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  1. #1
    Registered User theinfamousj's Avatar
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    Default Non-Freestanding Tent on Gravel Tent Pad

    Usually on the AT a tarp tent that relies on being staked out to give its structure is a good thing. Even on wooden tent platforms, there are usually hooks, or you can bring small cup hooks from home and rig something ...

    ... But what about when you go car camping on a gravel tent pad? What then?

    I ask because I'm taking my mother out for a trip on Feb 27 - March 1 and the NC State Park we are headed to only has gravel tent pads. Am I SOL? Do I have to dig up one of my previously used, and now buried-in-the-back-of-the-gear-closet freestanding tents?

    (Aside: Anyone else in NC want to meet us at Moses Cohn for dayhikes and general camping cheer?)

  2. #2
    Registered User Rifleman's Avatar
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    Take some rope (3/8" or better, at least 100') with you. String the rope up between two trees so that it crosses the middle of the tent pad. Stake the four corners of the tent out. Run a guy line from the top of the tent to the strung up rope. You've got your tent pitched.
    First things first!

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  3. #3

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    Quote Originally Posted by theinfamousj View Post
    Usually on the AT a tarp tent that relies on being staked out to give its structure is a good thing. Even on wooden tent platforms, there are usually hooks, or you can bring small cup hooks from home and rig something ...

    ... But what about when you go car camping on a gravel tent pad? What then?

    I ask because I'm taking my mother out for a trip on Feb 27 - March 1 and the NC State Park we are headed to only has gravel tent pads. Am I SOL? Do I have to dig up one of my previously used, and now buried-in-the-back-of-the-gear-closet freestanding tents?

    (Aside: Anyone else in NC want to meet us at Moses Cohn for dayhikes and general camping cheer?)
    Just take the freestanding for a camp tent for your mom.Btw if you need ,i have a like new half dome i will send you to use if that helps?

  4. #4

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    Car camping?

    When weight is no object, go to the hardware store and buy the biggest spikes you can find in the nail aisle. For more support, buy 1 foot sections of rebar and use a 2# hammer to drive them in.
    As I live, declares the Lord God, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn back from his way and live. Ezekiel 33:11

  5. #5
    Registered User theinfamousj's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by slow View Post
    Just take the freestanding for a camp tent for your mom.Btw if you need ,i have a like new half dome i will send you to use if that helps?
    I feared that would be the answer.

    Thanks for the offer of the tent, but I do have a BA Seedhouse sitting in the gear closet, and it is freestanding.

    I actually found the REI half dome to be too heavy when I rented one from REI a few years back. But then again, I'm a gram weenie in my big four, so that I can take lots of comfort items to make the weight back up.

  6. #6
    Registered User theinfamousj's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tinker View Post
    Car camping?

    When weight is no object, go to the hardware store and buy the biggest spikes you can find in the nail aisle. For more support, buy 1 foot sections of rebar and use a 2# hammer to drive them in.
    Yes, car camping. But if you'd believe it, I've never managed to drive stakes in to the gravel pads, even with a mallet. Either I'm weak (likely), or I'm using the wrong type of stakes because they bend (also likely).

    Now with rebar ... there is an idea. I doubt that stuff will bend. And I doubt I'd lose it in the morning when trying to collect all of my "stakes".

  7. #7

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    I've used rebar for stakes for HUGE tarps for church outings. You can't beat the holding power (now getting them out is something altogether different..........
    As I live, declares the Lord God, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn back from his way and live. Ezekiel 33:11

  8. #8

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    Quote Originally Posted by theinfamousj View Post
    I feared that would be the answer.

    Thanks for the offer of the tent, but I do have a BA Seedhouse sitting in the gear closet, and it is freestanding.

    I actually found the REI half dome to be too heavy when I rented one from REI a few years back. But then again, I'm a gram weenie in my big four, so that I can take lots of comfort items to make the weight back up.
    No problem.The half is for buddy's,i use a cuben tarp or my duo for rain and bugs in summer.It's nice you take your mother.

  9. #9
    Registered User theinfamousj's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by slow View Post
    It's nice you take your mother.
    I took Mom on her first camping trip as a 55th birthday present. She loved the beach, and as a broke college student, free camping was the only way I could afford to give her a full weekend at the beach.

    She hated it, and swore that she'd never do it again. And would volunteer that opinion to everyone who asked.

