[pct-l] Tent vs Bivy Sack

[Tim Gustafson]

I just wanted to say "thanks" to everyone who has responded to my
questions.  I read every single reply and took them all into
consideration, even though I didn't reply to everyone.

I get that a tent's job is to keep you dry, and that a sleeping bag's
job is to keep you warm.  That makes total sense to me.  (The nice
clean separation of the two is really stroking my inner OCD.)  But I
think tents have a few other jobs that may or may not matter to each
person:

- Keeping out the bugs (incredibly important to me)
- Keeping out the breeze/wind
- Some level of warmth, if only when I'm not all tucked into my bag

As a few people have mentioned: if it's raining out, it's nice to have
a space that I can sit up in that's free of drafts and maybe even a
little warm with the candle lantern that someone mentioned, than it is
to stare at canvas inches from your face for hours on end.  I also
really like the idea of being able to work on my gear in a
moisture-free, breeze-free and perhaps most importantly bug-free
environment.  Or to just sit and read a book for a while, or write in
my journal.

I must have some invisible sign that only bugs can see that hangs over
my head outside that says "Eat at Tim's".  Seriously, I've been
standing three feet from my wife completely surrounded by flies all
swarming around my head and face while she has not a single bug about
her.  Having a refuge where I can hide when the bugs get bad at night
is important to me.  It's a quality of life thing.

Will I sleep under the stars in naught but my sleeping bag on top of
my sleeping pad?  Yes, I'll probably do that when the weather is good
and the bugs are away.  But I'll still want to put forth the extra
effort to lug along a 5 or 6 pound tent on certain trips when the mood
strikes me.

When everything is said and done, I'll probably not buy anything for
now and perhaps make do with an old Eureka 2-person tent that I have
in the garage that's at least not totally ridiculous, and maybe if I
get a good tax refund this year I'll buy a super-light 2-person tent
later.  Bivy sacks seem to not be the answer for me, because they
don't give me anything that my Solitaire doesn't already have, more or
less, and what it specifically doesn't give me is the 4th season or
the room for "living" inside the tent a bit.  And none of the ones
I've seen so far are actually much lighter than the Solitaire that I
already have.

So, thanks again!  (And feel free to tell me I'm a total fool if you
really think so!)  :)