How Much Coverage Needed?

[BigTurtle]

yea im with the be prepared for anything croud i make and use my largest turtle tarp which is a 12x11 but i also use a 12ft hammock too so i need the extra length but the 11 or even 10 foot width allows you to pitch the edges almost to the ground that way NO matter what the weather is you and your gear stay completly dry and i feel thats the main objective expecially on long trips also with that size of a tarp it has built in doors that will completly close if you courious about what a tarp like this looks like i have one in my album on here and MANY of the great vendors make tarps like this that will do you right. hope this helps. oh and always use tarp tensioners they make your life SO much easyer and faster setup. also if you go with a larger tarp make sure you get side pullouts to keep the tarp nice and tight also give you more room inside.

[gunner76]

Consider a Wilderness Logics Old Man Winter tarp with built in doors

Several vendors will have hammock stuff on sale this week and Black Friday so its a chance to pick up something there and I believe there is a Big Mama Jamba tarp with doors on the For Sale part of the forum.

[OneThing]

The more miles you hike the less weight you're going to want to carry. Unless you can afford the Cuben, then I would go with a MacCat or smaller on the AT.

The reality is that you'll be near shelters a lot. If the weather gets bad, there's always room for one more inside.

If you use a light weight poncho as your rain gear, you can use it for double duty on one end of the tarp and you should be fine.

[TinaLouise]

I started with a small tarp. As long as I had it staked close to the hammock and I stayed inside the hammock, I was dry. My gear on the other hand, was not. By gear here, I'm talking about anything that I put under me, on the ground. Everything there would get wet. I also couldn't hang out under this tarp in any kind of bad weather. If I tried, I got wet. So, I now take the weight penality and carry a huge 11'x10' tarp. This is what works for my style of camping. I like being able to stay dry, my gear on the ground stays dry and if I want to, I can even have company.

[turnerminator]

For hanging in regular wind and rain, tarp doors are a real boon.

We get loads of weather over here and I now would really miss my tarp doors. You can hang your hammock much lower with doors, eliminating touching the condensation on the tarp when getting in and out of the hammock.