Thanks for the warm welcome. I have a better understanding now of the windshirt concept. To me it seems like it would be better to have just a waterproof shell and meet both wind and water protection needs in one garment?
Windshirts are very light and sometimes DWR, which means they are water repellant; rain shells are waterproof. I have a rain shell and because it is a vapor barrier, wearing it in anything warmer than 40f results in my being wet anyway because I'm hiking and sweating my buns off. So now I have a rain poncho for
some hiking situations where I'm not going to be blown off the map and the breathable DWR windshirt to fight the wind.
My sleeping bag is an old coleman peak one square bag and weighs in at over 5 lbs so that will need to be addressed. I am intrigued by the homemade quilts out there, but have no sewing skills. I would really like more of a sleep system where I could kinda layer an outter bag/quilt with my army issue poncho linner (wooby).
You can buy a quilt from Jacks r Better, Backpacking Light, or other online vendors. They also frequently appear used at hammockforums.net - just saw a great deal on a Ray WAy quilt someone made and sold used.
I saw the article on the home site where a guy taped together two mylar blankets as an outter bag and that ease of assembly kinda got me thinking that I'd like to have a similar setup, only sewn and with something heavier and less noisy than mylar (also like the square shape as I'm a toss and turn guy).
Mylar is a vapor barrier. if you are going to be in subzero temps, this might be okay, but anything around freezing or warmer you will be swimming in your own perspiration.
I am interested in trying to lighten up my existing tent by replacing the ground sheet with Tyvek or possibly forgoing the ground sheet altogether.
Forgo the ground sheet or use 2mm painter's cloth, which comes in a huge roll for a couple bucks. I tried Tyvek off eBay - it's pretty stiff until you use it for a while, and I found that bark chips and duff stuck to it more than to the plastic painter's cloth. Some people really like tyvek once they run it through a washing machine a bunch of times. Since I sold the tent and gave it away, I may not have given it a fair shake. These days I use a tarp and hammock.
Sounds like you are doing things with forethought - good for you!
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