[pct-l] Tarps + tarptent = Duomid

[LOUIE KROLL]

I suspect the tarp option can be boiled down to three simple factors:

1)  Are you skilled enough to pitch a flat piece of waterproof fabric 
under these conditions:
    a) Do you know how to choose a good campsite (i.e. out of the 
weather, away from widow makers, clear of rain runoff, etc)?
    b) Do you have a strategy for dealing with the bugs (individual bug 
shelters are widely available and weigh next to nothing)?
    c) Will what you do be able to handle extreme weather (snow, 
horizontal wind/rain)?

2) Can you tie a knot?
    a) You may consider the Bowline, the Trucker's Hitch, Figure Eight 
on a Bight and the Half Hitch as essential.  The Clove Hitch, the Square 
Knot and the Fisherman's Knot would also be useful.

3) Is your system complete?
    a)Your tarp is one thing, but do you have the ground cloth, do you 
have the requisite stake strategy, do you have the appropriate guy 
lines, etc...

A tarp is a lot of fun and it is very versatile.  And herein lies the 
most important piece of advice you will ever receive in the tarp/tent 
debate.  You rarely need shelter.  My spring loaded bug shelter allows 
me to sleep on a rock or by the lake and I never have to concern myself 
with pitching a tent and going to all of that trouble of throwing up a 
tarp because all that I'm worried about at night is not the rain or the 
snow- it's the mosquitoes.  If your tent is your bug shelter then you 
are forced to pitch her almost every night.  On the other hand with my 
bug shelter, tarp combo I mostly never sling my tarp up unless weather 
is imminent, which saves me both the set up and the take down time.