Tarp question

[staehpj1]

Does anyone else ever use a tarp without pitching it? I have found that I like to cowboy camp. Sometimes I just pull out the tarp and lay it over myself and my gear rather than pitching it if rain starts after I am bedded down. I have only done this a few times and only for light rain, but I have to wonder if it wouldn be that bad even for harder rain. Wind could be a problem, but by tucking the edges under you it should be manageable for all but the worst winds.

In the cases where I have done this so far I was using a bivy and a 5'x5' tarp so it didn't cover the whole bivy, but I wonder about doing the same with a bigger tarp, a DWR sleeping bag, and no bivy or a bug bivy. Is this a really stupid idea?

I'd especially like to hear from anyone who as actually done this either successfully or not. Also feel free to post pure speculation, just please label it as such so I can tell the difference.

[bubonicplay]

There are people who have survived with nothing besides a knife and a lighter or less.

Consider yourself lucky if you have a water resistant tarp to use.

[rgarling]

When you get to wrapping yourself up, it would be nice to assure that you had adequate ventilation. You don't want to wake up dead.

[Feral Bill]

When you get to wrapping yourself up, it would be nice to assure that you had adequate ventilation. You don't want to wake up dead.

Colin Fletcher mentions just such a case in The Complete Walker.

[Hosaphone]

I've been thinking about doing the same thing, will be interested to hear if anyone does this often.

Assuming there isn't a strong wind and you arrange the tarp such that you don't suffocate, the only problem I see is condensation. I assume you use a fully waterproof bivy with the 5x5 tarp (or you're 4 feet tall), so water passes through the bivy, condenses on the inside of the tarp but then gets stuck there. If you just wrap the tarp around your DWR bag that's kind of like putting a vapor barrier around your bag. Water is going to condense inside the tarp and be stuck between the bag and tarp, and eventually it's going to soak through the bag's dwr.

You could counteract this with a vapor barrier liner inside your sleeping bag. But at that point it may be preferable to just pitch the tarp.

[Moose2001]

I've seen it done on the PCT a lot. The condesation is probably one of the biggest issues. The other, for me, would be when the mosquitos are out! I need that nice mesh liner to keep the blood thirstly little devils at bay!

[RED-DOG]

I love to cowboy camp but i don't think i would wrap myself up.

[Pathfinder1]

Hi...


No, it's not stupid. You're the one who's comfortable with it, right? I would recommend a larger tarp, though. A larger tarp will also have more uses.

[daddytwosticks]

Four words: con den sa tion.

[staehpj1]

No, it's not stupid. You're the one who's comfortable with it, right? I would recommend a larger tarp, though. A larger tarp will also have more uses.

The 5'X5' tarp has worked out OK with a bivy. I have used it on a couple longish bicycle tours (including one from San Diego to Sarasota). It is big enough when pitched to cover the mesh part of my bivy or to cover the upper half of it when zipped open. There is room for gear under it and in bad weather I can cook under it. So it isn't that bad.

It has the drawback of not being sufficient to cover a bug bivy or a a sleeping bag with no bivy. Because of that I have bought a 5'X8' bivy. It weighs 2.1 ounces more than the 5'x5' one and allows me to leave the 15 ounce bivy home if I choose. So I can actually go lighter with the larger tarp either with no bivy when there are no bugs or with a 5.3 ounce bug bivy when insects are bad.

I will probably continue to pitch the tarp when I know I need cover and to just lay the tarp over me when I unexpectedly need cover during the night.

BTW, thus far condensation has not been a big issue. That may be partly because the few times I used the tarp that way were in the dry western states and also because the tarp was laid over me loose enough to allow a lot of ventilation.

Actually my biggest problem with tarp camping is that if I take my dog she is really nervous and keeps me awake if we don't take the tent. Because of that I am more likely to tarp camp on bike tours and tent camp when backpacking because I usually take the pooch for that. In the tent I point where she is to lay down and she settles in for the whole night; out in the open she is bothered by every sound or scent.

