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My uncle's "just use a tarp" tip saved my $200 tent on a rainy trip to Bend
My uncle Rick, who camped every summer for 30 years, told me to always pitch a tarp over my tent before a trip to Bend last April. I ignored him the first night, and woke up at 2am to water pooling on the floor of my cheap Ozark Trail tent. The next night I strung up his old 8x10 tarp with two guy lines and a couple of stakes, and stayed bone dry while it poured for 12 hours straight. That tarp cost me $15 at a hardware store and it's now the first thing I pack. Has anyone else had a family member's old-school tip beat out fancy gear?
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susansingh1mo ago
So you had one bad night in the rain and now a tarp is the answer to everything? I've camped plenty in wet weather and a decent tent with a real rainfly handles it fine, no extra rigging needed. The problem sounds like it was your cheap tent, not that fancy gear is a scam. Stringing a tarp over everything also adds weight and setup time, and if you pitch it wrong the water just runs down the sides onto your stuff anyway. A 15 dollar tarp is great as a backup, but calling it better than good gear feels like a stretch.
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