I've gotta admit I like the idea of tarp camping, but I like a barrier against the small critters and bugs. I'm afraid I would find a bivy restricting...maybe claustrophobic even....
I've gotta admit I like the idea of tarp camping, but I like a barrier against the small critters and bugs. I'm afraid I would find a bivy restricting...maybe claustrophobic even....
That's fully enclosed with full insect protection and incorporated ground sheet in the bivy floor that is based on an amendable component system. Don't have high insect pressure on a hike leave the MLD Bug Bivy home and drop 5.5-6.3 ozs making your system come in at sub 9 - sub 12 oz. Throw in some polycro at 1.2- 1.5 oz and you still have an all in shelter of 10- 13 oz. Most of all you can tweak your shelter system based on your needs leaving or adding components. Not too shabby.
Quite a few bivies have a removable or incorporated net head or net window making it possibly to be fully barrier protected from the bugs and critters. Have a tendency to feel claustrophobic do as you do with a sleeping bag or quilt...size up to offer more interior room. No need to always zip all the way up either in a bivy. A side zip can be left open if weather permits or if the WR bivy is being used with a tarp. Many bivies have an attachment point over the hood to attach to a low branch, fence post, rock overhand, V trekking pole set up, etc. Sleeping in a bivy can be like sleeping in a roomy sleeping bag.
Want to see claustrophobic? I had a bivy tent with support hoops in the front and rear which lifted it about 12" in the back and maybe 18" at the front. I had to slide into it feet first. Getting out of it was a trick. Good thing I was still very skinny and limber at the time. Spent 180 consecutive nights in it while exploring Yellowstone and the surrounding area one summer.
I still have the bivy tent, but lost most of the poles which went with it and haven't been able to find suitable replacements. I kind of liked that tent, even though it's a bit heavy and bulky by todays standards. The "roof" is a bright orange gortex, so it wasn't very stealthy.
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I started with double wall tent. Went to single wall tent. Went to tarp with bivy. Bivy was damp and constricting. Went to just a tarp and ground cloth but no good in heavy weather. Back to tent. Forked out the $$$ for a Duplex. Happy now. Related: I used shelters as a fallback plan for bad weather or late arrivals but I've sworn off shelters. A bad snorer finally did me in earlier this summer. I'm also getting more comfortable "stealth" camping which allows me to set my own mileage, and a shelter I love makes this easier.
Experiment. Try different things on the trail. You'll find what works best for you. There is a reason that tents are popular. I got my base weight down to 5 lbs but I'm comortable letting it come up to 6 or 7 with the Duplex in my kit. I can handle the weight :-)
TJ, I have a HG Cuben Fiber tarp with doors. The hammock straps come in at the top of the doors. I use small zing it ropes in the rain to keep the water from running down the straps into the hammcock.
Blackheart
+1 on this. While it's fine to ask for the experiences of others, sometimes their opinions may not be applicable to your situation. A bivy is a classic example. If you have a breeze and a humidity gradient, a bivy may well work for you. Missing either, you're likely to be a bit damp from condensation. Missing both, well, better make sure you can swim.
It's hard for me to imagine a bivy feeling claustrophobic to a person who has slept in a gathered-end hammock with integrated bug netting. But if you haven't ... well yeah, it's tight compared to a tent. (Again though - which tent, which bivy?). I have a bivy that has more square feet (20.8) than some solo tents. Of course, on interior volume, that's where it's tight, not the side-to-side and end-to-end room.
I'm still experimenting too. I'm finding that a well-designed tent is hard to beat, overall, but there's some enlightenment and enjoyment in trying different things.
I agree - when I dipped my toes in the UQ world, I found that the fiddle factor was so high, I sold it after just a couple overnights. I decided to revert to the brain-dead easy CCF pad method. Besides, that rides on the outside of my pack, preserving the interior volume, unlike the UQ.
Turning back to the thread topic, I have thought of trying my hammock (GT SBP) as a ground bivy. It has a built in bugnet and I can lift it off me if desired. Most hammockers would probably say that it makes no sense to "go to ground" unless your suspension breaks or there are no trees. Point taken, but the SBP could make an ideal bug bivy - plenty of ventilation to stop condensation, just combine with tarp for weather protection. On reflection, I suppose it wouldn't handle water runoff on the ground well - probably a 2-3 digit hydraulic head on hammock fabric. Not sure there's much to be done about that ... even with a ground sheet, water could run up on it without a bathtub floor.
Fan of the pyramid style shelters. Full coverage , great in high winds.
Spent my first night on the Cumberland Trail with the tarp and bug bivy. Not too bad. Except I didn't stake the bivy, rolled around, and ended with it all skewed and twisted. Finding the zipper pull/escape hatch was a lesson in panic control. All in all, fairly successful but needs some work.
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Last edited by Traffic Jam; 08-29-2017 at 22:27.
Congrats on your first trip with your bivy!
You will get used to finding the zipper while barely awake. The center zip is IME much easier to adapt to than the ones that go across the chest then down the side.
I've found that using some small 1.2 -1.5mm bungee cord on the corners and peaks of the bivy helps keep things in place while reducing stress on the tie-outs. Use some plastic mitten hooks on one end of the bungee to assist deployment. Easier and lighter than staking out the bivy. Zpacks sells some little stick-on patches with loops which are perfect for attaching the bivy's peak bungee cords to a cuben tarp. Play around with the position a lot before sticking them on because they are nigh impossible to remove... which is what you want!
The Five Basic Principles of Going Lighter ~ Cam "Swami" Honan of OZ
Kudos! How did you find the setup as far as temps & comfort, condensation, ventilation, etc? Did you have much of a breeze?
What are you using for guyline? The color reminds me of some braided mason's line I used for a while, but found it too slippery to hold friction knots, prone to tangling and fraying, etc. I ended up going with some blaze orange 325 paracord - thinner than the usual stuff but easy to work with. Not glow in the dark or reflective, but bright on its own (and nearly matched the trim material of my Noah's Tarps).
The guy lines are z-line dyneema, 1.5 I think.
It was breezy and cool, mid 50's (?), slept better than normal.
Set-up... a little frustrating. Had to set up in the dark and used ti shepard stakes. Would stake a corner, move to the support pole, and the breeze would pull the previous stake out of the ground. Not a quick process but that will get better.
Ended up with more bug bites than normal. Probably because I unzipped the bivy several times and let the bugs in. Will treat it with permethrin per jimmyjam's suggestion.
That weather sounds ideal! Though the bug part, not so much - would have hoped those temps would get rid of the biting bugs, but apparently not. Something to consider next time I'm out (soon).
Might your stakes have been too thin to hold well? I've seen some Ti-stakes that have the diameter of a skewer. Easy in, but easy out too. Are you carrying them to save weight? Y stakes hold better, IME, but the ground here in eastern TN can be so rocky and rootysuch that they can be hard to get in and out. Tough call as to what to bring, sometimes, but I too tend to go for the shepherd's hook stakes more often than not.