How often do you use a tarp?

[brady1]

I just got back from a quick overnighter and I was wondering as I packed up this morning, if there isn't a weather concern, do I need to bother setting up a tarp?

I had a pretty private site, it was off of a trail that came to a dead end a little ways past me so there was no other reason for anyone to come up my trail other than to get to my site. So a tarp strictly for privacy wasn't a concern.

I just thought I could save a little bit of weight in my pack if I didn't necessarily need a tarp.

So what do you guys do?

[Bad Biscuit]

It's easier to clean bird poop off my tarp than my hammock or quilts. Just sayin '

[Grumpy Squatch]

It's easier to clean bird poop off my tarp than my hammock or quilts. Just sayin '

Ditto for pine needles, tree sap, and all the other stuff that falls down when the wind blows. Because you never find that stuff until 2am.

I always take at least the small asym tarp that came w/ my Hennessy.

[squidbilly]

It's easier to clean bird poop off my tarp than my hammock or quilts. Just sayin '

...as I sit in my hammock in the yard (under a tarp), relatively spotless.

Other than the weather, that's the concern.

[WaffleBox]

Weather also does what it wants to do, regardless of what Chip McGillicuddy at Channel 5 news tries to pigeonhole it into doing.

[SilvrSurfr]

I prefer to get my weather from non-meteorologists. The meteorologists always seem to be wrong.

I am always amazed at weather forecasts - 0% chance of rain doesn't mean much, in my experience. I've seen it rain for hours when there was 0% chance of rain projected. I almost always put my tarp up because weather forecasts are guesswork, and my experience has taught me not to expect actual accuracy. I don't like getting wet.

[Springer]

It rains everyday at 3pm in western North Carolina in the summer, for me it's a must have.
WCU where I went to school doesn't stand for "we carry umbrellas" for nothing.

[Country Roads]

Mountains make their own weather. I take a tarp on all trips. I even string it between the trees, but might leave it in the tarp skins, or sometimes I flip one side back over the other like a lean-to. If it does decide to rain, I can deploy the tarp very quickly. If I am underneath spruce, pines, fir, oak or any nut trees, I deploy the tarp, if I am using the hammock without a bug net. Hate needles, cones, acorns or nuts falling me in the night too. It is nice to cowboy camp hammock style once in a while, especially during the full moon.

[rubberfish]

do I need to bother setting up a tarp?

Yes.

[brady1]

It's easier to clean bird poop off my tarp than my hammock or quilts. Just sayin '

Oooh...good point.

Yes.

Noted.

Thanks for all the replies.