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tagg
12-11-2010, 18:16
i'm hiking the smokies the last week in may. since i'll have to stay in shelters, i'm thinking of leaving my hammock behind and only bringing a piece of tyvek for a groundsheet and my tarp to be used if alternative shelter is needed. i've never camped with that set-up, but i know others frequently do. my main concern is the potential for bugs and other crawling things since i'm not in a closed tent. realistically, what should i expect - the occasional spider or something, or am i going to wake up with bugs in my sleeping bag and/or crawling all over my face all night? i can deal with some of that i guess, but i have my limits before i start crying like an 8 year-old girl. how much of a problem are bugs when you are only sleeping under a tarp?

Miner
12-11-2010, 18:45
Most crawling bugs can be dealt with by careful campsite selection. Look for ants where you want to camp before you camp there. Depending on where you are and when, ticks might be an issue. But once again, that can mostly be dealt with by where you camp (as an example don't camp in tall grass once it warms up at night).

The problem will be mostly mosquitos so you'll want some kind of net. Some people are happy with just a head net and a baseball camp while tucked in their sleeping bag. Others bring some kind of netting or net tent or bivy sack. I personally use a UL breathable bivy sack (TiGoat,MLD, Oware, etc make some popular models) most of the time (when its too hot for the sleeping bag, I can still sleep in just the bivy sack. You can also use the bivy in the shelter when needed.

Wise Old Owl
12-11-2010, 18:58
I suggest you find a way for you to deal with bugs. In short, you need to get over your fears. As a teen my biggest fear was the high dive. Then I saw my younger brother going off the high dive so if he can do it... Get real with bugs, I have been woken up by this guy hanging on my nose one night.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_tB6Y4JXc7kw/R0oF6R5j_nI/AAAAAAAAA1w/IkXqQP-Le3w/s400/BigKatydid.JPG

Pony
12-12-2010, 16:03
I used a tarp and tyvek ground cloth for my hike this past summer. Here's the list of critters that found their way under my tarp. Just about every variety of crawling and flying bug, spiders, salamanders, toads, frogs, mice, a chipmunk, and my personal favorite, a massive slug invasion, dozens of them all over me and my gear.

I strongly urge you to get some kind of bug netting. Most likely in May the mosquitos won't be out yet, but if they do and you have no bug netting, you'll be in for a miserable night to say the least. I'm not trying to scare you away from this set up, I love my tarp, but be aware that critters can and will find their way in.

See this thread for more info on tarps.

http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?t=66605

Tinker
12-12-2010, 16:21
i'm hiking the smokies the last week in may. since i'll have to stay in shelters, i'm thinking of leaving my hammock behind and only bringing a piece of tyvek for a groundsheet and my tarp to be used if alternative shelter is needed. i've never camped with that set-up, but i know others frequently do. my main concern is the potential for bugs and other crawling things since i'm not in a closed tent. realistically, what should i expect - the occasional spider or something, or am i going to wake up with bugs in my sleeping bag and/or crawling all over my face all night? i can deal with some of that i guess, but i have my limits before i start crying like an 8 year-old girl. how much of a problem are bugs when you are only sleeping under a tarp?

Think snakes and black widow spiders, as well as lyme disease carrying deer ticks. Then buy a tarptent or a bug net for use with a tarp. Better yet, buy a hammock and leave all the crawly stuff on the ground to fend for themselves.
Truth be known, you're more likely to pick up Lyme from ticks along the trail or in shelters than under a tarp (if you use permethrin treated tyvek or similar for a ground cloth).
I'll be back in a minute with some websites for you to browse.

Tinker
12-12-2010, 16:23
Here's one: http://www.alpinlitegear.com/index.php

Tinker
12-12-2010, 16:24
And another: http://www.bearpawtents.com/

Happy hunting! (er, hiking).

tagg
12-12-2010, 19:30
...buy a hammock and leave all the crawly stuff on the ground to fend for themselves.
Truth be known, you're more likely to pick up Lyme from ticks along the trail or in shelters than under a tarp (if you use permethrin treated tyvek or similar for a ground cloth).
I'll be back in a minute with some websites for you to browse.


thanks for the links. i have a blackbird and i'd rather use that than sleep on a shelter floor (or under just a tarp), but since i'm supposed to use the shelters in the smokies, i figured the hammock weighed too much to carry as just an emergency shelter. but everything that pony wrote above is what i'm afraid of. i guess i need to either buy some sort of bug bivy/netting in case i need to go to the tarp, or just suck it up and carry my whole hammock/underquilt setup.

