1. 1. Tents and Tarps Kathleen Harrington
2. 2. Campsite Selection -First off when setting up a tent, a very important feature is campsite selection. -When selecting your site you must keep in mind the following things: 1)Can the site support 3 or more people? 2)Is the site durable and level? 3)Are there any hazards around? (ie: Dead trees at risk of falling) 4)Evaluate campsite for animal risk ***Keeping these safety tips in mind, will allow to you find an appropriate location to set up your tent.
3. 3. Tent Setup --Keep in mind the weather can change at anytime during your stay. -Its always best to be prepared when tenting in the outdoors. -Its critical to keep warm and dry, to avoid sickness or hypothermia. -The best way to keep safe during your stay is to always think ahead and follow the correct protocol when setting up your tent.
4. 4. Tent Setup -This shows all the pieces needed to set up your tent. -You have: 1)The tent itself 2)The orange tarp 3)The rods 4)The pegs
5. 5. Step 1 -When you find a good campsite, the first thing you should do is secure the bottom of your tent. -To protect yourself from getting wet in case of rain, you should secure a tarp/garbage bags underneath your tent. -When securing the tarp, it is important to have the ends of the tarp tilted away and down from your tent. -In doing so, you will avoid pockets of water forming on the tarp, then dripping underneath the tent.
6. 6. Step 2 Next its important to assess the tent you have. -Tents come in a variety of styles but there are two main factors that influence which tent is appropriate: 1)Weather 2)Comfort -Tents are constructed to have aerodynamic shapes that shed water and wind easily.
7. 7. Step 2 Cont -The tents used on our camping trip were three and four person tents. - My groups tent; contained gold and black rods. -When setting up the tent, we had to match the rod color with the clip color to ensure we were setting it up the correct way.
8. 8. Step 3 -Once rods were all clipped on you had to clip the ends of each rod into the designated hole at the bottom of the tent. -This ensured the rods were secure and it helped to give the tent its shape.
9. 9. Step 4 -Next it is important to secure a tarp over your tent to have optimal protection from surprising weather. -The tarp that sits on your tent has longer ends. - When the ends are pegged down they should be directed away from your tent. -This will allow the water to drip down the side of your tent and avoid going underneath ( ie: water runoff).
10. 10. Step 5 -Finally, once your tent is set up, the last thing you should do is to secure your tent. -To do this you should use the pegs provided to pin your tent to the ground. -This will protect your tent from moving in the wind. ***The correct way to place the peg in the ground is shown in the video.
11. 11. Large Tarp Set up -Once you have set up your tent with your ground tarp and your tarp that fits over your tent you then want to set up your final tarp. -The advantages of setting up a large tarp is to protect you from weather such as: Wind, rain or snow.
12. 12. Large Tarp Setup -These large tarp setups can not only be used as shelter you can also use it to protect your fire from going out if you are experiencing weather.
13. 13. Large Tarp Setup -First, you must select a good spot to set up your tarp (similar to campsite selection). -Ideally you want to set up your tarp facing away from the open area on site to have the most protection. -Naturally weather will be coming from that direction.
14. 14. Knots used -When you set up the tarp there are 3 levels of rope to give the tarp its runoff shape. -The first rope must be tied to the highest point you can reach on the tree. -From there you will use slip knots to tie your rope and secure it.
15. 15. Knots Used -the second rope should be tied to the middle of the tree -The last rope should be tired to the bottom part of the tree. -Doing this process allows once again a water runoff design.
16. 16. Disassembling Your Tent -Once your trip is over, it is time to put your tent away until your next use. -If you experienced any sort of weather such as rain during your trip, It is key to put your tent away in the proper manner. -When you leave the campsite you should pack away your tent as normal however, once you get back home you should hang your tent up to dry.
17. 17. Disassembling Your Tent -This will allow you tent time to dry off. -This final step helps to avoid: Mold and mildew build up and allow your tent to be ready for its next use.
18. 18. Video Clip