Frosty with Recon Bivy and Twinn Tarp
Okay, Frosty is not a total gram weenie, but he is gram weenie adjacent. He weighs gear on our kitchen scale. He makes spreadsheets to track the weights of different gear combinations in various backpacks. And he has made or modified gear to be lighter.
I was in the house working when Frosty came in to get me with an excited proclamation of “You’ve got to see this!” He brought me out to our backyard where he had been setting up some of his new gear in preparation for an upcoming section hike on the Appalachian Trail.
Frosty with His Discovery
Frosty has a Recon bivy from Enlightened Equipment and the Twinn Tarp from Gossamer Gear. He plans to use these together. If you set up both pieces of equipment as intended, you use 12 stakes. Four for the Recon bivy, and eight more for the Twin Tarp.
Frosty was having none of that. He devised a way to set up the Recon bivy using cord with the stakes and trekking poles from the Twinn Tarp. This method would allow him to cut out the weight and space of four stakes and replace it with a negligible amount of cord. Score!
Frosty Makes a Half Hitch Knot
If you want to try out this rigging yourself, here’s what you do. Tie the cord with a half hitch knot around the Twinn Tarp stake on one side. Then thread the cord through the stake loop for the Recon bivy on the same side. Next bring the cord around in front of the trekking pole. Then it’s back through the second stake loop. Finally, back to the Twinn Tarp stake, finishing it off with another half hitch knot.
Recon Bivy and Twinn Tarp with M Cord Set Up
Frosty preferred this method of securing the bivy to others he tried because it also centered the bivy under the Twinn Tarp.
Detail of the M Cord Set Up
According to our scale, both of these pieces of equipment were lighter than the specifications listed on their websites.
Enlightened Equipment Recon regular 10D – 6.84 ounces (our scale)
Gossamer Gear Twin Tarp – 9.03 ounces (our scale)
