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- Apr 25, 2007
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Little bit of a skills related post. No ESEE content directly, although all the cordage was cut with my ESEE-3 or Izula.
Got out for a while on Saturday night to do some practice setting up my tarp. Ordered a hammock recently so I figured it was time to get really serious about figuring out this tarp thingy. Just went out to the backyard and found a couple suitable trees to string a tarp up between and went to work.
The tarp is an Etowah Outfitters 8x10 in forest green or whatever they call green these days. All the cord I used in this experiment is parachute cord. It seems to work just fine for guy lines and other shorter lines that don't have much load on them. It will not work as a ridgeline. Well, it's OK if it's very calm but it's about like having the tarp suspended from a rubber band so for windier conditions I'm going to have to get something a bit less stretchy.
OK here was my first setup, which took the longest. Classic A-style shelter. I was still figuring out all my guy lines and the best way of setting up the ridgeline for this setup. I think I have figured it out fairly well, though.
Shelter plus my assistants for the evening.
Bought this Equinox mosquito net for my tarp a while ago. I am sad to say this is the first time I have actually set it up. Have not had any opportunity to actually camp under the tarp this summer yet. I'll give a review of it after using it, but it does set up fairly nicely and seems pretty well made.
Next up was the "flying Diamond" setup. But rocketbomb that's not a square tarp, it'll be all funny! Well yes, but it still works. This looks like a nice setup for hot summer nights when you want a bit of extra breeze but still some protection from heavy dew or light showers that may move through.
Set up the mosquito net again just for practice. Lots of room under this setup.
Then I lowered one end of the flying diamond to the ground to give the not-so-flying diamond setup. I kinda like the looks of this one, although the peak at the front needed to be higher. For practice this one worked. Didn't bother to put up the mosquito net in this one.
And here's the one-pole tarp setup. I actually copied this setup from pictures on the tarp page on bensbackwoods. This setup is neat if there aren't any good trees around, and helps with variable winds to some extent. It is thus far the only setup I have used while camping. It is not nearly as roomy as other setups though.
One of my main motivations for moving to a tarp setup is the specter of a backpacking trip this summer that will likely be solo. I refuse to carry my 5+ pound "backpacking" tent just for myself. If I carry just the tarp, I should be able to be less than half of that. If the hammock works out well, I will take that as well, which will push shelter weight up around 3 lbs but I'm hoping it will be worth it for comfort.
The tarp setup also saves a boatload of space. Here is the tarp, stakes (borrowed from my tent), and mosquito net compared to my Filson packer hat. The stakes *will* actually fit in the tarp's stuff sack but I left them out just for sake of showing the whole batch of equipment.
Hope this is helpful!
Got out for a while on Saturday night to do some practice setting up my tarp. Ordered a hammock recently so I figured it was time to get really serious about figuring out this tarp thingy. Just went out to the backyard and found a couple suitable trees to string a tarp up between and went to work.
The tarp is an Etowah Outfitters 8x10 in forest green or whatever they call green these days. All the cord I used in this experiment is parachute cord. It seems to work just fine for guy lines and other shorter lines that don't have much load on them. It will not work as a ridgeline. Well, it's OK if it's very calm but it's about like having the tarp suspended from a rubber band so for windier conditions I'm going to have to get something a bit less stretchy.
OK here was my first setup, which took the longest. Classic A-style shelter. I was still figuring out all my guy lines and the best way of setting up the ridgeline for this setup. I think I have figured it out fairly well, though.
Shelter plus my assistants for the evening.
Bought this Equinox mosquito net for my tarp a while ago. I am sad to say this is the first time I have actually set it up. Have not had any opportunity to actually camp under the tarp this summer yet. I'll give a review of it after using it, but it does set up fairly nicely and seems pretty well made.
Next up was the "flying Diamond" setup. But rocketbomb that's not a square tarp, it'll be all funny! Well yes, but it still works. This looks like a nice setup for hot summer nights when you want a bit of extra breeze but still some protection from heavy dew or light showers that may move through.
Set up the mosquito net again just for practice. Lots of room under this setup.
Then I lowered one end of the flying diamond to the ground to give the not-so-flying diamond setup. I kinda like the looks of this one, although the peak at the front needed to be higher. For practice this one worked. Didn't bother to put up the mosquito net in this one.
And here's the one-pole tarp setup. I actually copied this setup from pictures on the tarp page on bensbackwoods. This setup is neat if there aren't any good trees around, and helps with variable winds to some extent. It is thus far the only setup I have used while camping. It is not nearly as roomy as other setups though.
One of my main motivations for moving to a tarp setup is the specter of a backpacking trip this summer that will likely be solo. I refuse to carry my 5+ pound "backpacking" tent just for myself. If I carry just the tarp, I should be able to be less than half of that. If the hammock works out well, I will take that as well, which will push shelter weight up around 3 lbs but I'm hoping it will be worth it for comfort.
The tarp setup also saves a boatload of space. Here is the tarp, stakes (borrowed from my tent), and mosquito net compared to my Filson packer hat. The stakes *will* actually fit in the tarp's stuff sack but I left them out just for sake of showing the whole batch of equipment.
Hope this is helpful!
It was tarp not trap....