    So imagine my surprise when the next year rolled around and she cheerfully announced to me that she bought a camp towel and asked me where we were going that year.

    Now, several years later, she's even gone to Trail Days (and loved it) and plans to thru-hike the AT when she retires. She also seems to have grown younger.

    This one isn't even a birthday trip. She smelled wood smoke, which as we all know is a symptom of gotta-get-in-the-woods-fever, for which the only cure is to set a date and then go.

  10. #10

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    Quote Originally Posted by theinfamousj View Post
    I took Mom on her first camping trip as a 55th birthday present. She loved the beach, and as a broke college student, free camping was the only way I could afford to give her a full weekend at the beach.

    She hated it, and swore that she'd never do it again. And would volunteer that opinion to everyone who asked.

    So imagine my surprise when the next year rolled around and she cheerfully announced to me that she bought a camp towel and asked me where we were going that year.

    Now, several years later, she's even gone to Trail Days (and loved it) and plans to thru-hike the AT when she retires. She also seems to have grown younger.

    This one isn't even a birthday trip. She smelled wood smoke, which as we all know is a symptom of gotta-get-in-the-woods-fever, for which the only cure is to set a date and then go.
    You're never too old to get hooked!
    Your mom's got a good kid!
    As I live, declares the Lord God, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn back from his way and live. Ezekiel 33:11

  11. #11

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    Quote Originally Posted by theinfamousj View Post
    I took Mom on her first camping trip as a 55th birthday present. She loved the beach, and as a broke college student, free camping was the only way I could afford to give her a full weekend at the beach.

    She hated it, and swore that she'd never do it again. And would volunteer that opinion to everyone who asked.

    So imagine my surprise when the next year rolled around and she cheerfully announced to me that she bought a camp towel and asked me where we were going that year.

    Now, several years later, she's even gone to Trail Days (and loved it) and plans to thru-hike the AT when she retires. She also seems to have grown younger.

    This one isn't even a birthday trip. She smelled wood smoke, which as we all know is a symptom of gotta-get-in-the-woods-fever, for which the only cure is to set a date and then go.
    Nice story and a BIG win for all.It's not that life is so short.but rather your dead so long...ENJOY.

  12. #12
    Hiker bigcranky's Avatar
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    We go camping a lot at state parks here in NC, and I've never had a problem driving tent stakes into the gravel tent pad. Of course, since I am car camping, I have a hammer and longer stakes with me. But even the plastic stakes that come with cheap tents and screen houses will go into the gravel. It's not that bad.
    Ken B
    'Big Cranky'
    Our Long Trail journal

  13. #13

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    I use a Tarptent. When I can't use stakes I have attached 8"X8" pieces of Tyvek or stuff sacks at the ends of my guylines just stretch 'em out and place a rock on top. Works fine.
    E-Z---"from sea to shining sea''

  14. #14
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    "...and place a rock on top"

    Or wander around and if possible find some really big rocks; haul/roll those in place and tie cord around them.

    Note that a person can run into this situation even when not car camping; last year I had a few hard ground camp sites, including a few places that were car camping locations that I had walked to. The ultimate go-to solution generally involved big rocks (or logs if more convenient).

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    A large rock would be the easiest, otherwise a pile of small ones inside a sturdy stuff sack or purpose made snow/sand anchor. ( if you cannot bury that, fill the pocket with stones and then pile lots of others on top) Or you could just use a version of the dead man anchor if you can find some sticks, just tie the guyline to it and cover with lots of stones/rocks.
    Franco

  16. #16
    Registered User hopefulhiker's Avatar
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    I have used rocks, nearby trees, on the AT sometimes I camped on wooden camping platforms, where I wedged the stakes in between the planks.. I would take extra rope and look around for rocks. REI has the stakes with holes in them 9" long.. you can wedge them in somewhere sideways and tie through the holes...

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  18. #18
    Registered User Wise Old Owl's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by theinfamousj View Post
    I took Mom on her first camping trip as a 55th birthday present. She loved the beach, and as a broke college student, free camping was the only way I could afford to give her a full weekend at the beach.

    She hated it, and swore that she'd never do it again. And would volunteer that opinion to everyone who asked.

    So imagine my surprise when the next year rolled around and she cheerfully announced to me that she bought a camp towel and asked me where we were going that year.
    Priceless!
    Dogs are excellent judges of character, this fact goes a long way toward explaining why some people don't like being around them.

    Woo

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