Tent options I have

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

Sorry for posting so much recently. I have cabin fever and I feel a strong desire to run away from everything.

Here are my three tent options that I have. These measurements are just the parts that differ. No tent stakes are measured, and no ground sheets, since I use the same ones for each tent.

This is my Gossamer Gear One, purchased in 2008, with a replacement stuff sack. 20.29 oz.

This is my 8×10 Silnylon flat tarp and a floorless mosquito net I sewed myself with lines attached. 22.72 oz.

This is a pocket tarp and sea to summit nano mosquito net with some lines and little hooks added to the mosquito net. 7.59 oz.

There’s quite a weight difference with the pocket tarp! And size difference.

I know what you are thinking. The pocket tarp is too minimal, especially in the rain. I don’t know if it is or not. A friend of mine who is a veteran of the PCT twice and the CDT once and a bunch of other trails swears the pocket tarp works just fine in the rain. Sitting inside it myself, it seems to me that it would work in the rain. It’s much like a poncho pitched pyramid style but with a little beak, and I’ve managed to do okay in the rain in a poncho in pyramid set-up.

In case of rain, I bring a rain skirt. Can a rain skirt add a little bit of additional protection if there is wind and rain? Perhaps. I sewed some extra little loops on and tried various ways to attach it without altering the pocket tarp. It takes a stake or two extra, but that would be worth it.

Here’s a kind of lame-looking side door. But if you are inside under the tarp it looks like it would work fine. Might offer a little protection from wind or extra privacy.

Here’s a little triangular barrier. I have no idea if this would add protection for rain. It certainly would add some privacy.

I might try some other things as well. The rain skirt is a little difficult to work with because of the elastic waist band.

The sea-to-summit floorless net seems like it will work okay. I can bring the weight down a bit by removing the elastic shock cords it comes with. But I will see if I find them useful first. I prefer a floorless net to one with a zipper for the simplicity. A perfect seal isn’t that important to me. I don’t care about crawling bugs, and I don’t really care if one mosquito gets in now and then. I do like using a net for additional body heat warmth at night, and I need livable space so I can take off my clothes and socks and cool down on a warm evening.

I have not yet camped in my pocket tarp. I am hoping to soon, maybe next month. I think I’m really going to enjoy it a lot!

Thank you for looking. If you have any ideas for me, I’m looking forward to them.

[Bruce Tolley]

The question is kind of hard to answer without knowing the expected weather and conditions of your backpacking.

Flat tarps offer multiple configuration options at greater complexity and often less wind resistance so you need to find a sheltered place to pitch.

If the pocket tarp offered 1) enough vestible space to cook in if needed and 2) 360 degree rain protection for 3 season camping in the Sierra Nevada, I would probably go with it given the ease or pitch, the ability to sit upright, and the convenience of the side opening.

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

I decided to make a detachable beak. I made it from the legs from a tyvek coverall. It attaches with light elastic cording to the crown and the front tent stake and to each of the side loops. There is also a little velcro to make it more flush with the edge of the tarp and to hold it against the guyline in front at the top. This feels really weather-proof now and the detachable beak weighs less than 2 ounces, much of that is probably the grossgrain that runs down the entire front seam. Also now this is a lot more private. A certain measure of privacy makes me feel more safe from 2-legged varmints.

I really didn’t have a question so much as I was excited by my new super light option and can’t wait to go try it out. Maybe next weekend I will go for a quickie overnighter.

My only complaint is that there are so many pieces now. More little stuff sacks, more little things to lose. I should maybe put all the things, the tarp, the bag of stakes the beak extension, the stuff sack and the ground sheet all in one larger stuff sack.

[Murali C]

I have the pocket tarp with doors:-)

If you were going to use a poncho for rain, then that would also be a good sorta door that covers the entire pocket tarp. But, your Tyvek door looks good. Also if you place the opening facing the trunk of a tree under the tree, it should also provide good protection from the rain. I have always been surprised by how my food bag/pants that I have hung under trees stay dry in spite of rain.

I was planning on using the pocket tarp with the zpacks bathtub (good splash protection) and the OR Deluxe Spring Ring headnet (2.2 oz) which I thought will keep the net off of my face and it protects my head and anyways the rest of the body is cocooned inside the quilt or sleeping bag….little mice I am sure are running all over me – doesn’t bother me.

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

My little extended door/beak thing will likely mostly serve to provide additional trapping for my body heat. I’ll see if it actually works in rain someday. Can’t see why it wouldn’t.

I don’t see how a DCF floor would be very long lasting. The stuff is very easy to puncture. I saw a video online of a bushcrafter who made a bathtub floor with a polycryo sheet using little cork balls in the corners, tying the cork balls with a slip knot with the lines that clipped into the tarp. This seems to me like a far superior bathtub floor. Way cheaper. Many things could be used instead of cork balls. I used a little wooden bead to make a tie-out for the sea-to-summit net for the rear, to pull it away a little.

I’m not really sure that a bathtub floor is needed all that often. I was grateful to have one in Glacier when it suddenly dumped rain and our designated campsite was about 4″ deep with water. Otherwise, I try to find places where the rain won’t pool like that.

[Jerry Adams]

I’ve used cork balls like that.  Weigh almost nothing.  Cheap.

You can pick up small rocks from your site and use them.

I’ve fooled around with creative options but gravitated back to a regular mid.

[Ben C]

I’d use that pocket tarp for sure if I wasn’t such an over-sized human. And we get a lot of rain in my parts.

[jscott]

Yes, in the Sierra the soil tends to be really thin at any altitude and as a result rain just rushes over the surface and pools. So suddenly finding yourself in a small stream or in a pool of water or just water running into your tent over the surface because it has nowhere to go is an issue. And so that’s one of my primary considerations in terms of shelter.

I use a tent with a big bathtub floor. I don’t trust makeshift in this regard.

[AK Granola]

Unrelated to your tarp…dealing with your cabin fever. I enjoyed your video series. Why not do a nice slide show for those of us stuck in the snow? That would help our cabin fever, not sure about yours! but I’ll bet you have lots of photos.

[Rex Sanders]

Depending on your tent design, a bathtub floor also repels rain splash and significantly impairs airflow through bug netting. The latter can be good or bad.

— Rex

[Geoff Caplan]

If you’re going to improvise a bathtub with the cork-ball route, I find this Lifesystems blanket FAR tougher than polycro or conventional mylar blankets. It comes in double or single size.

And unlike the polycro, you’re not looking at all the poo and slugs you’re sleeping on top of.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lifesystems-Thermal-Blanket-Orange-Size/dp/B00I43R26U/ref=redir_mobile_desktop?ie=UTF8&aaxitk=IvfXsNtLwAdP2sGOVUSZ5w&hsa_cr_id=5768853320602&ref_=sb_s_sparkle

 

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

The Sierras are a big place. Isn’t campsite selection part of going light? I’ve always considered campsite selection the most important thing, and one of the more fun things.

[jscott]

Diane, indeed selection is important. But there’s also user error, or unforseen eventualities. Like a trail well above and away from you overflowing and sending a small stream into your tent. Or coming into camp at night and not seeing everything well, or being tired and jsut wanting to get the tent up and dinner cooked. AND: at any altitude, it’s pretty much all thin soil everywhere.

I’ve been surprised by how hard it can be to find a great site in all that open space!

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

Regarding the cabin fever and slide shows, I have always had this idea to make a book called “Quickie Overnighters” about places you could do an overnight backpack that are not too far away. Perhaps my book should just be slideshows and videos.

[Author]

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