Tarp or poncho ?

[Runsalone]

I live in Florida,I want to be cut off from my surroundings (mosquitos) as much as possible..

I hear ya. bugs suck! (literally)

 

[midnight flyer]

P.S. For those of you using trash bags, how to you make a hood? Or do you do without? In my opinion, the hood of any rain gear, is the most important part. Without it you'd get wet, unless you are wearing a waterproof broad brimmed hat.

I always hike with a wide brim hat. Having two malignant cancers burned off my face has made me a believer in covering up. So the hat is as important as anything in the pack.

Although, in a terrible rain while hunting (plenty of those bags around, I found it VERY easy to make a pointed head cover by cutting a large corner at about 45 degrees out of the bottom. Installed on my head, it looked like a pointed hat (really pointed). I left enough on the backside to cover my neck and most of my shoulders and it worked out great.

I always sleep in a tent. I think our nickel sized mosquitoes might carry me off if I didn't. If we have a moderate winter down here in south Texas, the bugs are so plentiful in the spring and summer that you would have to actually see it to believe it.

Many years ago when I hiked up in Yosemite, I was surprised at the fact that there were so few bugs on the mountain trail that many just carried a sleeping bag and ground cloth. I had never seen such a thing. I tried it, and loved it.

Got back home and went camping the following spring in the Texas Hill Country. I couldn't get the tent set up fast enough. If you wait too long, you will have mosquitoes in your tent. At dusk they are a problem, then only get worse. They come in and out of your tent every trip you make.

Oddly... we have had a reprieve the last couple of years. Since we are in drought conditions, and soon to be facing severe drought conditions, there hasn't been enough water for the bugs to boost their population up. I went to a ball game the other day, and at night you usually see clouds of insects drawn to the stadium lights. Last week - nothing. Must have been 10 bugs per light stand over the whole stadium.

Robert