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  1. #1
    Registered User One Half's Avatar
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    Default tarp for cooking under

    Anyone carry a tarp just for cooking under? My husband and I are getting back into backpacking together. I've been going solo for a while. It would be nice, since we are able to buy lighter gear and split the load, to have a tarp just for cooking under during inclement weather.

    If you do, which brand and what size?
    https://tinyurl.com/MyFDresults

    A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world. ~Paul Dudley White

  2. #2
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    Yes. Not often except when expecting extensive rain. Having some extra dry outside space is awesome! Pick your size. And 8x10 is great and palatial. A 6x8 is probably a good minimum for two people to shelter under while cooking.

    Have fun.
    I'm not lost. I'm exploring.

  3. #3

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    When I hike with my girlfriend I carry a couple other random items that i don't when solo. And one is a tarp when there's a decent amount of rain
    8x10 integral design silitarp2 is what we use. it's good and haven't had any issues. weights a bit less than 1 lb and packs very small

    Any sil tarps that are around 400g or less should be ok. there are some lighter options (ie cuben fibre), but price goes way up

    we use it for cooking and generally just hanging out as well. I like the 8x10 because, if it's raining, we'll also just stick our mats out there and relax until we're ready for the tent.

  4. #4
    Super Moderator Marta's Avatar
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    Yeah, if I'm expecting rain I carry an extra tarp. In Glacier NP the backcountry campsites have a food area well separated from the campsites. Not fun to sit in the pouring rain to cook and eat, or even to have a snack.

    10'x12', from my Speer hammock.
    If not NOW, then WHEN?

    ME>GA 2006
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  5. #5
    Registered User The Cleaner's Avatar
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    I have always carried a reusable "Space Blanket" which is about 6' long and 4.5' wide.You can turn the reflective side up on a hot & sunny day for a shady spot.I use it folded for a sit pad in cold or snowy weather.Many other uses too.The one I use has small metal grommets in each corner and sells for 12-15$ at many retailers.008.JPGOh one last thing it weighs a little under a pound and some hikers may not be able to handle the added weight.
    Sleep on the ground, rise with the sun and hike with the wind....

  6. #6
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    The 5' x 7' outdoor products Backpacker Tarp from Wally world is reportedly 8.75 ounces, $10, and about twice the size of a wallet when folded in it's stuff sack.
    I have used mine as a ground cover and as a shelter to sit under when I arrived at camp when it was raining. I later pitched my tent with the entrance to the tent protected by that tarp.

  7. #7
    Registered User Sandy of PA's Avatar
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    I cook under my umbrella.

  8. #8
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    ...and for one slightly larger, slightly lighter, and $40 more:

    5.5' x 9' silnylon 7.5 oz $49.99

    http://borahgear.com/tarps.html

  9. #9

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    If it's actually raining, I have cooked in my shelter's vestibule, or just outside my shelter while sitting inside it, carefully.
    A cooking tarp is extra weight I prefer not to carry, unless with a group of 3-4 people who can share the load.
    Find the LIGHT STUFF at QiWiz.net

    The lightest cathole trowels, wood burning stoves, windscreens, spatulas,
    cooking options, titanium and aluminum pots, and buck saws on the planet



  10. #10

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    That's what shelters are for

  11. #11

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    The only time I carry a tarp is when I am backpacking with a group. Otherwise a tarp is just dead weight since I already have a tent.


    I did a recent 24 day backpacking trip into Pisgah NF and near the end of my solo trip several of my backpacking friends showed up and so I retrieved my cached tarp and set it up in camp in preparation for the gathering.


    One excellent thing about a tarp is it draws in the women.

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tipi Walter View Post
    The only time I carry a tarp is when I am backpacking with a group. . .
    The only time I don't carry a tarp is when I'm backpacking with other people that insist on using a tent. . . that's not really true, because I almost always carry my poncho as my preferred rain-gear and it doubles as a tarp.
    I'm not lost. I'm exploring.

  13. #13

  14. #14
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    Traveling as a couple may b nice to have 2 shelters if u get separated or something . A small tarp 5x9 or so would b light not to expensive and insurance.

    thom

  15. #15

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    Quote Originally Posted by Cheyou View Post
    Traveling as a couple may b nice to have 2 shelters if u get separated or something . A small tarp 5x9 or so would b light not to expensive and insurance.

    thom
    I learned long ago that backpacking with a spouse is 100% better if each of you have your own shelter. Why? Snoring, tossing and turning, want to get up at 3am to read or write or eat, etc. Personal space greatly reduces conflict and gives each person his own . . . uh . . . space.

    The only time a single shelter might be useful (short of a Mt Everest storm) would be during the throes of sexual addiction whereby two need to become one. Once life's storms of lust pass the double shelter rule works well.

  16. #16
    Hiker bigcranky's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tipi Walter View Post
    I learned long ago that backpacking with a spouse is 100% better if each of you have your own shelter. Why? Snoring, tossing and turning, want to get up at 3am to read or write or eat, etc. Personal space greatly reduces conflict and gives each person his own . . . uh . . . space.

    The only time a single shelter might be useful (short of a Mt Everest storm) would be during the throes of sexual addiction whereby two need to become one. Once life's storms of lust pass the double shelter rule works well.
    Having done a lot of long distance hiking with my partner and spouse of more than thirty years, I have to respectfully yet totally disagree. We share a tent, even a sleeping pad (the Exped double UL pad), and soon we'll have some quilts to share. It's much better this way, nothing to do with the "throes" of anything.

    (Sexual addiction? Really? Did you come of age in the Victorian era?)
    Ken B
    'Big Cranky'
    Our Long Trail journal

  17. #17

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    Try separate shelters and see what happens. Of course Little Mitten and I are loners at heart and so the dual shelters work well. We've gone the single tent route and found a better way. YM Will Vary.

    Sexual addiction might have been too strong a sentiment. How about The Drugged Out State of Sexual Heat??? Victorian Era? No, just 44 years of yoga brainwashing.

    I only offered my advice of taking two shelters for couples who never considered it. Many backpacking couples think staying together is the only option. It ain't.

  18. #18
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    When hiking with my wife, she is carrying a tarp-poncho as raingear, and I always thought that this piece would make a perfect tarp-like fly over the tent entrance.
    But at the end in real rain we always found it too cold to sit outside under the open tarp, exposed to the wind, and always ended up cooking in the tent vestibule.
    Actually we do no real cooking, just heating up water to re-hydrate freeze dired meals and for tea/coffee.
    Just love the smell of burning Esbit... <G>

  19. #19
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    My husband and I sleep separate too. I tent and he hammocks. I love it. I do need my personal space. My tent is my "room". I have been recently considering giving a hammock a shot too, for those crazy rocky campsites when a hammock is the answer to not wrecking your UL tent. We bought a Clark's double hammock for him to carry. I carry a TT Double Moment, which he has visited when he couldn't get warm enough in his hammock once. So we have the best of both worlds.... in theory. We haven't had a chance to try the new double hammock out yet, as he just has back surgery. Hoping to give it a go in November around Thanksgiving.
    " Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt. "

  20. #20
    In the shadows AfterParty's Avatar
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    I do now that I went to a hammock.
    Hiking the AT is “pointless.” What life is not “pointless”? Is it not pointless to work paycheck to paycheck just to conform?.....I want to make my life less ordinary. AWOL

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