Summer in the Sierras is probably the best place to try tarp camping, since you would do fine with no cover at all most nights in our dry California summers. Still, there was hail the week before we were up, so it is worth getting your shelter dialed in. Here are some moments from our eight day trip through the Hoover and Emigrant Wilderness Areas.
Prodded by Scoutmaster Jerry’s post “So what’s in my backpack?”, here is what I carried on our eight-day trek in the Hoover and Emigrant. My base weight (not counting food and water) is on the lightweight side at under 25 pounds, but with at least five pounds of gear that other people might not bring, mostly the camera and Crazy Creek chair.
I’ll list the gear by category in decreasing order of weight, but first, a photo of everything that went into my pack laid out on my groundsheet, taken on day 7 of the trek.
On our Boy Scout trek in the Hoover and Emigrant Wilderness Areas, about half the crew brought basins made from the bottom of a plastic milk jug. Cut it just below the handle, and you have a free, ultralight basin.
The original idea was to use it to keep the freezer bag meals from falling over while they were rehydrating, but we kept finding new uses.
The least-expected use was for a bucket brigade to fight a single-tree wildfire that we found. The initial containment and a satphone report were done by Troop 959 from San Diego, but they needed to move on to evac an ill crewmember. Our crew (Troop 14, Palo Alto) took over and spent most of an hour putting it all the way out.
Most Casual Observer 