. Seven Tank Creek was small but usable, Razor Creek was running ok, Lujan Headwaters was copious (though FULL of cow poop)…and Segment 27 had water in two places. I don’t think you’ll have that in early July unless the rains come sooner than normal.

Edited to add:  Personally, I am a mosquito magnet beyond compare. If it flies and it bites, it’s gonna find me, bite me, and leave a huge red, puffy, itchy welt (dozens of them after a day or two).  Regular humans will not have these experiences, LOL!

[M B]

How do you feel about snuggling with porcupines?

Nets arent just for mosquitos.  My only nusiance on CT was a porcupine that was determined to get in my net one night. Bothered me for hours, and chewed part of my pack. Despite hollering at it, hitting at it with poles, throwing stick, etc.  It would rub sgainst me thru the net, circling my net under my tarp. It would go away, but 10 min later it was back.

 

I was very glad to have net between me and it.

[Bill]

David – just a few thoughts.  in general, our buggiest season is in June.  The later it gets into the summer and early fall, the more tolerable the bug situation – both mosquitos and flies.  It may just come down to your selection of campsite.  My experience has been that biting flies are going to be the worst around livestock.  Parts of the trail where there has been a lot of horse travel or areas with free range cattle.

The snow pack is pretty good along the Front Range and close to normal through the Collegiate Peaks.
Like you say, Sargents Mesa is always a dry stretch, but I think once you’re into the San Juans water shouldn’t be a concern. Even with the low snowpack, the San Juans are usually one of the wettest regions in Colorado.  The San Juans usually get hit by the monsoon in July and August (regular afternoon thunderstorms), which adds some moisture but makes hiking above timberline sketchy.

Even with these thoughts, there’s still a lot of unknown weather between now and July/August that could change things.

 

[Anonymous]

We used a pyramid tent with no netting on our CT trek a couple summers ago. Some mozzies and flies managed to get in here and there, but often they would go to and stay at the peak area especially as it cooled down/got dark.

Btw,  I came to despise the “cowland” area part of the trail re: water (I’m kind of anal about clean water). I’m glad I brought not only a Sawyer filter, but also a Brita sport bottle with a little carbon filter. Made it slightly less distasteful at least psychologically.  Filtered first with the Sawyer and then with the Brita.

[Eric Blumensaadt]

I gave up tarps when I could afford a decent tent, back in the late ’70s.

Now I use a one person tent (TT Moment DW) and feel it is light enough to supplant a tarp with ground cloth and mosquito netting. And it’s far faster to set up, using a minimal footprint.

[Terry Sparks]

I’m thru-hiking the CDT NOBO starting May 4th.  I also hiked the CDT from Berthoud Pass to Grants NM last September, and will be using the same flat tarp I used on that hike for this one. For the bugs, I bought a couple yards of noseum netting and sewed myself a 2 ounce bug net that hangs from the inside top of the tarp and covers about half my body while in the bag.  To hang it, I run a 2mm line from the front tie out loop  to the back tie out loop underneath the top of the tarp and clip in the net when needed.

 

[Yoyo]

@Terry

Do you have pics of this setup?  2 oz is pretty light.

@Eric

I already have a lightweight tent (Zpacks Hexamid Solo), but I’m trying to save 5 oz weight by ditching the sewn-in floor.  I’m countin’ grams here, guys, not oz!  :)

Most normal individuals would think the Hexamid is light enough (17 oz including stakes)…But I’m always wanting to push the boundaries in an effort to decrease my pack weight every year.  The only option for me at this point to lose weight is to try a tarp.  Hey, I gotta do something in the off-season…

[Valerie E]

In the San Juans, during my 2015 CT thru-hike, I met a young man (trail name: Wolf) doing the trail SUL. His backpack was a 3oz Sea to Summit UltraSil daypack; inside that, he had a small (Small!) UL tarp, one warm layer, a rain jacket, and a teeny quilt — plus some food & water.  Not sure whether he was treating his water or whether he had a FAK, but he seemed remarkably happy! Obviously, he was doing big miles.

What can I say? He’s a WAAAAYYY tougher person than I am; I could never do that; I’d be miserable.  But clearly, SUL *can* be done on the CT with the right physical/mental toughness.

[Katherine .]

“I thought I would go with an Opsak instead due to the difficulties of finding appropriate trees for hanging a bear bag.”

Did you mean to say Ursack instead of Opsak?

Cause my kittens could totally smell the salmon jerky I was storing in an Opsak!

