Long Branch Shelter

[spfleisig]

The 2017 AWOL guide says this shelter has seven tent pads. What is a tent pad? I have a tent that will require to be staked into the ground.

Thanks

[TNhiker]

a tent pad is usually a square box that they have built to put tents upon.

usually flat---maybe a little off the ground, in a square and either filled with dirt or something along that way.


they do that so the tents are using the pad and not damaging any other part of the environment...

[George]

some tent pads are hard packed enough that staking is difficult - some extra twine to reach the ground can help

[Deacon]

The 2017 AWOL guide says this shelter has seven tent pads. What is a tent pad? I have a tent that will require to be staked into the ground.

Thanks

You may also want to carry some brass screw-eyes. Often there isn’t any way to secure guy lines on the pad. Just carry the eyes in your stake bag - they weigh virtually nothing.


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[daddytwosticks]

The tent pad spots at Long Branch shelter are carved out of a hillside. No wood. Last I looked, they were not exactly level. At least, that's the way it was during my last visit.

[Marta]

A tent pad is usually a rectangle of earth marked out for putting tents on. They are sometimes more level than the surrounding ground. Long Branch Shelter is in a fairly steeply sloping area. I haven't actually tented there (just stopped for a lunch break there this spring) so I can't vouch for the levelness of the tent pads. The earth is usually quite compacted because the platform has had many tents pitched on it. Sturdy pegs (such as the MSR) are less prone to bending. You'll often need a rock or stout piece of wood to drive them into the ground.

A tent platform is usually a wooden platform on which you can pitch a tent. Non-freestanding tents can be hard to pitch on these. You may have to use extra line to tie to the platform legs and/or eye hooks that are already in the platform. It's bad form to drive nails or screws into the wood--that will quickly wreck a platform.