|
|
| Post Number: 1
|
TWinAlbany 
Group: Members
Posts: 116
Joined: Oct. 2012
|
 |
Posted on: Oct. 29 2012, 2:51 am |
|
   |
I have a Eureka 2 person tent but, am seriously considering a tarp or tarp tent for lighter purposes. But, I do have to confess, I have a fear of bugs crawling in my ear or getting in my bag. Does anyone else share this fear and if so, what do you do to deal with it?
|
 |
|
|
| Post Number: 2
|
Tigger
Woods Pouncer
Group: Members
Posts: 10519
Joined: Apr. 2005
|
|
Posted on: Oct. 29 2012, 3:01 am |
|
 |
I share similar areas to you (middle and northern Oregon). I use a floorless Golite Shangri-La often. I have bug netting around the perimeter to keep mosquitoes and biting gnats at bay. I use a small floor just big enough for my sleeping bag. I was "nervous" about bugs but after taking the leap, have not been concerned anymore.
You can always use this: http://www.hikelight.com/adventure-16-bug-bivy.html
It's basically a mini-bug netting tent. Gobluehiker used one on most of our hikes successfully.
--------------
If I'm going to be lost, in the woods is where I want to be...
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 3
|
TDale
Group: Members
Posts: 13153
Joined: Jun. 2005
|
|
Posted on: Oct. 29 2012, 5:23 am |
|
|
Statistically, in your bed at home, in your sleep, you eat at least one spider a year. I've awoke at home with a scorpion on my chest. I'm as bug averse as the next guy because of tick and mosquito diseases. Living in the Deep South I got plenty of creepy crawlies. I stick with full enclosure shelters.
--------------
"Sure as I know anything, I know this - they will try again...They'll swing back to the belief that they can make people... better. And I do not hold to that. So no more runnin'. I aim to misbehave."
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 4
|
Dennis Waite
Group: Members
Posts: 443
Joined: Feb. 2002
|
|
Posted on: Oct. 29 2012, 7:32 am |
|
|
A simple, light, and inexpensive solution: an insect headnet worn with a ball cap so the bill keeps the mesh off your face. Not as nice as a bug bivy, not as comfortable to sleep in, but it works. I sewed an Equinox net to the opening end of my bivy and just drape it over me. It works on the airborne bugs, and tucking it in under my bivy keep 99% of the crawlies out . . . I still get the occasional ant if I carelessly bivy around visible ant hills.
--------------
Dennis Waite
Interested in dog sledding? Huskies? Check-out my Husky Refuge website!
http://www.phoenixconsultation.com/rescue
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 5
|
JRinGeorgia
Group: Members
Posts: 298
Joined: Jul. 2012
|
|
Posted on: Oct. 29 2012, 7:54 am |
|
|
(TDale @ Oct. 29 2012, 5:23 am)
QUOTE Statistically, in your bed at home, in your sleep, you eat at least one spider a year.
I've heard up to 8 a year -- but it's all urban legend. http://www.snopes.com/science/stats/spiders.asp also plenty of other sources, no fact to this myth. We don't actually end up eating spiders in our sleep, they don't want to be anywhere near our mouths and we probably would be woken up feeling something crawling in there. Good story though -- so good that apparently it was made up just to prove that people will believe anything they read on the internet.
Regardless of that, I also prefer full enclosure tent, especially here in the South, too many skeeters, ticks, chiggers, spiders, scorpions, etc that might find your warm body (if not the inside of your mouth) a cozy place to settle in, grab a meal, or lay eggs.
Shake out your boots in the morning before putting them on, a scorpion sting on the sole of your foot is no way to start a day on the trail...
--------------
- JRinGeorgia
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 6
|
Mudslide1
Group: Members
Posts: 75
Joined: Aug. 2011
|
|
Posted on: Oct. 29 2012, 9:01 am |
|
|
Im also down here in Ga, and my rule of thumb is if the temps are 50s and above then Im using my tent or more recently my hammock. Anything cooler than that I've only used my UL 8x10 tarp no bug netting, but I will use a light ground cloth but thats it. Unroll your sleeping bag when its time for bed, and you're good to go. Never had any creepy crawlies bother me when its cooler or cold so no probs there. 
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 7
|
TrailTramper
Group: Members
Posts: 1289
Joined: Sep. 2009
|
|
Posted on: Oct. 29 2012, 9:04 am |
|
|
These days bugs are not only spooky, but they carry life-threatening illnesses. For that reason alone I would never sleep outside without a full tent.
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 8
|
eggs
That's sofa King assume
Group: Members
Posts: 4236
Joined: Nov. 2007
|
|
Posted on: Oct. 29 2012, 9:16 am |
|
|
Well if your talking about a Traptent then you have full bug protection. I have a Rainbow which serves me very well
--------------
Eggs
Home of the egg
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 9
|
|
|
| Post Number: 10
|
rayestrella
Group: Members
Posts: 6411
Joined: Nov. 2004
|
|
Posted on: Oct. 29 2012, 10:22 am |
|
|
I think she does pretty darn good considering. We'll see where you are in 30 years Brad.
