Originally Posted by
staehpj1
I did use the 5'x5' Mountain Laurel Designs dog tarp along with a bivy on my last couple tours. It worked out well to shelter the upper half of the bivy and a bit of gear. It could also be used to cook under, though I have seldom done that. I am not sure I consider anything I did as all that extreme. I am planning to go to a much lighter bivy and a more full sized tarp though and still might use a tent in some conditions. The idea is that the lighter DWR bivy will be lighter and much more breathable hopefully allowing it to work better in hotter buggier conditions, but it will require more protection from hard rain, hence the bigger tarp. The whole package will wind up being lighter and hopefully functional in a wider range of conditions, possibly to the extent that the tent option will be discarded altogether.
I've found that after the initial large improvements in touring comfort associated with gear weight reduction the comfort returns for further lightening have diminished and I believe that if I go any lighter they will actually reduce my overall comfort. Should I forget the kung fu shoes....I could, but then I wouldn't have a pair of shoes to wear in the showers that I don't mind getting wet or to walk around town that don't make crunching noises on the concrete like my SPD shoes do. I could easily get by without the kung fu shoes, but I would miss them at the end of the day. The same goes for my ridiculously heavy saddlebag. It just works so well for the way I tour. I've tried a compression dry sack and it was great to ride with, but at the end of the day it was a pain to find things and I ended up with a gear explosion and stuff spread all over the picnic table. It's a balancing act full of compromises and weighing of factors like personal preferences, terrain, weather and length of tour. There's no UL touring police. UL advocates might not see using a bivy and a trap, or using a single walled tent, or going rackless as extreme, but most of the touring community will. And this is where I fear that our "fully loaded" fellow tourists will see this approach as Stupid Light and so fail to adopt some of the ideas to lighten their own loads. They shouldn't jump to the extreme of a 18lb bike and 10lbs of gear, but maybe they can look at that 6lb tent and the heavy rain jacket or the multiple sets of clothes and heavy pans and reduce their gear from 70lbs to 50lbs or 40lbs. We want to go sensible light, not scary or stupid light.
http://andrewskurka.com/2012/stupid-...ght-or-better/