blackbird/superfly as bivy?

[spidennis]

I like this type of pole setup and attachment for my hammock bivy ....
I also like this as a solo man tent, and it's on on my short list. (150 bucks)

[Hammockflyer]

Hey Spidennis,
Be sure and post trip reports! What time of the year are you and how long is your Rio Grande trip? The Colorado sounds interesting too. On that one do you have to portage around dams? Just curious!

[spidennis]

oh, I'll have plenty of pics and such to post, usually do. I'm headed to the concho enduro on 28 feb and headed to big bend right after that. the next weekend is the big bend hang so I'l be there for that with kayaking all inbetween. I'll hang when I can, or be in the back of my jeep, or caveman style in a tent that I yet to get.

the colorado river from austin and the ICW trip come after that sometime .... mid march-ish and later

you take your kayak up river at santa elena canyon a ways and find a slot canyon on the left that has ferns growing out from the rock face, follow the stream to this point, if you can because it's a bunch of climbing to get to it, then you go under that bolder with the stream in your face and follow the daylight up and thru and ........

[Hammockflyer]

I've done some sea kayaking in the Bahamas and through the Everglades but never any river kayaking. I need to try it especially since there are such great rivers here in Costa Rica to run. I've gone on a couple of rafting trips down here and seen how much fun the kayakers were having. Sounds like you've got a great spring planned out. Enjoy!

[ikemouser]

Although this may be able to be used as a bivy, one of the reasons for a bivy is speed of setup during a storm. Can you set this up during a mean storm, managing to keep your quilts dry and other gear stowed properly in the heat of the moment? Seems complex to me, but i hope it works out.

[spidennis]

Although this may be able to be used as a bivy, one of the reasons for a bivy is speed of setup during a storm. Can you set this up during a mean storm, managing to keep your quilts dry and other gear stowed properly in the heat of the moment? Seems complex to me, but i hope it works out.

well, ahhhh, no. so far I don't have any quick setup formulas in place, but .....

I just can't let this whole general idea out of my head. It's a swirling mass of gases right now but I sure feel like I'm onto something here.

I still like the airbeam idea and that could sure make for a quick setup in the rain. I'm thinking of two different ideas here, one manual inflation and one automatic inflation using a CO2 cartridge, just like a life jacket. But this path takes me away from using my bb and into completely starting from scratch DIY territory, and that's ok, but I'll be moving to another thread in the diy forums when I start up that.

but ..... since I already have my blackbird I'm still playing around with ideas that revolve around it. Looking at tents have shown me other ideas that I could use. that single man military tent has plenty of cool features that I'm looking hard at using. I saw a youtube video on it which really showcases that tent. here's that link ......
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXivRSG6fEI

so, all is not lost, just have to look, play, research, develop, etc .... but find something that works for me until everything comes together, someday.

[spidennis]

here is the intersecting arches idea, this is promising but .....
It's the tarp that's gonna be a problem next.
using the stock super fly as my model
I can actually make the arches higher,
maybe up to 48" for total height,
instead of where it's at in the photo of 33".
Like in that army tent video,
I can put in zippers to add panels or door access.
It will have to be a tarp for the hammock
and a rain fly for the bivy.
zippered in panels/doors will hopefully make it work for both.

note: cat not included!

just for modeling sake I used these office clips
to simulate the hooks/clips that tents normally use.
I'd of course have to do some reinforcing for strength ...


I'm using a poncho as the ground cloth here .....
my nifty little idea to hold the poles in place
(using what I already got)
pvc tubing, drilled and zip tied to the corner grommet

[spidennis]

I guess this thread is more of a blog of my thoughts ....
so here's some more:

I'm not thinking that I can use the superfly or my speer swt as a very good rain fly. In the house it might start to look ok, but it'll never fly outdoors in the real environment, meaning wind.

I'm trying to make something that is flat and rectangular into something dome shaped so that's a bit tough. I might just have to start this from scratch with some cheapie material and a sewing machine. To make something dome shaped from something flat I'll have to take in some material (like a dart?). I can see some sort of zipper setup that will transform the flat shape into a dome shape and back again with a simple zip up like doing your jacket. It's got to be tight fitting so it won't flap in the breeze and it has to be low enough to the ground to keep driving rain out.

The poles I'll just have to adjust as I do all of this. what I got is too thin for this so I'll need something a bit more stout. I'll stick with the cheaper fiberglass poles until I know for sure that I got it figured out and then I'll go for the prebent aluminum good stuff.

I guess I got to look more into tent and rainfly designs ......