Tarp type and set-up style, and let's see some pix

[Glenn MacGrady]

How do you set up your tarp?

Ridge line, tarp poles, paddles, hiking staffs? End poles or center poles? Favorite rope tricks and knots?

Ceiling style, A-frame, umbrella, teepee?

What kind of tarp? Cheap, expensive, silnylon, plastic, rectangular, square, parawing?

Over your tent/hammock, or placed in a separate area such as a cooking area?

And post pictures if you have them.

 

[Boatman53]

I set the tarp as conditions and trees demand, they are all different. Although it is stuffed into its bag with a ridgeline in place I don’t hesitate to use a pole in the middle to peak it up and then I slack the ridge and snug the prussic knots as in this pic. The fire place is just under the edge of the tarp and that edge was raised higher when we were cooking. I was using my fire box so the fire was smaller than if we made one under the grate.

Jim
I forgot to add it is a CCS 9x12 silnylon.

 

[Dale]

My usual setup is either one side tied off a ridge line with the other side staked to the ground or some variation of an a-frame. No poles (I sometimes use a paddle as a prop) but I carry lots of line and can usually make do with whatever trees are available. I keep it simple with knots and manage with half and truckers hitches. My tarp is an old CCS urethane coated 10 x 10 that’s still going strong and I set up over my fire/cooking area. I’ll look around for pics.

 

[Robin]

I picked this up from Campmore in NJ many years ago 10’x12’. The corners ripped out, so I used to wrap little stones in the corners, then secure them with cord, then tie it down with truckers hitch and quick release knots. Finally, I sewed canvas corners in, it’s still going strong. I depend on a ridge line and wind direction decides how much if any overhang I’ll need.







Tarp over my leaky old tent, new canvas corners

 

[Tryin']

Depends on what the conditions demand. Tarps are pretty flexible pieces of kit. I don't know that I've ever not been able to set one up.

 

[eckilson]

I'm not the tarp-master. There are others in my usual group that are better at setting them up than me. This was our year-end overnight back in December.

https://flic.kr/p/2pq7yXe

We actually did get some rain on this trip. I have to say that I have been pretty lucky over the years - haven't needed the tarp a lot.

 

[Bob B.]

I always travel with my tarp - solo or in a group. I find it to be a most useful piece of kit. I sometimes use a screen tarp bugout shelter. Usually I just bring my Lean one tent tarp and my 10 x 14 CCS tarp to put over my cooking area. When trips are really rainy, I incorporate my tarp with my Lean-One together for a dry shelter. The first pic has my tarp hung low as throughout the day, ( despite the sunny pic ) the rain was really driving and the low set kept me more dry.

I have older pics of trips with the tarp in WCPP. My buddy Hogan is reading under it while I am chasing Glenn Lake Walleyes. The other is from our first gathering ... having beer and stakes flown in, it was great meeting new people and having a beer deep in the bush sharing a camp fire under the tarp. The pic of my dog Jake under the tarp in the canoe ... fantastic idea as Jake HATES rain on his head. However, he hates being under a tarp in the canoe even more ... canoe tarp is no longer in service.

 

[Johnny 5]

I prefer a lean configuration for the combined wind and rain protection and may use paddles for support. Using paddles as supports prevents paddling while in use but I seldom paddle from camp in wind and rainy conditions and support installation and removal is quick and easy should I choose to paddle my canoe.

 

[Patrick Corry]

Nearly always as an A frame. I often set the tarp over, or partially over my tent to create a 'porch', or protected entry.

Here, on site 12 St. Regis Lake, ADKs prior to a predicted heavy downpour.

 

[Ripple]

Pat, nice aera. Is that a durston tent? If it is what poles do you carry? I always carry a tarp, either a 10x10 or a asymmetric. They have saved me a few times. With them, I carry a pre maid ridge line (like the one I use for a hammock tarp) and 6-8 guy lines of different lengths. You guys are brave to have fires under them tarps. I have thought about it, any tricks.

 

[ppine]

Moss Parawing goes on every trip. It works for shade but has saved some trips by provding a place to cook in the rain and a gathering spot where we can still see out. I like a Whelen lean to in colder weather with a fire in front.

 

[PaddlingPitt]

Kathleen and I have usually tripped just by ourselves. Most of our tripping has been north of treeline, our favourite landscape. In these situations, we rarely put up a tarp, primarily because we prefer to have an unobstructed view of the beauty of our surroundings, as here on the Snowdrift River in 1996.