(though i still use an unclawed Opsack inside my Ursack 1. to keep it all dry, and 2. in case it actually does help a bit)

[Drew Smith]

I thru’d the CT June-July 2015 with a MLD poncho tarp, TiGoat bivy and Tyvek ground cloth as my shelter/rain system.  Total weight around 22 oz. It kept me dry despite rainy weather – I think I had rain for 22 of the 28 days on the trail, and several of those were extended storms of 4+ hours.

So it’s doable, but spending any amount of time in a low-pitched tarp in a storm gets old quick. I now have a Zpacks Hexamid which I bought largely because of this experience and I’ll be taking it with me on the Copper- Monarch section hike I have planned for early July this year.

[Adrian Adams]

Katherine,

Cam ” Swami” Honan in his article, Review: OPSAK Storage Bags, on his website The Hiking Life, states:

“Irrespective of the season or environment, I’ve carried these odour proof storage bags for more than 900 nights in the backcountry, including the entire 18 month, 14,300 mile, 12 Long Walks journey.

During all of these trips, I have never once had a problem with critters getting into my food.

Test environments have included extended periods in “bear country” (e.g. High Sierra, Montana, Pacific Northwest, Canadian Rockies) and perhaps the ultimate examination for any food bag; the mice-infested shelters of the Appalachian Trail!”

He goes on to describe in his review of the Opsak how they are a part of his low odor strategy in order to keep animals out of his food.

After having my food stolen from beside me while sleeping on a ledge of a cliff as a young backpacker, I have always hung my food since, whenever possible.  I have also been in environments where there is no appropriate trees for a proper hang.  So I am going to give the Opsak a try.

[Adrian Adams]

Drew,

Wow that is a beautiful dicription of your Colorado Trail trek!  Thanks for sharing.

Did you have trouble with the silicone nylon of the TiGoat bivy sliding around on your Tyvex ground sheet when the ground wasn’t flat?

[Drew Smith]

Thanks Adrian, glad you enjoyed it – yeah, sliding is a problem on several different surfaces. My solution is to take seam sealer, dilute it out with mineral spirits and then “paint”  lines on the bottom of the bivy parallel to its length. Or you could do it on the Tyvek. That provides a grippy surface that stops the sliding.

[Adrian Adams]

Brillant!  Thanks Drew.

 

[Drew Smith]

+1 on the Opsak strategy.

Several reports, including on BPL have shown that Opsaks are not truly odor-proof. But that was never a realistic expectation. You will get food smells on your hands from handling food and those will end up on the outside of the bag. Of course animals can smell this from nearby. But if you have a bear 10 feet away from you, you already have a problem regardless of how effective your Opsak is.

The point of an Opsak is to keep them from getting close to begin with. You don’t have to suppress smells 100% to do this – 90% or even 50% will likely be good enough. Smells travel by diffusion, and thus smell intensity decreases with the cube of distance from the source. Small reductions in smell intensity result in big reductions in the radius of smellability.

Opsaks won’t keep a bear that is 10 yards away from finding your food, but they will keep a bear that is 200 yards away from following a scent to your camp. That’s a pretty big benefit for 2 oz of weight.

[Anonymous]

In the past I’ve wondered about combining a couple of nylofume bags with activated carbon/charcoal. You put the food and seal it in one bag, and put the activated carbon satchel or the like, in the second bag and seal that with the first bag in same.

I imagine it would work significantly better at decreasing odor diffusion than a single Opsack bag.

Somebody essentially said that the activated carbon was a stupid idea when you compared it to filters and how efficiently (or rather not) they filter out contaminants. But that’s a bit like comparing apples to oranges imo.

There is a big difference between a face mask filter or what not that needs to actively filter out all or most gases, particles, etc in an open area with potentially high concentrations vs a small area, already sealed, and passive absorbing of SOME chemical diffusing material (and whatever is slowly escaping/diffusing through the first nylofume bag).  Like Drew said, it’s not about total elimination, but sufficient reduction.

A little activated carbon and an extra nylofume bag doesn’t weigh much nor take up much volume, but it might reduce odor diffusion just enough to maybe be even probably safe within shorter ranges. Imo, it’s worth a try and definitely worth being tested and studied. Perhaps even a third bag over the other two would be somewhat significantly better?

[Drew Smith]

Charcoal would no doubt help – given the exponential decrease in smell intensity with distance, even a small reduction in source intensity is significant.

But charcoal won’t adsorb all smells with equal efficiency. It tends to trap hydrophobic (fatty) molecules most effectively. Hydrophilic (water-soluble) odors – like acids, sulfates, many amines and esters – won’t be suppressed nearly as well. I think barrier solutions (like Opsaks) will be generally more effective as well as simpler.

[Author]

Posts