Pony
12-12-2010, 20:42
everything that pony wrote above is what i'm afraid of.

:)That makes me laugh. I totally understand your position though, that's why I wanted to give you the reality of it. You could most likely go 5-7 nights in the Smokies without an issue, but there is always that possibility. I might be a strange person, but I actually like the fact that wildlife can wander into my habitat, with the exception of biting insects, this one really big spider by the Tye river, and of course the army of slugs. Waking up with a chipmunk sitting on my chest or a salamander sitting on a rock three feet from my face; that kind of $H!^ is cool. During a torrential downpour near Gorham a frog jumped directly onto my chest and just sat there. I believe that some of the things you would not like about a tarp actually enhanced my hike, but to each their own. Have fun, and good luck on your upcoming hike. :sun

p.s. Should you capitalize after using a semicolon?

Sly Reynard
12-12-2010, 22:28
:)That makes me laugh. I totally understand your position though, that's why I wanted to give you the reality of it. You could most likely go 5-7 nights in the Smokies without an issue, but there is always that possibility. I might be a strange person, but I actually like the fact that wildlife can wander into my habitat, with the exception of biting insects, this one really big spider by the Tye river, and of course the army of slugs. Waking up with a chipmunk sitting on my chest or a salamander sitting on a rock three feet from my face; that kind of $H!^ is cool. During a torrential downpour near Gorham a frog jumped directly onto my chest and just sat there. I believe that some of the things you would not like about a tarp actually enhanced my hike, but to each their own. Have fun, and good luck on your upcoming hike. :sun

p.s. Should you capitalize after using a semicolon?


Just to sort of echo Pony, I will say that some of my biggest fears regarding using a tarp actually became big parts of why I love using a tarp. The immersive quality of the experience completely changed how I viewed being in the outdoors.
I got myself through the early stages by reminding myself that, really, a person can just sleep in the woods and not die. We did that for a long time.

ShaneP
12-12-2010, 22:44
Deet is my bug net. Capitalizing after a semicolon is OK if what comes after would have been capitalized as a standalone sentence or beginning fragment of one, or a proper noun.


S

Miner
12-12-2010, 23:09
These are a few of my fun times of using a tarp (and yet I still do it):

I could tell you about the time I found a frog larger then my hand under my down quilt one night. I woke up and found my handtouching a slimy rock that must have rolled under my tarp during the thunderstorm. Then I fully woke up and remembered there were no rocks next to my tarp and freaked out and pulled my quilt and my body to the end of my tarp. I found myself in a staring contest with a large frog for several minutes until he finally moved on.

One night I was cowboy camping without my tarp and I woke up and realized a very large animal was a few feet from me (I heard it moving around and I could see a very large shadow) and thought it was a bear and freaked out (notice the trend here?). Only it was a buck deer and it ran off. I should have grabbed my camera instead of scaring it off.

Insects haven't really been a problem with me except one night in Oregon on the PCT. I was in the middle of a lava field and couldn't find a campsite and eventually camped on the trail itself. Due to the narrow trail being surrounded by lava rocks, I couldn't really check the area for insects. This was the only time I found insects under my quilt while I cooked diner. I got ready for bed and when I pulled my quilt up to get in, I found a centipede or maybe a millipede on my sleeping pad. I freaked out and threw it and the pad far away. I still went to slept in the same spot and other then the occasional ant, was fine the rest of the night. This was the only time I've been bothered by crawling insects and reinforces my rule of checking a campsite for insects and large holes (rodents, lizzards, snakes) before camping (this was the one time that I couldn't).

StafDehat
02-14-2011, 16:05
If you do want some bug protection, there are some tent designs that are basically a tarp and groundcloth connected by bug net. The Six Moons lunar solo/duo tents are an example:
http://www.sixmoondesigns.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage_smd.tpl&product_id=38&category_id=7&vmcchk=1&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=110

The lunar solo is what I'm using when I start my NOBO hike in April. I particularly enjoy the lack of poles - it uses a trekking pole as the structure.

Tenderheart
02-14-2011, 16:27
Bug do go to sleep when it gets dark, even black flies. As for creepy crawlers, I never had a problem under my tarp. You are much more likely to have a mouse run over you head in a shelter than under a tarp.

litefoot 2000

WalkingUSA
02-14-2011, 18:19
As someone who has Lyme, I would strongly suggest you take all precautions against ticks.

I did not take them seriously in my youth and have paid for it.