Howdy fellas, I'm interested in going camping with a tarp

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>>1017954
Know if there are bugs in the area. If there are bring a mosquito net, otherwise your night will be miserable. If it's raining or the ground is wet make sure you have a tap big enough to partly fold under your sleeping pad/bag. This will help you stay dry. If there are no trees where you're camping bring hiking poles and rope/paracord to use like in pic related.
It's not really rocket science, you just have to think ahead a bit more than with a tent. Consider wind direction and the temperature too; if it's warm and there are mosquitoes but also prevailing wind, you may want to set it up so the wind blows the bugs away.
Oh, and don't forget stakes

>>1017965
Thanks!

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A beginner would do well to get a large flat tarp, in the 9'-10' on the longest side range. Square tarps will let you do a diamond pitch, or any other pitch. I think a basic A-frame pitch would be the most common, but the nice thing about a flat tarp is that you have options. You can experiment with a cheap blue Walmart tarp, but a silnylon tarp, made specifically for ultralight backpacking, will be easier to pack, lighter, easier to pitch and generally more durable. Check out Oware to look for a basic flat silnylon tarp.

A catenary ridgeline tarp or "cat tarp" (pictured) provides some advantage in your ability to get the tarp taut quickly in an A-frame configuration without additional pull outs. Flat tarps sag and will require additional guy lines. Since this is a very common and useful pitch, it tends to work out, although you can be limited in the ability to really buckle them down in a storm. There is also a cost of losing head space and pitch options with a cat tarp.

My preference right now is a closed shaped tarp - a pyramid-like shelter design (will post picture in next post). It provides a lot of stormproofing, the most head room of any design and all the floorspace is going to be protected from the elements. The disadvantage is losing some airiness and your views of your campsite through the night. It can be really nice to be laying under your rain shelter and be able to star gaze until you go to sleep; you can't really do that with a pyramid tarp.

There are also open shaped tarps, like the MLD Patrol Tarp Shelter or Zpacks Hexamid Pocket Tarp (many ultralight companies make similar sorts of rigs), which are shaped, usually with a catenary ridgeline or half-pyramid type design for ease of set up, but provide significantly more stormproofing than a typical cat tarp. They are also more open and airy than a pyramid (usually no zippered door), so stargazing while you're in bed is possible.

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>>1018429
Here's my MLD Duomid. It zips up totally, but of course doesn't have a floor. There are different options for that which you can look into, but the easiest thing to do is just pitch it on well drained soil so water won't puddle under it in a storm. There's enough space inside for me and a puffy 10 degree sleeping bag to not touch the tent walls, but they do make bigger designs.

>>1018429
>the ability to really buckle them down in a storm.
This is a poor choice of words. I meant to say *button them down in a storm. I.e., make the shelter more stormproof.

>>1017954
If you are g oing in the high country in summer with a good bag and no storms, ok sounds good.

If.you are goimg im the approximately 80% of the rest of the national and stste park lands you will be absolutely miserable.

Most mornings in the summer i wake up to 3 cicadas and 4 catepillars on my tent, atttacted to my breath.

Idots on here will try to convince you that bigfoot can't smell you in a tent. But its not about bigfoot. Its about giant fucking mosquitoes.

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>>1018435
While this is a fair point, there is a fairly simple solution. Bug bivies are sold by various companies, usually in the $100 range for a professionally made one. Take a look at the black netting over my red sleeping bag in this picture.

If you have access to a sewing machine, you can manufacture your own out of bug netting, a zipper and a basic waterproof taffeta or ripstop (for the bottom) for well under $40. I cannibalized an old tent footprint that I never used and bought some mosquito netting and a zipper online for my first bug bivy. It ended up costing under $25 and it weighs around 4 ounces.

Another option is to sew bug netting to the edges of your tarp, which will keep out flying insects, although it won't stop spiders or other crawling insects from infiltrating. Tarp-tents are the next step - the airiness of a tarp, but full bug protection like a tent.

There are also a lot of trips where you won't need a bug bivy. For example, in the spring and fall, before and after a certain date, bugs won't be an issue by virtue of the temperature. Also, if you're not allergic to mosquito bites (like me), you can get bitten by them all night long and not develop any rashes. I've got plenty of blood to go around, and I don't expect mosquitoes in the high mountains to be carrying West Nile virus.

Depending on where you live, you will have to make your own decisions. In general, there's not a lot of deadly venomous creepy crawlies in high alpine terrain, so while I may get a spider going inside my sleeping bag sometimes, I've never gotten bitten by one and even if I do in the future, it wouldn't be a health hazard. Aside from mosquitoes (which a lot of people are allergic to), sleeping on the forest floor is really not THAT bad. For pic related, I had seen tarantulas crossing roads in that area pretty regularly, and while their venom wasn't going to kill me, their fangs are very sharp and large - a bite would have drawn blood. Hence why I used the bug bivy.

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>>1018450
Here's one of the little fuckers I saw on my drive home.

