A 3 season free standing tent is most appropriate because you can’t find nice soft grass everywhere to stake out a tarp and you need it to be waterproof. Doug64 is right. How does a tarp work on hard ground ya can’t get a stake into? I tried a Tarptent squall? 2 for a few nights and hated it. Waste of money if you aren’t in the ideal campsite. TNF Tadpole 2 works well for me.

My big agnes HV 1 copper spur bikepacking tent weighs 2.5 lbs. No bugs or critters, water proof, no condensation/clammy like a bivy. Long enough for me, can sit up in it and has a small fly for shoes or a bag at the door for cover. Not quite sure what the OP goals are? Seems ilke a tarp would be lacking?

As fate would have it... I went digging for a bag to use tomorrow for something. I did not find the bag. However, what I did find was my entire hammock set up. Here I thought I left it at the cabins.. That also means that since it was hidden in a box here it never made it up to the cabins to start with. I normally keep the set in a dry sack (heavy kayaking type, 20L) and I recall looking for it thinking it was surely in one of the two dry sacks I use for that purpose and not seeing it.

Anywho... This changes my whole game plan. I got both the tarp with doors (separate parts) and the hammock. So if I am stringing up the tarp I might as well string up the hammock. And its fully enclosed - zip up bug net - so is critter-proof.

+1. Seems like a lot of work when you can get a 3 lb. (or even lighter) tent.

And if it’s been raining before you set up camp you are going to want a floor unless you like sleeping in mud.

Most of my tarp camping was done decades ago when there was snow on the ground. A space blanket worked great as a ground sheet. Little heavy but it was quite strong. I do not mean the single use ones, the one I used was fiber reinforced and was quite durable.

A piece of Tyvek also makes for a nice ground cloth beneath a tarp or tent but it can be a little noisy until it is more broken in. I've heard of people tossing it in a wash machine to speed up the process but I've never done this myself to know if it really works.

I like this for quick rain exits:

Looks like a Mountainsmith Morrison 2 tent. I am on my second one after many years. I think one of the best tents for the money.

Yup, washing works. And the Tyvek tape works really well too.

From a trip back in July. Fortunately, this was not my campsite. Keep in mind that the soil at the park is relatively porous. It was simply raining too hard for the ground to keep up.


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...368b4d5cd.jpeg

Yep, it is a Morrison 2 tent. I like it a lot. Plenty of room for the two of us, easy to set up, fairly light, inexpensive and dry. I think I paid $125 a few years ago. On one tour this summer we had a 20 minute cloudburst..monsoon, horizontal rain & couldn't see across the street (we were in a bar at the time grabbing a bite to eat) white-squall downpour. We got back to camp and inside the tent and contents were bone-dry. I'd buy another..they're still available.

Yikes.

At first glance I thought the campsite number post was a depth gauge.