Thanks for all your input guys. One thing I find is that I am quite often too warm and so I unzip my sleeping bag, and then during the early morning hours when it is quite cool I zip it up. It seems to me that with many of these bivys there is no side zipper which would leave me sweating a lot. I have been looking at the very light one by Outdoor Research. It seems like a good bivy, but where I live they are $144.00. It might be hard to convince the wife I really need it <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> I may have to wait for next year at that price. I seem to have exceeded this year’s budget for hiking equipment.

The mountains can be quite cool during late August. I may have to improvise for now by wrapping a poncho around me, or do what I did last year pitching my tarp in a more tent like fashion. The thing that really attracts me to a bivy is the fact that I have discovered I like sleeping under the stars. Pitching my tarp in a lean-to configuration blocks most of the wind and still allows me to do that. It makes me feel really free, not all closed in.

Howie