Tarpin'

Note this is about "tarpin'", not "tarpon". I don't know much about the big, shiny gamefish. However, I am starting to learn more about tarps. Probably the main thing I've learned is that I'm not a very big fan of the stock Hennessy tarp.

I have lofty dreams of making my own tarp but that might be off in the future a bit. I have some very good plans for making a nice cat (catenary) cut tarp with a 12' ridgeline. Unfortunately material prices have skyrocketed. What used to be around $5/yd is now over $11. I did find a supplier with 2nds for $4.50 but it's untreated instead of silnylon. I have somebody sending me some fabric samples so I can try my hand at waterproofing it myself but we'll have to see. I need 8 yards of ripstop so under $40 would be much nicer than over $90.

In the interim I've decided to go against my initial thought and bought a tarp. After reading various reviews on a number of different tarps I opted for the MacCat Deluxe from Brian at Outdoor Equipment Supplier.

I'm really excited about getting the MacCat and trying it out in the backyard. I never expected to be looking forward to laying in a hammock in the yard hoping for rain. :-D Brian said he'd ship it out today and it's coming Priority Mail. If my finger crossing works I'll at least have it by Saturday afternoon to try it overnight and report back on Sunday.

In other news, we've also decided to move our church camping trip. We'll be doing it in October now. I'm a little bummed since I was hoping for a test run on some of the gear before the Ocala hike but it'll probably work out better for the group. I think I'm pretty prepared for Ocala. I just need to finalize the menu and decide what to do about water. Since TS Fay dumped a lot on us I'm in a quandary. I hate to carry the weight of 5L of water if I can just fill up along the trail. I'm really tempted to stick with the 3L bladder in the pack and carry a 2.5L Platypus bladder. If it looks like water might be more scarce even after the storms I can fill the spare bladder and have slightly more water than originally planned. If I don't need as much I haven't forced myself to carry a lot of extra weight unnecessarily. I need to figure it out quick.

Oh well, not much else going on. Looking forward to more hiking and can't wait to get in the woods.