So who makes em?

Can you help a new guy? so many people people here use tarps but I'm having trouble finding the companies that make them for BPing, I want to see whats out there, please share your opinion of which ones to look at, by the way I'll be using it with a bivy.

click the shopping portal at the top of the page, or the "gear store" at the top of the page
and look for anything like a silnylon tarp.

Integral Designs (siltarps and silponcho)
REI or Campmor (look for "silicone nylon tarp)
MEC (look for "silicone scout" tarp
Googling for "silnylon tarp" will get you a long way..

MSR and Outdoor Research (OR) also have tarp offerings.
Closely related are the Tarptent and variations on tarp-like tents from GoLite, Gossamer Gear, and Six Moon Designs.

You shouldn't have trouble finding them - REI, Campmor, Backcountry Gear, and Moosejaw all stock a fairly complete line.

www.jacksrbetter.com

You'll want to be a little careful when buying a tarp from a retail outlet like REI or Campmor. They sell great tarps but they also sell less good tarps. For instance at REI they sell a tarp called a "Coated Tarp" and another called a "UL tarp". The UL tarp is made of silnylon, which is what you want. The other is polyurethane coated nylon which, while waterproof, is heavier than silnylon.

Campmor is even more complicated because they sell two tarps of the same size from the same manufacturer but only one is really for backpacking. The Equinox Ultralight Tarp (which is the same as the one REI calls the UL tarp) is the good one. The other is the Equinox Coated Nylon tarp and is almost twice the weight of the Ultralight Tarp.

In both cases the more expensive one is the one you want I'm afraid.

Here's a few more resources:

www.speerhammocks.com

http://www.outdoorequipmentsupplier.com/

http://www.hammockforums.net - lots of trading goes on here. You can also look at some of the threads. I'm working on finding a website by one of the members. Will update later when I get the correct link.

http://www.mosquitohammock.com/rainfly.html

Tango

Here are some more sources. I'll let you google!

Mountain Laurel Designs

Gossamer Gear (these won't be available until the spinnaker fabric shortage is over)

Antigravity Gear

Oware

I found that by the time you add together the weights of tarp, groundsheet and bug netting that you pretty much equal the weight of many of the lighter tarptents on the market. I personally prefer having a fully-enclosed bug-free shelter. Your Mileage May Vary! Sources for these tarptents include Tarptent, Six Moon Designs, AntiGravity Gear and Gossamer Gear (the last is again having problems with the spinnaker fabric shortage).