Poncho Tarping 101

One of the more interesting pieces of gear I’ll be taking on my thru-hike attempt is the Mountain Laurel Designs Pro Rain Poncho. A true multi-use product, this garment will function as my rain jacket, backpack cover, and shelter.

Tarps are already a fairly niche product in 2021 for backpackers, so let’s start there. Picture in your mind’s eye a tent. The tents that long-distance backpackers typically use are a bit different than what you’re probably picturing. They’re often made of very thin, lightweight fabrics, and can be supported by non-traditional frames (trekking-pole supported and natural anchor supported tents are commonplace).

Tarps are a step beyond a tent – not always in terms of weight (there are some very lightweight tents available in the market in 2021), but in terms of modularity and adjustability. Tarps coupled with an inner net or bivy replace the function of a tent, but have the advantage that if, say, it is only lightly sprinkling (but not windy or buggy), you can sleep under your tarp only. If it’s buggy, but not rainy, you can sleep in your net only, and don’t have to worry about pitching your tarp. Set ups like these allow you the flexibility to set up your shelter based on whatever it is you’re trying to avoid on a given night. Tarps also have the advantage over tents in the variety of ways they can be pitched. Most tents are meant to be set up in one configuration – with tarps, the world is your oyster. Rather than feign expertise on the topic of the myriad of tarp pitches in existence, I’ll point you to David McPherson’s magnum opus on the subject.

So what is a poncho tarp? It’s a rectangular tarp with an integrated hood near the center, so that it can convert into a poncho that covers you and your backpack when you’re hiking in the rain. The hood can be closed (the mechanics of this vary by manufacturer) when you’re ready to pitch it as a tarp, and then you can proceed with guylines, tent stakes, and whatever frame you’re using to support it (this can be trees, trekking poles, or even carbon fiber poles manufactured specifically for this purpose).

It’s about this time that the idea of a poncho tarp sounds pretty great, no? Before you go out and drop some of that hard-earned cheddar on poncho tarps for you and all your friends, understand that they have a lot of significant drawbacks. In fact, I’d go as far as to say unless you’ve spent a substantial number of nights under a tarp, and love it, a poncho tarp is probably not right for you. So, let’s go through the reasons why I do not recommend anyone to ever purchase a poncho tarp (if it’s going to work for you, you won’t need my recommendation to convince you to pull the trigger):

• Space – poncho tarps have to be quite small by virtue of needing to perform as a poncho and not drag on the ground. This means when they are pitched low to the ground (as will be the case in the rain), you have very little space for you and all your stuff
• Skill-level required – because you may need to use the poncho half of your poncho tarp any day you’re hiking, you don’t get the luxury of keeping your guylines attached to your tarp, like you would with a conventional tent or tarp. This means, all else the same, the set up time to pitch your poncho tarp will always be longer than if you were pitching a tarp. Further, site selection is critical for tarping in general, but even moreso for the smaller poncho tarp. You need to be aware of which way the wind is blowing, where water will gather on the ground if it does start raining during the night, and where the sun is going to rise in the morning
• Set-up in the rain – there isn’t a good way to convert from poncho to tarp mode while it’s actively raining. No matter what route you choose (with the exception of sleeping in an A.T. shelter or bailing and finding a hotel), you will get wet. This doesn’t matter as much when it’s warm, but can be a safety risk when it’s cold if you aren’t careful
• Durability – there isn’t an inherent difference in durability between a poncho tarp and a regular tarp or tent made of the same material. However, because the poncho tarp gets the lucky job of doing double duty as a garment of clothing, walking through briars, slipping and falling, or even sitting on particularly abrasive rock all pose the risk that the structure of your shelter could get compromised

OK – hopefully at this point, I’ve talked you out of buying a poncho tarp. Now that that’s out of the way, I’ve put together a video that highlights the three pitches that I plan to adopt on my thru-hike attempt: the A-Frame, the half-pyramid, and what I affectionately refer to as “storm mode”.

As a final note, I’m not married to using the poncho tarp for the entirety of my thru-hike attempt. If the weather really gets gnarly, I’ll definitely be looking for the nearest shelter or town to bail to. If I’m finding it’s not providing adequate shelter or a sustainable level of comfort for me, I may pick up a cheap tent to get me through the coldest part of my hike. That said, I’m super excited about giving it a go.

Cheers,
Billy