RateItAll: The Opinion Network

Extremely versatile, it can be strung up as an over head rain cover, or a sun shade, laid out for ground cover, it can line the bottom a canoe to keep backpacks dry, it can cover a stash of gear on the ground to keep the dew off. On one of my favourite canoe trips we were finishing up a lovely dinner and sitting around having drinks and a few laughs. Suddenly dark black clouds rolled in and the sky opened up, a typical prairie summer storm. Instead of breaking up the party and heading for the tents we pulled a big tarp over us, organized the tall people in the middle and the short ones on the outside for proper drainge, pulled the coolers under the cover and spent the rest of the evening continuing the fun under our man made (literally) cabana.

For most camping trips a tarp should be brought. In case of inclement weather, its nice to have a dry place to gather in addition to a tent. A tarp can make a camping trip a lot more enjoyable when the weather turns bad.

Tablecloth, shelter, bodybag for the cannibal redneck that followed you into the wild...

I guess, it is matter of the meaning camping. For us, camping means walk-in camp, so it is more backpacking, when every piece of luggage is counted. Even thou, I know that in certain circumstances, tarp might be handy under the tent footprint, I never use one. I never regretted I did not have one. However, the common big tarp is a must for the rainy days camping, since only making an artificial house can make the bad weather disregardeable.

A tarp saved by rear end once and I've never gone tenting without one again. But, this is really a story about a prick of a Ranger.

I was on my motorcycle, doing the Midwest and East Coast and had just left Shenandoah...heading west on the Blue Ridge Parkway. There was definitely weather brewing. This weather just happened to be the 1980 Hurricane David that landed at Myrtle Beach and was I was directly in it's path. Fog was getting thick when a Park Ranger pulled me over and gave me the low down: there was no out running the storm. I asked him if there was lodging nearby that I could reach. He said, "No". I asked him if I could camp out in the Ranger's Station. He said, "No". What he did recommend was that I make my way up the North side of the Peaks of Otter, set up my tent and dig a trench around it. Okay. Sounded good to me and that's what I did. But, I didn't have a shovel, so I did my best with a good sized rock with a sharp edge. I lit a joint and looked at my "moat". Anyone on acid would have known that this wasn't gonna work.

So, it's foggy, the wind in blowing and the rain is starting. Bingo! Duct tape to the rescue! I taped the tarp that was under my tent up to the sides of the tent. Let me tell you...this worked great! I spent the next 72 hours in the tent, sedating myself with pot so I wouldn't think about the tree that was gonna come crashing down on me. I did have a rain cover, which a falling tree wouldn't have noticed, but several hundred spiders did and took shelter between the tent and the cover. I wrote in my diary, ate, slept and kept myself pretty well comatose for three days. There was no going out. If you want to know what it's like to be in a tent during a hurricane, just imagine yourself laying down on a run way at an airport and a 747 takes off over you every 60 seconds or so. I'm gonna be frank, here...it has harrowing.

Well, on the third morning, the Sun woke me up and I could see the silhouettes of all of those spiders. THAT was something. So, I make my way out of the tent to find that another biker couple had braved the storm just 20 feet from me and I didn't know it. That's how thick the fog was. Then I saw it....

I looked down the slope. There was a lake with a beautiful reflection of the lodge that didn't exist. Well, I guess that if that prick of a Ranger was honest with me, I'd be telling you about burger dinners and what I watched on TV for three days. I take it back about the Ranger, but not the tarp...

I think a tarp comes in pretty handy. But just when a person decides to use it, a big gust of wind comes up. Bye-bye, tarp!

I always put a tarp on the ground under the tent. I also carry an extra in case it rains hard enough that I need a "shelter" around my tent!!!!

Protects what you need from rain and general dampness.

Keeps your stuff dry, for sure.

Man oh, man. Take a tarp. The ground may be wet, or it may drizzle or rain. Tarps are also handy for wrapping stuff in.