Pros
- Inexpensive @$20
- Versatile - tarp, bivy sack, ground cover, emergency blanket, rain jacket
- Love the hood
- Built-in grommets
- Local company (PDX)
Cons
- No attachment points if using as a bivy and too short for full bivy sack use
- Kinda heavy. Poler tells me it’s 12oz.
Poler’s Magic Tarpit, or as I’ve been affectionately calling it - the “poor man’s bivy sack” - is a versatile little piece of gear. On my first trip I used it alternatively as a rain jacket, ground cover for my floorless tent, and a place to organize my gear up off the cold, wet sand. Had the situation presented itself, it would have also served as a tarp for sitting in the rain. I love gear that serves multiple purposes and that’s why I love this thing.
For those that haven’t seen one of these before, it’s basically a space blanket with a hood sewn into it. The addition of the hood is genius as it makes it much more practical than a typical space blanket. But it also serves typical space-blanket duty - it’s waterproof, thermo-reflective, and durable.
I think the place where the Tarpit would really shine is as a primitive bivy sack. A sleeping bag fits perfectly into it, and if there was a way to keep it wrapped around you (buttons? velcro?), it would work just fine at a fraction of the cost of a traditional bivy sack. And because it’s thermo-reflective, you could carry a lighter sleeping bag than you would otherwise. Obviously it wouldn’t protect from getting wet in the steady downpour, but all bivy sacks suck in the rain. The only other problem for using it like this is that it is a foot too short to fully cover your bag (notice my feet sticking out of it on the above photo). That’s ok though, because it allows you to walk around in it when using it as a jacket without dragging it on the ground.
And here is poor photo of it being used as a ground cover for my floorless tent: