PSA: that $12 tarp saved my bacon in a hailstorm at Grand Teton and I trust it more than my $220 tent
Everyone in camp gear circles loves to dump on cheap blue tarps, but I'm going to plant my flag here. Two summers back I was camping near Jenny Lake in Grand Teton, and a storm rolled in fast, the kind where the hail comes sideways and the sky turns green. My buddy's fancy ultralight shelter started leaking at the seams within 20 minutes, and my $12 tarp from the hardware store out back kept my whole sleeping setup bone dry for four hours. I've since read all these reviews calling tarps a beginner move that you outgrow, and I just don't buy it. The thing weighs next to nothing, packs down smaller than a water bottle, and when a pole snapped on my $220 tent last fall I ended up sleeping under that same tarp for two nights and stayed warm and dry. So before you drop three figures on a shelter, maybe test a cheap tarp on a wet weekend first and see what actually fails. What's the cheapest piece of gear that has ever bailed you out when the weather turned?