[at-l] How important was freestanding for you?

[Amy Forinash]

I'm pondering buying a smaller shelter than my Tarptent Squall 2 for  
my thruhike.  In people's journals I keep reading about them setting  
up tents in shelters for protection from bugs, or setting up on a  
platform where they couldn't use stakes.

On your hikes, how often have you needed / used the freestanding  
feature of your tent if you had one?  The only time I haven't been  
able to use stakes on my section hikes, I used rocks to secure mine  
(non-freestanding) tent.  But then again I've never been at a shelter  
where there was plenty of room for a tent AND the bugs were bad AND I  
had a reason to not want to set up on the ground (like mud).

-amy