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Shelters "They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for want of shelter." Job 24:8 There's only one thing I hate worse than rabies shots and that's tents! I hate them! They are too darn hard to put up and too darn complicated. Give me a good old tarp any day. Any kind of tarp will do, a 4 mil plastic sheet or a good old blue tarp. I can set one up in no time flat and can set it up however the weather calls for. Shoot, you can even just throw the thing on the ground and plop down on it and sleep under the stars. If it gets cold or starts raining just grab an edge and start rolling. "A Dirtbag burrito! What a simpleton!" "Hey, it works for me ya tent lovin' hippy!" A poncho can be a wonderful thing. I can use it as a simple tarp or if it's nice I can use it as a ground cloth or if I'm sleeping out in the open I can just cover myself and my bag with it as the night goes along to keep the dew off. Where you decide to camp can play a big part of how much shelter you need. Not camping in gullies and dips where colder air collects can make a camp 5 degrees warmer.
If it rains very hard and water is running under your simple shelter you can trench around your personal area with a heavy stick or something. This will channel water around you. I've personally never had to do this but it is an option. Always, ALWAYS, be sure to reverse the trench because it will cause erosion and then the hippy environmentalist groups will be knockin' down your door. NEW! Hammocks
Probably my favorite way of sleeping is in a hammock under a poncho tarp. If you set it up the right way you'll stay nice and dry. It's the best night's sleep you can get in the backcountry. I string up my hammock about waist-high (gotta account for sag when I get in) and then string a line about 2'-3' above that. Then I throw the poncho over the line long ways and stake out the guy lines on the poncho. If really heavy rain and wind hit I can drop the poncho's ridge line down closer to the hammock. It makes it trickier to get in and out of the hammock but it makes it more storm worthy. I even got ol' tent-lovin' Nigal into hammock campin'. The only bad thing is that when we go together he likes to sneak over to my hammock in the middle of the night and flip me out. Then he runs back to his hammock and acts like he's asleep. Sometimes that boy jest ain't funny. I have had two hammocks thus far.
This is your run of the mill nylon mesh hammock. It has two wooden supports in the ends but if you want the hammock to be even lighter and more compact you can cut them out. As is the hammock weighs right at one pound. The ropes are the cheap nylon that slips a lot so tying the ropes off can be tricky. The mesh was very thin and would cut into you unless you had a sleeping bag between you and the hammock. This thing made it through one season before being destroyed. But hey, at a cost of $10 you can afford to replace it every year. Another down fall to this hammock is that it can get very chilly at night. I spent a few nights in it at around 60 degrees and just about froze my keester off!
I read a review of this hammock on the net and decided to give it a try. The big advantages were that it weighs 18 oz., it was fairly cheap at $29.99, and it takes up the same room as a pair of wool socks. It was hard to tell exactly what the hammock was like from looking at the catalog. It turned out that it is a solid material hammock made from poly/cotton. It is one big piece of material folded double and then hemmed at the ends where the rope goes through the hem. The rope they used was some of the best gripping stuff I've ever seen. It grips so well that the rope will slightly melt to it's self when weight is applied. No slipping at all! One of the best things about this hammock is the fact that it stays taunt and fairly flat. You don't end up sleeping in a horse shoe shaped hammock (long-ways that is). When in the hammock the material at your sides comes up around you some. This is a plus because it gives better stability. It is very stable. I haven't fallen out once yet, at least not on my own. This set up works well with the poncho tarp over it. I have spent hours and hours in the rain with this hammock and have yet to get wet. What about bugs? Here in Ohioland I just dry camp up on the ridges where there are very few skeeters. I have very little problems with bugs. Nigal did make a mosquito net for his hammock that he says works pretty good. I may just have to try and sneak down in his basement and snatch that thing and try it out!
Tarps I have a:
This basically a teepee tent with no floor. Kind of a tent and kind of a tarp. With the heavy pole they sent with it the thing weighed 3 lb., 8oz. I just left the pole at home and used my wooden staff as the center pole. After I started using trekking poles I cut the first 8" off the top supplied pole and would extend one of the trekking poles as long as it would go and put the 8" section on top of that so it would be long enough. It works great. Without the heavy pole the tarp weighs 2 1/2 lb. Much better! This tarp is great in just about any weather. I have used it in the Sierra Mountains during a very heavy thunderstorm and a continual rail the whole night and stayed perfectly dry. The weekend I went winter camping with it, it snowed a few inches that night and the walls sagged quite a bit under the weight. It's a real pain keeping snow off all my gear too. This tarp is versatile in the fact that I can have it staked right down to the ground in heavy weather or have it raised 2' off the ground in hot weather. Condensation is very minimal on the tent walls. I have slept in this thing with it staked all the way down and had just a little frost on the wall right above my head.
I do believe that I will never have to find another tarp as long as I live. This material is amazing! When I first took it out of the stuff sack I thought, "This ain't never gonna last!" It looked as thin as tissue paper and lets about the same amount of light through. While it isn't the strongest material in the world it will stand up to anything a tarp will need to as long as care is taken not to go runnin' through the raspberry bushes with it. It is a basic design and measures 10' X 8' with grommets in the corners and around the edges. It is so light though! It weighs a mere 13 oz.! When it's in it's stuff sack it is abut 4" X 6". So not only do I save a full pound and a half in weight but I save gobs of space in the pack. While it is pricey at $59 it is worth every penny. I've also had countless:
I have made many, many tarps from plastic ground sheets and 4 mill plastic. I would buy one of those grommet kits and reinforce the grommets with duct tape. They would cost about $5 to make and last quite a while. The great thing about tarps is that you can set them up in so many different ways for all conditions. I really like the flying diamond configuration where you tie one corner to a tree and then stake the other three corners down to the ground. You can then prop your walking staff or some sticks under the tarp to give more head room. The worse the weather the lower you tie the corner to the tree. The classic A frame is good too. Either by using sticks or trekking poles for end poles or you can run a rope between two trees and use the rope as the ridge line. You can adjust the guy lines as needed for the weather. If I'm expecting any rain I always make sure I pitch the tarp broadside to the wind so slanting rain won't make it into the living area as easily. "Dirtbag Darrel loves tarps but I think that's just because he's cheaper than a $3 whore." "I heard that! Tent lovin' hippy!" "Hee Hee!" "Putz!"
Here are some basics to using a tarp:
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