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Tarps - Benefits and Basic Instructions |
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Written by Richard Halbert
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Page 1 of 3
Why a Tarp?
In my quest to lighten my backpack I considered and, at first, rejected the use of a tarp instead of a tent. I liked the idea of a tarp, after all there are great advantages like;
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1. The openness: In a tent there is this dark wall between you and wilderness that you came to experience. Yes, when it is not raining you can remove the fly and enjoy the view through the screening that most tents have now, but it is never going to be as open as a tarp.
2. Lightweight: I have several tarps ranging in weight from under 10 oz. to just over 15 oz. including all tieouts. Many hikers use a tyvek ground sheet which adds another 5 ounces or so. I use a 9.5 ounce bag bivy with my sleeping bag so don't use a ground sheet unless the ground is wet in which case I use half a space blanket (0.9 oz.). Most tarp campers use their trekking poles or sticks from the forest to support their tarp so these add no weight to their pack. Add 3 oz. for titanium stakes and you have a very light shelter.
3. Handling rain: During rain it is a quick and easy job to erect your tarp and store your pack beneath it. With most tents, the tent goes up first followed by the fly. So, unless you are really careful and skilled, it is very likely that the tent will get wet before you get the fly up. You are apt to get it wet again during take down. Setting up a wet tent is not fun, but a tarp has no floor to get wet so setting up a wet tarp is not a problem. While beneath your tarp, you don't normally come in contact with the fabric anyway, so who cares if it is wet. It is also going to dry out very quickly. Cooking beneath a tarp in wet weather is safe and easy, but not recommended in a tent unless it has an ample vestibule.
4. Versatility: Unlike tents tarps can be set up in different configurations. For example, I may pull out the tarp midday and rig it as a simple roof over my head, then at night set it up in the usual A-frame configuration. There are other configurations.
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Here is a trapezoidal configuration that utilizes one treking pole in front |
A quick modification of this configuration is made by adding a second treking pole in front resulting in a more open setup with a wider view. |
Another possibility is to start with a corner and create a wing configuration. . |
Here is a set up with a flat back and an A-Frame front.
So I was well aware of these advantages but held back because of the presumed bug problem with a tarp, and because I didn't really understand how to set it up in the A-frame configuration. The A-frame is the most commonly used set up for night time shelter. The will to use a tarp was there, so I practiced setting it up, but these early attempts were pretty sad. Oh I could get it up all right, but it took forever which is not acceptable on the trail and it seemed like there were a bazillion knots to tie and untie. It wasn't until I read Ray Jardine's book, Beyond Backpacking that I finally understood. |
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Tarp Sizes
As I have gained more experience I have gradually reduced the size of my tarp. Combining the tarp with a lightweight, water resistant bivy sack has been a great help here. On longer trips I am now using a 5'8'' X 8' tarp/poncho combination.
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BushMoot, the best event of the year - from 1st -5th August 2008 at Merthyr Mawr in South Wales. 
I used Hazel wood. Choose the
thin long shoots of wood which i would think are a couple of years old.
If you don't catch anything at first don't worry. It may just be a case of
changing a few things.
Most bushcrafters know that Birch bark is fantastic for fire lighting
because of all the oil concealed within it. This tutorial guides you
through the process of extracting that tar from the bark.
Now we could bung a label on (which should always say they type of wine and when it was bottled). I suggest you cross-reference to a book of recipes and notes so that when you get a cracking wine you can recreate it. We are going to add a little something to the presentation of the wine by putting a foil cap over the neck. First we drop a foil cap (available for a couple of pence from a wine shop) over the bottle neck.
Right, we now have clean, fined and filtered wine. We pour it into clean (yes and sterilised) bottles with a funnel. We need to cork it. Its possible to put corks in with a mallet. I use a corking gun and waxed corks that do not need to be soaked (plain corks do)
Well, the finings have worked – the wine is beautifully clear.
As soon as I'd finished my Paracord Bracelet, I'd decided to write a tutorial on making one. A good thing considering the majority of the responses since I posted it were asking me how to do it! Here goes.. You will need approximately 3 metres of paracord with the ends already sealed/melted, and something to make a temporary knot - a twist tie or piece of string should suffice.
There was a period in my life where I lived out of a pack for months at a time and this was one of my staples.
I like to coil it like a rope on a stick and bake it over hot coals...
I have been asked a number of times recently to provide some advice of guidance on the best way to sharpen an axe. Whilst I am always happy to provide input, I thought that it might be worthwhile to put together a tutorial on the basic techniques. The techniques used in here are intended to provide not only a sharp axe but also a safe and efficient axe.
There are many different ways you can make a berry picker but this is just a design i came up with which uses a packet of kebab skiewers and some discs of wood.
The whole kit took less than three hours to finally pull together — though that really overlooks by far the most time-consuming aspect, the preparation of materials. In fact, preparation has two components, actually. The first is the selection of materials. The second is the actual preparation.