want to try tarping

[Dennis Park]

I would like to try learning to use a tarp.  Can you guys give advice and insights? I am stuck with 8×8 vs 8×10 tarps; large and roomy  vs solo tarps; bivy ie Katabatic gear vs net ie Bear Paw Minimalist 1.

Help?

[Dylan Atkinson]

Read this article to get started: https://backpackinglight.com/tarp_camping_inclement_conditions/

[Kevin Babione]

Start big and then, as you gain experience, get them smaller and lighter.  I started with an 8×10 tarp and pitched it in different configurations depending on the weather.  Once I was comfortable sleeping under a tarp – it also takes a change in mindset – I bought a Gatewood Cape and was really happy with that setup until I switched to hammocks.  Honestly (and especially with an 8×10 tarp for one person), the most difficult thing about moving to tarps is the mental change.

I try to do most of my backpacking when bugs are either nonexistent or at a minimum so sleeping without a bug net around me is quite comfortable.  A couple of the guys with whom I hike are only comfortable with the perceived “security” of an enclosed tent around them.

[Jeff Cadorin]

Use the 8×10. spend 1 day in your yard or at a park just messing with it and set it up a few different ways a few times. if you have a bivy, take it and if not, as long as your bag and pad are good for the conditions, just go out for a short overnighter and try it out. Nothing is better then personal experience! Take some notes about how big the tarp is, would you rather shorten it and use a bivy or keep it big and go without? Change what you didn’t like and go on another trip, so on and so forth.

[Justin Baker]

I recommend an 8×10 if you are sleeping without a bivy. I find that is the sweet spot in size. Works great for one person or two people sleeping next to each other. A 10×10 adds a bit of weight and it’s unnecessarily big in my opinion, in crowded forest conditions having a tarp that’s too big can make pitching more difficult.

[Eric Blumensaadt]

The backpacking paperback “LIGHTEN UP!” by Don Ladigin has a very good drawing of a 10′ X 10′ flat tarp in a “storm” configuration on p. 13. It would have to rain horizontal to get inside the tarp as it is shown with an entrance “beak”.

**The tarp has a total of 17 tie-outs on it including the one in the very center and 12 on the perimeter. That number of tie-outs in the show locations gives you the maximum versatility for various shapes.

If I were to revert to tarping again I would get a 10′ x 10′ Cuben fiber tarp with exactly those tie-out locations shown in “Lighten Up”. But, alas, I’m a confirmed tenter, only using tarps for car camping or canoeing/kayaking as eating and relaxing shelters.

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