Oops forgot to address a few of your questions.

Ground cloth, yeah I go back and forth. This piece of gear pains me the most because it really would be the easiest to leave home. Gear to me is an investment and my nature is to protect it. I just picture a sharp going through the tent bottom and deflating my brand new inflatable

Leaving the bottom rain gear was a weather forecast related decision for both trips. We have them and use them as well.

Whistles, probably will keep them around. We actually heard folks lost in the woods calling for help a few weekends ago. You can run out of voice pretty quickly calling for help. Just hope others would respond as we tried to.

jimmyb