I'm surprised you have friends...
--------------
I measure happiness with an altimeter
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 11
|
big_load
Group: Members
Posts: 21841
Joined: Jun. 2004
|
|
Posted on: Oct. 29 2012, 2:35 pm |
|
|
No bugs in a Tarptent, SMD, or similar.
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 12
|
TWinAlbany
Group: Members
Posts: 116
Joined: Oct. 2012
|
|
Posted on: Oct. 29 2012, 2:41 pm |
|
|
What's SMD?
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 13
|
rayestrella
Group: Members
Posts: 6411
Joined: Nov. 2004
|
|
Posted on: Oct. 29 2012, 3:02 pm |
|
|
http://www.sixmoondesigns.com/
--------------
I measure happiness with an altimeter
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 14
|
TWinAlbany
Group: Members
Posts: 116
Joined: Oct. 2012
|
|
Posted on: Oct. 29 2012, 4:10 pm |
|
|
Thanks Ray!
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 15
|
IAJeff
Group: Members
Posts: 183
Joined: Jan. 2012
|
|
Posted on: Oct. 29 2012, 9:04 pm |
|
|
Funny you mention this. I have a tent and want to try to convert to a tarp setup. I was looking at MLD and their products. Or a lighter tent like SMD or Light Heart Gear tent. The Light Heart one is pretty spendy though. Haven't really decide yet, but I am starting to think more about a tarp setup.
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 16
|
TWinAlbany
Group: Members
Posts: 116
Joined: Oct. 2012
|
|
Posted on: Oct. 29 2012, 9:36 pm |
|
|
I'm really entertaining a lighter setup and that's what prompted this thread. Not sure which direction I'm going to go in though.
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 17
|
theron
Group: Members
Posts: 277
Joined: Jun. 2008
|
|
Posted on: Oct. 29 2012, 9:38 pm |
|
|
Well, tarp camping is nothing but cowboy camping with wind and rain protection. So try cowboy camping when the weather is good and you'll know what it's like. Here in Socal where there aren't many bugs it's more of a mental hurdle than anything else. I have noticed that near water there are a lot more bugs than in the mountains. But I think they are more afraid of you than vice versa.
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 18
|
AlmostThere
I must not be there yet, I keep hiking...
Group: Members
Posts: 4890
Joined: Apr. 2008
|
|
Posted on: Oct. 29 2012, 9:57 pm |
|
|
If I liked tents at all (don't, really) I'd say I really liked the Lightheart Solo. It's freeing to have the ability to roll the fly out of the way, then quickly deploy it at the first few raindrops, even if it's windy, without running around attaching the fly to everything. It's already attached. Two stakes and done.
I've used tarps on the ground sans bugnet. Once I got bitten on the legs because stupid me failed to notice an anthill. Other than that, nothing's crawled into my orifices or given me a reason to worry.
And when I can, I use a hammock with a full zip bugnet - then nothing gets on me. Soak the tree straps in permethrin and I'm bug free. Plus the mice can run right under the hammock instead of across me (that would be the one other time sleeping in the open was silly - don't use a heavily used campsite with rodent holes around the tree roots).
Site selection and where you are hiking are major factors in whether tarps are right for you... they require skill pitching them, if you don't have trees around to tie them off to.
--------------
All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking.
Friedrich Nietzsche
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 19
|
bikehikefish
Group: Members
Posts: 145
Joined: Jul. 2008
|
|
Posted on: Oct. 29 2012, 10:10 pm |
|
|
Here in Missouri we are proud of our bugs! We have ticks chiggers and skeeters second to none!
Having said that, I routinely use a sylnylon tarp and a tyvek ground cloth. Not a problem. As someone here said earlier, it's a mental thing, at least it was for me. No more bug bites than if I was in a tent.
Check out rayjardine.com if you want to try to sew your own. The net tent provides protection from Mosquitos when they are a problem.
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 20
|
City Man
Group: Members
Posts: 6490
Joined: Dec. 2007
|
|
Posted on: Oct. 29 2012, 10:35 pm |
|
|
I used to do a lot of so called cowboy camping in my youth, the more I travel into the never ending flow of time I hate to say it the more I prefer some kind of enclosure when camping. Though I have passed out by the camp fire from time to time, just the same.
I have two bivies, one from North Face, bought it around the time that one man tents were becoming the same weight or less then a bivy so I have never used it. I also own a Marmot Mesh Bivy. I have used it a few times during the summer, comes in handy now and then.
Two the original Question, to my knowledge Yes, though people who have used and use tarp tents have already mentioned.
--------------
It never hurts to do good Eek the Cat
The quest for adventure is a never ending pursuit, an all consuming way to live life, it is a deep feeling that will never go away, embrace that feeling and have fun with your adventures.
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 21
|
toesnorth
Group: Members
Posts: 2500
Joined: Jan. 2007
|
|
Posted on: Oct. 29 2012, 10:41 pm |
|
|
I use a Shangri-la 3 or 5 without floor or net often in the winter but that is the only time I camp without protection from bugs.
