Wow, quite the response!! Well I guess first off I should say that I decided to go with an ultra light tent and spent over a $150+ for a 2lb bivy. I think part of the weight savings is the lack of rainfly material. That's why I always double up with the tarp. The tent I use is a major PITA to move around in, Not much room at all and any activities I do are laying down or propped up on my elbow. To go pee in the middle of the night is a chore to say the least. I've been on several cold trips where the gear I can afford is less then adequate for the conditions. I know its also a false sense of security having a tent and after waking up on the last camping trip with a bear in camp and realizing my drunk buds needed a rock to cook with and replaced that rock, on my tarp, with a 10lb roaster chicken! Yeah I may have so issues with sleeping around my friends on these backpacking/survival trips. I am however getting away from that group more and more and want it all without the added weight. I've always carried a wally world 10x12 tarp for the main area, I guess in part because I'm the only one that ever has tarps so I've always beared the extra weight for everyone.

So I think if I beef up my rain gear just a tad I can do away with the main area tarp and let them all run around like confused children for a bit. How do I beef up my rainfly though? I would love to have a little over hang that I can stand under when I first climb out. It doesn't have to be huge just enough to cover the entire tent and a little extra by the door. It also may be a little too late but I order a big ol' chunk of tyvek and it should be in the mail already. Is tyvek really that bad? I've been hearing nothing but good about it outside of the material being noisy and having to wash it with sneakers to cure that. I know its overkill but I ordered a 9'x12' piece. I may end up cutting it in half so I have 2 9x8's instead. We do tend to have a fire every time i'm out and I've gone out and scavenged all down and dead wood within an hour and had enough wood for the weekend only to come back with the last load and to find the weekend warriors doing a sacred beer guzzling dance around the fire pit with 8ft high flames as the last of the wood I've bought over on the previous trip has been tossed on. Yeah trying to get away from certain friends when I'm camping. Decent people, until you let them loose into the forest. Ok so that leaves me with long story short: Beef up rain gear, ditch common area tarp. Ditch rain fly and hopefully find a way to configure a tarp to be a super rainfly! Sounds reasonable. I might not be ditching the tent yet but I do see that I've cut some weight. So my next thread I suppose should be my sleep system. Thanx everyone.

Forgot to mention that I have had the joyful experience of spending more then a few nights in an adk lean-to. Only bad thing about that is they are always first come, first serve. I guess I may have kinda fantasized about having a smaller personal lean to closer to a fire. I've seen so many pics depicting this very scene and it just looks so nice. I may try it with a baker tent set up some wintery day just for the sake of experiencing it.