CAMPING

TARPS AND TENTS

TARPS
Experiment with different ways to set up a tarp. For a dining fly over your cooking area, try tying a rope between two trees with taut-linehitches and tightening the rope so it is six to eight feet above the ground. Drape the tarp over the rope, pull out the corners, and use taut-line hitches to tie guylines (ropes attached to the corners) to trees or stakes (To tie a taut-line hitch, seepage 37.)
Set the tarp closer to the ground if you want to sleep under it. Lowering the edges will give you extra protection from the wind.

A Homemade Tarp or Ground Cloth
Make inexpensive tarps and ground cloths from a sheet of polyethyleene plastic like that used by carpenters to cover stored lumber. The best thickness for camp use is 4-mil, which means four one-thousandths of an inch.

Polyethylene plastic is sold in hardware stores in 10- to 12-foot-wide rolls. To make a tarp, ask a clerk to cut a piece that is long as it is wide. Aground cloth should be about the size of your tent's floor.