>>1017954
Get a regular 2x3m tarp, one with holes on the edges and corners (9 on total). To 7 of those attach either a few m of rope or luggage binding rubber straps. Sleep near young dense trees for easy setup and concealment. And def get a mosqito net for your bag.

Tarps are stupid easy to make yourself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRBtof2pAqI

>>1018450
I.habe thought of doing this, i actually finally became proficient at sewing repairing a 10 year old kelty tent. And im pretty good now. I made half my old acus into shorts, i repaired a bunch of shirts, and this is literally my next project. Im probably gonna do it with bug screen and visqueq first to make sure i know what im doing. And i only sew by hand. But double hand loop stitches are probably even stronger than most machine stitches.

Well anyway yea if you take a bug bivy, especially one with a water resistant floor, that solves the problems. But with that, 200 days of the year you don't need your tarp.

>>1019010
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yMAtpWQdVbY

Pls do not buy them all from amazon before i get paid on the 1st. They just got them back in.

>>1019027
>https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yMAtpWQdVbY
This is legit. Flat tarps are really versatile and the cool thing is that in addition to being able to doing the stormworthy pitch shown in this video, you can also pitch it very high and airy just in case of light rain.

>>1019010
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRBtof2pAqI
This is a condensation trap. I don't know what else he's doing with his tarp, but the particular pitch shown in this video is going to be clammy and all of the moisture from your breath and sweat is going to run down from the narrow walls and pool on the bottom.

>>1019026
>Well anyway yea if you take a bug bivy, especially one with a water resistant floor, that solves the problems. But with that, 200 days of the year you don't need your tarp.
With how quickly even a little rain can develop in almost any region, it's still a good idea to pitch the tarp, even if you decide to sleep out under the stars. What I was referring to in my posts was the ability to pitch your tarp relatively high up so you can sleep under the tarp while still getting some of the benefits of being under the stars.

>>1019170
>This is a condensation trap
maybe so, but the opening flap looked finessable enough for a sensable person to be able to control the environment. i brought the video to mind because there arent many encompassing tarp setups shared online

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Just get one of these bad boys. Modular, versatile, LIGHT, and tough as fuck. I love mine.

Pictured is the 'two halves' config but you can do a single with or without vestibule and basically its a tarp.

Pitches with your trekking pole. Mine pitches tighter than in the pic but I didnt re-take after I fussed with it and that was my first time putting it up in the field.

>>1019222
Forgot link:

https://seekoutside.com/little-bug-out-shelter

Also, made in murka

>>1019207
>but the opening flap looked finessable enough for a sensable person to be able to control the environment.
Trust me, that door isn't going to be good enough. You really need to have a cross-breeze going through to really mitigate condensation.

I get condensation in this -> >>1018430 in many kinds of conditions. The difference is that it drips down at the edges onto soil, not onto the same tarp material that your sleeping bag is sitting on. That's the real deal-killer for me with a cocoon style tarp set up - the fact that the condensation drips down naturally into a closed system that includes your sleeping bag.

>>1018450
>Fedex

Is this a screen cap from "Castaway"?

>>1019222
>>1019223
How easy is it to setup? Also looks like it doesn't have a floor.

>>1020938
Padded mailers are a good, cheap solution if you don't want to bring a whole chair, but you still need something to keep your butt dry when sitting on the ground.

>>1017954
did it once
it rained all night
i did not sleep well
i woke up with slugs all over
would not recommend

>>1018430

>>1018429
Thanks a lot for the help, man. I ended up going with a tarp from Borah gear, since it looks a bit cheaper than MLD stuff. My end game is a Zpacks Duplex, but I'm just a broke college kid.

>>1018450
I'm also purchasing the Sea To Summit mosquito net and hanging it underneath my tarp instead of a bivy. I toss and turn a lot in my sleep and like having a pyramid above me.

>>1019223
>https://seekoutside.com/little-bug-out-shelter
>$205
bruh I'd rather just buy a tent :(

>>1021555
It doesn't. Buy a cheap groundcloth (polycro or tyvek) and lie on that. You don't really have to worry about water running into the tarp and getting you wet if you have good site selection.

>>1021784
Glad I could help. Those look like good starter tarps. Definitely will help you get a feel for how you like camping without a sealed "wall" between you and the elements. I think you'll find that the sealed off nature of tent camping was just a false sense of security and needless sensory deprivation anyway.

>>1017954
this >>1017965

i've had good luck with the arrowhead design, light bag/blankets, and draped a shemagh/towel over the entrance to cut back on what few bugs there were.

i would never go just-tarp in spring/damp/buggy times/places as biters love my blood more than literally anyone i've met. inb4 diabetes- im just delicious.

protip- bring a small secondary tarp and enough cordage to use it as a windbreak/leanto. that way you can bed down behind a calm spot and don't have to set yourself up as a claustrophobic human sushi roll while the wind sucks at the sides.