[Mmmm...Jerky]

I have this tent! Best part is the weight, this thing weighs next to nothing! Worst part is getting in and out through the end. You pretty much have to army crawl in and out, and maneuver around the trekking pole. The head room is not great, especially with the mosquito hut in. It is not a bathtub floor in the bug hut. The beak is effective and can be placed easily in the night if the rain starts, no need to take anything down. Setup is kind of fiddly, you need six stake out points minimum. Once it is up and adjusted and guy outs are placed it holds up well to blustery rain. I had a very wet and windy night at marmot lake in ONP a couple years ago and it held up nicely, I was soaked but I was able to dry out under it.

[Randito]

With floorless shelters, site selection is more critical than with a tent. By site selection, I don't just mean choosing the most favorable tent pad in an area, but choosing stopping points that are more sheltered , especially when weather is grumpy. A hybrid approach I like is sewing a wide swath of no-see-um netting along the bottom edge of a shaped tarp. When weather is fair , you can adjust trekking pole heights and guylines to allow ventilation, but not bugs. When it's windy, you can stake it flush to the ground and pile duff/dirt onto the netting to reduce wind blowing in under the edge. When it's being raining all day and it comes time to setup camp, I look for sites under trees where there is a thick later of duff , so I'm not setting up my pad on mud, only damp needles.

[Nancyann]

Agreed about setting up to avoid mud, I do the same when at all possible. Thanks for the review, Mmmm…Jerky, very interesting! My bug hut does have a bathtub, I think they recently began making them like that after numerous complaints.

[the1mitch]

I've been tarping exclusively since 2005.My rig is an 8x10 sylnylon rectangle with mosquito net sewed in around the edges. With my tyvek floor it weighs 3.2 lbs and sleeps 3 easily, 4 in a pinch. On good ground, you can withstand ugly North Cascades weather without a bivy. I spent 32 hours on Pilot ridge in freezing rain under this set up and I swear by it. We had to drain the water that puddled in the edges and reset the lines, but we got thru it with mostly dry gear. My buddy had a $700 dyneema tent that didn't protect him as well as my $90 set up.

[Nancyann]

Nice lightweight setup you’ve got there, sounds like it works very well for you! Finding the right location is crucial in bad weather. I learned what works back in the early ‘70’s while enduring a week of storms in the Glacier Peak Wilderness on the PCT. My friend and I only brought a rainfly from our REI three person tent. I think the only thing that kept us alive was our warm furry part Husky dog!

[Gil]

I too have gone the sylnylon tarp route, although last year I also bought a Six Moons Design Gatewood Cape from Slim, and that thing is great! I have never liked tents. When I was in college, I worked summers for the Alaska Division of Fish and Wildlife Protection. We mostly guarded streams and watched lines between islands that commercial fishing boats were not supposed to cross. That meant getting dropped off by boat or plane and spending a few days or a week or more in hiding. I found in the first couple weeks that tents just couldn't stay dry, and it was difficult to hear inside them -- we had to be aware of any distant engine sound. From then on I just used a simple poly tarp and a bivvy. For bug protection, a head net. That still works today. I have used an Oware sylnylon tent when traveling with other people, but really prefer the simplicity of a tarp. I have never found bugs to be a problem.

[Nancyann]

That sounds like a job with unique challenges, Gil. I bet you have some interesting stories to tell about that phase of your life! I have an old Black Diamond bivy sac which works well to keep the bugs at bay, and I have noticed often they go away during the night anyway. I like the idea of the Slingfin freestanding bug hut for relaxing or eating meals without having a headnet to lift with each bite, that’s why I got it in addition to the tarp. Will be testing it very soon since we got hammered by mosquitoes up on Basalt Ridge yesterday.