I usually keep my tarp in a mesh sleeve until/unless I need to deploy it. In the event I need to deploy it quickly, I usually stick the stakes (titanium shepherds hooks) in the ground near the head-end tree. While setting up last night, I noticed that those stakes fit nicely in the holes in the 3-4" beastie D rings on my tarp.
Now, obviously, this only works if you have beastie D's and use ti shepherds hooks, but that's probably at least a couple of you.
Nice. I like it.
Are those stakes painted or dipped?
"Behold, as a wild a** of the desert, go I forth to my work." -- Guerney Halleck
dipped, I guess. They're cheapies from Amazon ($12 for 8 I think), but I imagine they're dimensionally the same as most others.
I’ve wondered about that. There are times - assuming no full moon and birds all asleep - when keeping my tarp in its skin would be nice. But I’d want quick deploy if necessary. I haven’t tried it but I imagined I’d stake it out, then leave the stakes in the ground and re-skin the tarp. I think I might want to put some length of day-glo survey ribbon on the stakes so “someone” doesn’t trip over them. And I can find (remember) them when it’s time to pack up.
In order to see what few have seen, you must go where few have gone. And DO what few have done.
I've tried various methods including leaving them in the ground where I'd stake them out and settled on the "together in the ground near the head end tree" as the easiest. First, depending on the reason for deploying the tarp, where I staked each one out might be different (e.g.: closer if a storm came up or farther apart if it's just a light rain and I wanted better ventilation). Second, I tie a marlinspike hitch around the stake, so I'd need to pull it up to do that anyway; if you use Dutch hookworms, fleaz or some other easy-tensioning system, they could stay in the groung. Third, finding them (even with reflective cord attached to each one) wasn't always easy (esp. when there are lots of leaves or other ground cover). Finally, I've nearly forgotten to retrieve them when packing up (assuming I didn't have the tarp staked out).Originally Posted by cougarmeat
I've also larks-headed the stake bag's drawcord around the ridgeline, but that mean fumbling around to open the stake bag.
The only downside I see to this method (aside from the obvious - that you need to use thin shepherds hooks and beastie D rings) is that you've got somewhat pointy things hanging potentially at eye/face height. However, they should be pointing straight down, which mitigates that issue to some extent. I guess if it were windy and/or your ridgeline came loose or snapped, you'd have pointy projectiles potentially heading toward you or your hammock.
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