[pct-l] Tarp materials

["Joanne Lennox" <goforth@cio.net>]

Hope you all are having a good holiday season, at least a healthier one
than mine.  I have spent most of the last 2 weeks dealing with a flu/cold. 
Really set my training back.

The 4 inch mountain lion tracks in the snow which ran down my driveway have
also made me rethink some of my training.  I have been doing some of this
after dark, with an occaisional run to bring my exertion up if I am on
level ground or down hill, and I have decided that at least I will only
train during the daylight hours and not use a walkman.  The deer population
is at a all time low, and the lion was definitely interested in my
chickens. (And yes, I can properly identify a mountain lion track, and I
can distinguish it from a dog, lynx, and bobcat).

At any rate, what I really want to know is whether anybody out there has
really used a Tyvek tarp, and how strong the material is, and what happens
in the end to render it unuseable.Could you make a Tyvek tarp and use it
for a whole thruhike? Could a Tyvek tarp last for 2 and one half months
(you would need two for a PCT thruhike).  Would it be okay for a snow storm
in early June if you were below timberline?  Above Timberline with 40
mile/hr. gusts?

I have spent much of this down period designing tents(and tarps), and
packs.  YOu get a real appreciation for the ability to imagine a three
dimentiooal object and the knowledge of how materials work, and the various
strengths needed under different circumstances.  Many of the lighter weight
tents use 1 oz. materials which are silcone coated.  The 1 oz uncoated
materials that I have are diaphanous, you can see thru them.  It is hard
for me to imagine such a material enduring a thruhike in the form of a
tent.  I have not even been able to find a seller of this type of material
(Rain Shed, Seattle Fabrics, Adventure sometHing or the other, and Wyeast
have fabrics with 1 oz coatings, but I couldn't find anything close to this
unless it was uncoated).

Does anyone know where you can purchase 1.1 ounces nylon impregnated with
silicone?	

Has anybody used such a material for a tarp.? ( I think that a tarp can
often be subject to harder stresses in high winds because the attachment
points are ofter farther from their anchor and higher off the ground than
they are in a tent.).  kThe Nomad Wanderlust tent is made of this material,
even if you can set it up quickly, how long is it going to last, what kind
of winds or conditions  can it withstand. ( Personally, dividing tents into
3 season or four season seems a completely artificial measure of what a
tent will withstand, will a three season tent withstand a spring snow storm
in the sierras, or one in the mountains of Alaska?)

Peace
Goforth
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