Quote:
Originally Posted by BigV
Hey bbro
just a quick observation.
You're begging for trouble laying out that groundcloth/tarp so that it extends beyond the bottom edge of the tent. It's a bad habit, it doesn't help you in the least in this situation. You'd setup a carpet like that in your house, or a placemat at the dinner table, I totally get how it *looks* right, but I promise you it's a bad idea.
What you're trying to protect here is the bottom of the tent, the floor of the tent. You want to protect it from water and from sharp things, rocks and sticks. The water is the problem when the groundcloth extends beyond the footprint of the tent. The water is not coming up from the ground to the tent (unless you pitch your tent in a puddle), it's coming down from the sky. You *want* it to hit the tent roof and the fly and the walls and continue downward into the ground, right at the edge of the tent. Into the ground/gravel/dirt. Giving a little lip/ledge for the water to hit before it can reach the dirt redirects it to the underside of the tent. PRESTO, you're camping in a puddle.
I'm not the camping boss of you--do what you want. But I am speaking with the voice of experience.
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I know, I know. glatt, Grav and monster all mentioned it, too, on my first solo trip.
I'll have to tape it up or something. Otherwise, I'm just not gonna. I don't use it for anything other than putting it under my tent. Even with using it, I think I found some holes in my tent floor. I'll have to "patch" those next trip. What I really need is a proper tent, but those bad boys are EXPENSIVE! Or I'm just cheap!
My next trip is this weekend coming up. The weather forecast depends on where you are looking. One says some chance of rain every day. One says only one day of moderate/heavy rain. The camping this time will be more of a base camp type thing. I am using it to visit parks in the north east corner of the state. I'm hoping that since it's not in the mountains, I'll have data access to check the weather.
Most of the meals this time will be eaten at local restaurants. I'm technically starting my vacation, so I figured why not. This may require me to shower at the site which does not make me happy. I have issues with bugs in bathrooms. Especially when overhead. BUT I'll still need 2 dinners, 1 breakfast, 1 lunch, and some snacks (not including the extra I always have). I think I am going to just repeat the last dinners while they're still fresh and tasty in my mind. I probably won't have a fire roaring because if it doesn't rain, it's going to be in the 90s