Tarpology

Though it happened twenty years ago, the scene is still vivid in my mind: I'm backpacking in the Japan Alps with my English pal Phil, and we're setting up a tent in a nasty cold wind.  As I try to tie down a tarp line to a stake, gusts keep blowing the corner of the tarp into my face, and I keep messing up the knot, untying it, and trying again.  Phil, watching this, eventually comes over, grabs the line out of my hands, and makes the unforgettably English utterance:

"OH, you're SO unSKILLful!!!!"

I offer this anecdote as a disclaimer.  I am not a certifed, trained tarpologist, and I will not pretend, in this blog post, to inform you about tarping solutions as much as tarping problems.  With the latter, I am very familiar; with the former, I adopt an approach which is, shall we say, intuitive?  (Unskillful).  Tarping is on my mind today because I'm just a few weeks away from the kind of trip where you could end up setting and re-setting a couple of different tarps a few times a day.  The kind of trip where the wind changes like this:

That billowing setup is a pretty clear example of my intuitive tarping methodology:

1. Find two fairly tall trees that are not further apart than 3/4 of your longest piece of nylon cord.
2. String a "backbone" cord from one tree to the next and super-tighten it with a trucker hitch.
3. Laying the square tarp along the line in diamond orientation, hitch the tree corners the same way.
4. Tie down the remaining two corners to ground stakes or logs or stuff on the ground, and tighten those down as much as possible, again with trucker hitches.

One important thing about this method is the location. In addition to the properly-distanced trees, you'll need clear space in the middle, and flat space if you're intending to tarp over a tent (which is a very good idea in Alaska, where it really really pours and blows, often).  I'm reminded of what fly fishers sometimes say: you can either change your line and rig, or go find some water where your line and rig will work.  Tarpologically, I go find sites where my rig will work.

"Rigs" I should say, because in bad rain I usually set up a tarp over my kitchen/dining room as well as my tent or hammock.  In low-volume kayak packing, this means carrying one large dedicated tarp, and then double-tasking the small integrated tarp that comes with the hammock (I'm referring to a Hennessy wilderness hammock, which is indispensable for swampy or jungly terrain and a perfect backup for a tent).   Here's the small tarp deployed for the dinner hour:

Tip: a few ounces of single-malt scotch can dramatically increase the comfort of almost any tarp scenario.

I'm sure a Google search would turn up plenty of improvements and better ways to set up these tarps. After posting this blog, I may even have the motivation to do that search and learn some new tricks! Even an unskillful dog can learn a new trick, Phil. The most "technical" tarping I have done is probably my Baja-trip sun tarping, which involves two extendable poles that themselves must be staked in the sand and tied down tight:

When it's hot, you extend the poles up for ventilation; when the Norte is blowing, they come way down:

And with that, I think I have exhausted my material on tarpology.  Though I am necessarily a low-level gearhead simply because it comes with the territory of kayaking, fly-fishing, and wilderness camping, I really don't obsess on gear or methods.  When a setup works, I'll usually forget about it and go fishing.