I'm about 5' 10" tall, and I have to take care to avoid touching the foot of my sleeping bag or my head to the (single) wall of the tent. This varies somewhat; I've read of people 6' tall being happy with this tent. In part I think it depends on how thick your sleeping pad is (my Neo-air raises me up closer to sloping wall fabric).

There's some fiddle factor when you want to convert poncho/cape into tent and back again. Not a big deal but a little fiddling in each direction, and some small ancillary bits that have to be stored somewhere and found when you want to convert it into tent mode.

Some folks like to have rain gear to use when camped, for example, to use the bathroom or whatever. One can carry a very light so-called "disposeable" poncho for this purpose, but that still adds an ounce or two of weight.

As a poncho it's a little weird. It doesn't vent at all around the sleeves as does a normal poncho, but has a front zip (which of course is also the tent door zip). I like to belt a poncho (to include the G.C.) with a sort of shock-cord belt to keep it under control in wind. Combining this plus my use of trekking poles means I have to sort of hitch up the G.C. such that I get less coverage of my upper legs than I do with a conventional poncho. My normal (Golite) poncho provides ventilation that I like a bit better, and serves better as a "rain jacket plus rain skirt plus pack cover" --- the rain skirt part isn't as good for me with the G.C.

As with any poncho, there are no sleeves; in cold weather it can be nice to have something covering your arms without adding a layer to the torso to do so. I bought some tyvek sleeves online, and while they look a bit weird, they do okay to augment the G.C. With, of course, yet slightly more fiddle factor and very minor weight hit.

For buggy times, SMD sells an inner bug tent that is designed to work with the G.C. Some folks just use a head net, but I like to have a bug free environment in which to eat, sleep, whatever. The inner tent of course adds weight, but it is also a pretty tight space. If I sit up inside that, the netting inevitably drapes onto me in places, which could mean in really buggy times the chance of being bitten through (little experience personally on this aspect, however). One good thing about the inner net tent is that it keeps your bag from touching the tent wall and getting wet from condensation.

Finally, an issue I encountered on the Appalachian Trail nearly a year ago now was that if the trail isn't brushed out well (had a lot of blowdowns to navigate) then when it's raining or snowing out you put not only your only raingear at risk in such conditions but also your only shelter --- the flipside of the dual use benefit (dual risk).

To be clear, none of the above is meant as criticism of this very clever dual-use piece of equipment. All gear items incorporate some sort of compromises, I'm just doing my best here to list all those that I can think of for the Gatewood Cape. If none of those give you pause, then it's a great "shaped tarp", much better, easier to "pitch right" IMO than a typical tarp, and of course it's also a useful poncho. I used it in England on the Coast-to-Coast trail this past September, on the theory that it served as a sort of emergency shelter for myself and my wife at need. Never had to use it in that way, but I definitely did use it as a poncho on a number of days. I think that for day hikes it's a nice option too, for a really credible emergency shelter combined with rain gear. And at this time of year I think it combines nicely with a bivy sack for winter camping (to be clear, not a 4-season wind-proof shelter, use in winter conditions at your own discretion and using your own experience as a guide ...).