I HATE mosquitoes and I got a hobo spider bite a few years back that still plagues me today.
--------------
"Failure is never as frightening as regret."
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 22
|
rayestrella
Group: Members
Posts: 6411
Joined: Nov. 2004
|
|
Posted on: Oct. 29 2012, 10:55 pm |
|
|
I was camped under an overpass and got bit by a hobo once too...
Seriously I used a tarp for my first 6 years of backpacking, only setting it up if it rained. Otherwise I just folded it in thirds and slept on it as a ground-cloth. Then a scorpion made me change to tents. (Plus a 20+ mosquito bite night in the Alabama Hills. My brother Ryan had more.)
--------------
I measure happiness with an altimeter
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 23
|
hikingodS
Group: Members
Posts: 776
Joined: Nov. 2007
|
|
Posted on: Oct. 29 2012, 11:56 pm |
|
|
A tarptent (Double Rainbow, or one of a number of other choices) is a nice option to go lighter than a tent, but still have full bug protection. I'm not bug-phobic, but I like to be able to relax at night without the annoyance of buzzing mosquitos.
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 24
|
Owen571
Group: Members
Posts: 536
Joined: Apr. 2011
|
|
Posted on: Oct. 30 2012, 1:54 am |
|
|
Bugs aren't a "fear" here in AL, just a fact of life. Fortunately, we just got hit with cooler weather, but a big selling point of the Tarptent Notch for me was that it's three shelters in one, and can be used with or without the inner bugnet, which can also be pitched separately. Really looking forward to using it as a "tarp" this week, but the three nights I spent in it last week would have been miserable without the bugnet. When you've had gnats hovering around your eyes and ears all afternoon, and the mosquitoes come out, and there's spiders and ants crawling around on the netting, you're happy that netting is there...
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 25
|
ImmortalBen
Group: Members
Posts: 73
Joined: Oct. 2012
|
|
Posted on: Oct. 30 2012, 11:26 am |
|
|
Fly Creek 2 Platinum
Two person tent for 2lb 3oz.
I used to sleep sans tent, but ticks and skeeters changed my mind.
--------------
Don't protect yourself to death.
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 26
|
GoBlueHiker
Obsessive Island Hopper...
Group: Members
Posts: 14069
Joined: Jul. 2006
|
|
Posted on: Oct. 30 2012, 1:57 pm |
|
|
As others noted, there are good lightweight tents with full-enclosure if bugs are your primary concern.
I've hiked plenty in buggy weather (a temperate rainforest during snowmelt in SE Alaska will show what a cloud of 'skeeters really is), and continue to use a tarp. However, I use the A16 bug bivy Tigger showed above, almost religiously when the bugs are out.
I realize that with a groundsheet, bug bivy and overhead tarp, I could combine them all with a TarpTent/SMD/LightYear for equal or lesser total weight (and in fact, that's what I use when camping with my wife). I stick with my current setup when solo because of versatility. I enjoy cowboy-camping too much to give it up. I can sleep under the tarp when weather threatens, in the bug bivy when bugs are out, or use just one or neither when conditions warrant. I personally enjoy that, so I stick with a compartmental system. Many late-summer nights in CO, I cowboy camp and just leave the bug bivy at home, bringing the tarp just-in-case.
FWIW, the bug bivy works great keeping the skeeters/ticks/spiders/slugs out. Works for me anyway.
- Mike
--------------
Wealth needs more. Happiness needs less. Simplify.
www.RainForestTreks.com
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 27
|
TWinAlbany
Group: Members
Posts: 116
Joined: Oct. 2012
|
|
Posted on: Oct. 30 2012, 4:00 pm |
|
|
We have hobo spiders here in Oregon and they scare the tarnations out of me!
I'm also looking at the bug bivy.
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 28
|
High_Sierra_Fan
Group: Members
Posts: 39589
Joined: Aug. 2005
|
|
Posted on: Oct. 30 2012, 4:37 pm |
|
|
For most any sort of floor less shelter you can "mix and match" any of a variety of inner nets. Probably best if peak heights are compatible but otherwise different outer and inners can combine to make a shelter that suits.
For spiders I don't see a bug bivy giving enough secure coverage as, IIRC, it simply drapes over the bag. In my experience it does work well for flyers, a nice companion to my Chouinard MegaMids.
|
|
|
|
| Post Number: 29
|
|
|
| Post Number: 30
|
High_Sierra_Fan
Group: Members
Posts: 39589
Joined: Aug. 2005
|
|
Posted on: Oct. 30 2012, 10:06 pm |
|
|
Spiders versus flyers?
Might have to with motivation. Warm blooded big creatures are flyers target while for spiders notsomuch. Well, except for those with larger ambitions like the ones in that Gahan Wilson cartoon. Two spiders are pictured near a children's slide where there's a web across the bottom. The caption: "Yeah but if it works we'll be SET!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Survival Skills 101 • Eat Better
