While pitching my tarp one evening I found two sticks close at hand. Neither one was quite strong enough, so I used them both together.

A cold wind was slanting rain, but I slept very comfortably thanks to my BatWing.

The BatWing is a door that closes off one end of the ray-way tarp, used on those stormy nights when the wind is slanting rain a ways into the interior.

It weighs very little, and is quick and easy to set up. You can set it up from inside - you don’t have to go out in the rain. But when you do have to go out in the middle of the night, you can quickly and easily unhook one side of the BatWing.

It works with or without a Net-Tent or Spitfire, and is adjustable depending on the geometry of the pitch.

Of course you can have two BatWings, one at each end (but to me that would be over-kill because I would pitch just one BatWing on the tarp's windward end only).

I developed the BatWing for my 2009 AT thru-hike, and carried it the entire way. I used it only once, when in the middle of the night the wind piped up and started flinging rain into the interior. I was glad to have it that night, and I carried it for the rest of trip, just in case.

Then in 2010 on my third AT thru-hike I carried a BatWing and used it many times - because the weather tends to be stormer in the early season.

Since then I have carried a BatWing on every trip that involved camping.

The BatWing is not customizable, and must be ordered in a specific size.

1) To fit a standard One-Person Ray-Way tarp. 1.4 oz.

2) To fit a standard Two-Person Ray-Way tarp. 2.1 oz.

Because the BatWing so light and functional, I recommend every ray-way tarp owner carry one.

Contents of our Batwing Kit

Our Batwing Kit contains detailed instructions for making the Batwing, the needed fabric, webbing and directions for sewing the webbing to the tarp, and the cord and hooks for attaching the batwing to the tarp.