In the Dark Ages of my backpacking life (late '60's) I owned a clear plastic tube tent of abouut 10 ft.in length Worked "OK" if I bunched up one end but I'd rather have a cheap tarp, and that ain't saying much in my book.

These days with tents like sil-nylon TarpTents & Go-Lite's single wall tents I see no reason on earth to tarp it unless, like me in the '60s, you're operating on very limited funds. Even Backpacker magazine agrees with that statement.

Eric
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"There are no comfortable backpacks. Some are just less uncomfortable than others."