[pct-l] Fw: Tents vrs Tarps - Bivies?

[Timothy Nye]

Hi, Yoshihiro,

In 2009 I met a woman thru-hiker, Megan Barstow, who had just spent many
years in Tokyo and who successfully finished the trail.  If you are on
facebook, you can use my e-mail address friend me and then locate her as one
of my facebook friends.  I believe that she would be very helpful to you.
She is fluent in Japanese.

I've spent many nights on the trail; I prefer just sleeping out in the open,
but have encountered the mosquito hatch as well as long periods of rainy
weather (both in Oregon - Diane is right - it makes the mosquitoes
seem worse when you haven't seen the sun for half a week and don't have an
opportunity to dry your gear.  Their favorite place to bite me was the back
of my arms just above the elbows - I think they hovered waiting for an
opening to become available) that makes me want to optimize my own rig.
Yes, I'll be switching out gear along the way.  A lot of the gear
information on these pages simplifies what I had to learn the hard way.  You
don't know what you don't know.

Jackass has about the same rig I do based upon his recent gear
recommendations.

There is another component to the gear discussion, though.  These really are
our toys.  I mean, let's face it.  Some gear gets collected like baseball
cards when we were younger.  The childish aspect of this is indeed left
behind when hiking and the alternate reality kicks in.