[ajames]

I'm not an expert hiker but I always bring a 20'X20' plastic tarp when I camping. If there is a bad storm arriving, I protect the covering and share out the 4 sides, It smashes the wind flow and the rainfall operates off away from the covering.

[swjohnsey]

When I cowboy I lay my tent over me to keep the dew off my bag. A couple of stakes will keep it in place.

[brooklynkayak]

I tend to camp in very buggy conditions. I will cowboy camp in a bug net suspended by my treking poles in the summer.
The tarp will be next to me in case I need to pull it over the bug net when a rain comes.

[English Stu]

brooklynkayak, how do arrange the poles for your net. Handles tied together to form an A?

[brooklynkayak]

How I setup the trekking poles for suspending a net depends on the bugnet and whether I stake out the bug net or not.
I can do the A thing, or one on each end if the floor is staked out.

Soemtimes I just suspend from the nails or beams in a shleter or from overhead tree branches.

The one on each end works best if there is a chance of rain. It's easier to setup the tarp if I need to.

[Dogwood]

Does anyone else ever use a tarp without pitching it? I have found that I like to cowboy camp. Sometimes I just pull out the tarp and lay it over myself and my gear rather than pitching it if rain starts after I am bedded down. - I won't even try spelling your user name correctly!

LOL! Yeah, like when it suddenly rains hard, even though, curiously, there's not a damn cloud in the night sky or I play rushing rain roulette and lazily refuse to set up my tarp, even though I probablly know better, after an exhausting 40 mile day. I like to cowboy without a bivy also and do it often as practical which I sometimes like to mistakenly assume is all the time, which is what the PCT weather will have you assuming if you're not careful. Attempting to keep yourself and gear completely dry in a hard or even prolonged light misty rain by simply draping your tarp over you, even if tucking the edges under as you suggest, simply results, at least for me, in getting an unwanted trail bath. I also employ tarps that are larger than the 5 x 5 you use, like 5 or 6 x7 x 8. I'll try to beat the odds at the rushing rain roulette game by draping my tarp over me usually in conjunction with some overhead cover like under thick low hanging evergreen boughs, in a tree grove, overhanging ledge, behind a large boulder, in a shallow amphitheater, etc. Like several posters have pointed out you need to somehow avoid the condensation that inevitablly occurs when basting yourself like a chicken in a oven cooking bag under a tarp. This is usually accomplished by me by propping up my tarp enough so that I'm not directly breathing under it which begs the question, "why don't I just arise from under my night time nest and set the tarp up so I can get some peaceful sleep? Now if I got a WR Momentum bivy in tote too and a SMALL Cuben tarp going SUL that's a different story. I can often get away with that in all but the hardest or prolonged of rain. Now dear is itty bitty rain, big fat rain, rain dat falls down sidewards and rain dat seems to come up from the ground.

Feel free to speculate. This is Whiteblaze. You came to the right place if seeking that.

[Lyle]

Can work, but there are trade-offs. The already mentioned suffocation is one very remote possibility. More likely would be severe condensation problems. Not the ideal way to keep your gear dry.

[coach lou]

Many winter cowboy nites, wrapped in a tarp, very toasty.

[Miner]

I love cowboy camping and often have pushed my luck. And occasionally, I get bit and will often just drap it over me with my backpack used to hold it up a little around my head so that there is a little space. I use a MLD Grace Solo tarp which is a bit bigger then a standard 5x8 tarp. However, for using the tarp like this, I wish it was bigger (at least a little longer).

It works well when dealing with light rain or a quick shower. But it doesn't work for prolonged rain if its more then a drizzle. Part of you will get wet. Part of the issue is water drainage. Water likes to stay on parts of the tarp laid flat. This puddle of water overflows the tarp where you don't want it to.

[FarmerChef]

I have spread the tarp over our bags as an extra layer to trap some heat when we were too lazy to pitch it. Works great with the exception of the condensation that forms on the inside (assuming it's just bag and tarp together). Still, it wasn't so bad that we got cold and we put it on because it WAS cold. YMMV