Or here, on Great Slave Lake, in 2017. No tarp guy lines to trip us up as we wander through our camp.



If the weather gets bad, we simply retire to our roomy tent, with books, maps, pillows, sleeping bags, ground chairs, tea and brandy, as here, also on Great Slave Lake in 2017.



On our 1996 trip on the South Saskatchewan River, we actually took tarp poles for our tarp, as we anticipated wanting relief from the expected hot, unrelenting sun. The tarp is Serratus, which I bought at Mountain Equipment so long ago, that I no longer remember when. We secured the guy line to the tarp grommets with a bowline, and then used clove hitches around the top of the tarp poles. We created tension on the lines with taut line hitches. We found the tire and rocks on the beach.



I actually learned how to erect tarps from Carey on our 1990 South Nahanni trip. Carey always put up a tarp, and it was he who taught me how to tie the taut line hitch, which makes it easy to lower and raise the tarp, compared to a trucker's hitch.



A tarp is useful for groups to gather together during bad weather, as here on the Coppermine River with Carey and Janice in 1995. No one was comfortable, though. If Kathleen and I had been on our own, we would not have raised the tarp, but would have hunkered down in our tent.

 

[Mason]

Tarps can be nice on the Barrens, especially on wind days. Here's a CCS Tundra Tarp in its element, Dubawnt Lake, Nunavut last summer.

 

[Alan Gage]

I use a CCS 10x12 with a ridge line. Turns out I don't really have any pics but mine are similar to Bob's posted above with one difference.

In the middle of the span, at the edge, Bob has a cord reaching up to a higher point. This creates a peak which allows water to drain (otherwise it will pool) and I imagine improves the view a bit.

But I'm lazy and I generally only setup a tarp if I'm hammock camping so I prefer maximum protection rather than maximum view. So instead of running a cord up to a higher point I run a cord down by sticking a stake in the ground (if there's dirt) or tying off to a rock. This creates a 'V' rather than a peak but serves the same purpose of draining water and making it more taut.

Alan

 

[Pseudonym]

For group trips, I use a 15x15 CCS tundra tarp with bug netting. Here is one arrangement with a ridge line and two shelter poles. The bug netting is tied up and out of the way around the edges of the tarp and gets deployed as needed, but is otherwise out of the way.

The ridge line runs left-to-right and is tied between two trees. Rather than strung under the tarp, the ridge line is threaded through the sewn-in ridge loops, so the tarp actually hangs below the ridge line, sparing the silnylon fabric from some abrasion. The two adjustable poles are installed opposite one another, in the center of the tarp edges that are parallel to the primary ridge. That creates a secondary ridge between the two poles, which is perpendicular to the main ridge, so that the two ridges intersect like an X in the center (no center pole needed). The four corners are staked down to the ground well outside the footprint and channel water away from the middle, so there's no puddling. The two ridges create a lot of headroom for a group to convene, at least when lean-to coverage isn't necessary.

 

[Patrick Corry]

Pat, nice aera. Is that a durston tent? If it is what poles do you carry?

Yes, it’s a first generation X Mid 1person. Since i don’t carry trekking poles while canoeing I made some 48” segmented fiberglass poles from an old tent. For those unfamiliar with the XMid tents, they are designed to use adjustable trekking poles for support. I love the tent!

 

[TimG]

I have a 10’x12’ CCS tundra tarp in their lighter weight fabric. Like most, I set it up lots of different ways depending on site and conditions. I wish they made it in a light polyester, because it does stretch and pool when wet, so I almost always prop up or suspend the center point.
On a trip through the St. Regis last fall, I eventually got sick of setting up my tent and made a tent with just the tarp and my paddles. I can’t remember what the arrangement is called, but I really like it. Will probably go with just that in the future if the weather and bugs aren’t terrible.

 

[TimG]

I’ve also been thinking about getting a net tent from Bear Paw Wilderness Designs to go under a tarp. That would make for a very versatile and lightweight setup. He made a custom net tent to go under my Golite Shangri La 6+ and it’s very good quality, especially for the price.

 

[kahel]

during a multy day paddle trip last year in summer I use this combo.

Tatonka Mosquito Dome whith a HELSPORT Gapahuk Tarp.

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. .

The whole setup is light, quick and easy to assemble, and the shelter is very comfortable.
If no rain is expected, I leave the tarp out.

regards
Michael

 

[Boatman53]

How long is the ‘roof’ on that tarp? It looks quite long.
Jim