What's Your Solution for "Privacy" in a Public Camping Area?

[Slowwalker]

standing under the tarp sounds perfectly adequate to me. If someone wants to look into my shelter, it's their own fault if they go blind from what they see!

ha-ha! +1 !

[Guitarman]

http://www.amazon.com/Portable-Campi...ging+room+tent

For car camping.

[Theosus]

It try to pitch my tarp where the holes are facing sideways to the fire. most of the action will be by the fire, and if I go to bed before the fire is out, is helps block some of the light. I usually change clothes in the hammock under the blanket anyway.
Hiking is sort of an intimate experience, everyone sees other people at their grungiest and brushing their teeth and even discussing bodily functions. It doesn't bother me if someone strips down to their underwear, especially the typical hiker underwear, usually some utilitarian synthetic black or beige totally non-sexy boxers or briefs or "granny panties". You see more skin on the beach when people are in their bathing suits. If people don't want to see me changing, they can turn the other way.

[ntxkayakr]

Someone on another thread suggested changing & bathing while wearing a poncho. Total coverage with room to work underneath. Sort of like the kilt idea, with up top coverage for us gals.

That's a great idea! Any poncho will do but those military style from online or local Army/Navy stores are very versatile. Not as hot in humid weather as many rain suits and dozens of other uses for them: alternative to tarp in emergency, end door for tarp, rainwater catchment system, cover for dry firewood, WP cover for backpack,... not just for squatting up against a tree all night in a rainstorm with biting ants crawling up you while your commanding officer yells at you to stay awake on watch, sorry I was having a bad flashback or something.

google.com site:hammockforums.net poncho+privacy

several good comments and suggestions

this had only 10 fairly obvious uses but there are many more reasons to carry a poncho:
http://survival.outdoorlife.com/blog...ergency-poncho

I like the WB Superfly, but when doors are not needed they take more time to set up and in wind make more noise and are hotter in the summer, so a simple diamond tarp with poncho or something at one or both ends IF rain blows or facing trail often makes more sense. Poncho is a changing/bathing shelter for both genders almost anywhere even if you don't have time to set up a hammock+tarp and/or or just need to use a cat hole or eco safe toilet/rocket box etc. I like to sit/squat and enjoy the view keep my eyes scanning for predators, such as grizzly bears or angry moose defending their young etc while i drop human waste.

[Trailrider74]

I use a light weight towel. Wrap it around your waist, pull your pants/underwear off, put your clean pants/underwear on. Done.

Of course if you need to clean yourself up as well, this option has it's limitations.

[spectactical]

also, amongst certain groups, a simple announcement of intent is all that is needed to keep people from looking. If not in that setting, then I'll usually change underwear under a blanket and then step out of hammock into pants.

[I'm a hammock lover]

Don't go camping in a public park area....Haha! I usually camp out, and volunteer every year at the Hamilton county fair (TN), and they have bathrooms. When I'm camping though (I usually go with friends) I hang my tarp so it comes down to just above the knee, or mid thigh, so if someone has a problem seeing my legs, that's their problem. you could try changing in your hammock, but I don't want to have my nakedness in my hammock. I hope this was helpful.

[AaronMB]

This sounds like a good excuse for a [little] tarp. Something small and lightweight would make for a good door or wall; makes for a backup ground cloth, too, suppose. Camp shower?

[nothermark]

Seems to me to be a bit of a non issue for most folks. Campgrounds have bathrooms if one is in that mode. Back country should only need a tarp in the general public side and a bit of discretion. That is more than some groups bother with.

[dingbat]

Change shirt, untie shoes, pull pants down to knees, sit in hammock, pull feet out of shoes and put feet in drybag, pull pants and socks the rest of the way off and into drybag, close drybag, swing legs into hammock, zip-up, change drawers in hammock under blanket or TQ. If done right, there'd be about two seconds between pulling your pants down to your knees and sitting in your hammock where you could pull a corner of your blanket or quilt across your lap if not being seen was that big of a concern, and for those two seconds, you've still got your drawers on.

Only been out a few times so I'm not sure if this is the system I'm keeping, but I like it so far. It's not for the privacy issue so much as keeping dirt and grit out of the hammock. Once my feet come out of my shoes, they never touch anything but the inside of a clean drybag and the inside of my hammock. Pants don't get dragged across the ground while changing out of them either. Eliminates the need for a ground cloth assuming you carry a drybag with room for your pants anyway. The only reason I keep my drawers on is I don't like the idea of my exposed junk rubbing over the zippered edge of my hammock.