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At some point in your wilderness travel career, you'll want to pitch your shelter on a river bar. Maybe you've arrived by packraft or foot, or have been allured by the promise of fat trout caught only steps from the porch of your tarp. For others, snoozing next to a thrashing river or bubbling current provides the audio elixir required to detox from a weekday world of honking, text message notifications, and complaining.

Some river bars provide dry ground year-round (or, at least, dry ground most years), while others are washed clean of debris every spring. River bars can exist as vegetated cottonwood cathedrals, sandy willow groves, large cobbles, or fine gravel. Often, river bar ground is rocky, sandy, or otherwise unconsolidated, and in general, rather awful places for titanium skewer tent stakes and the like. Other river bars littered with cobbles or gravel whisper their laughter when you fight them with any sort of tent stake!

Table 1. Tent Stake Holding Power

Reference: Test method is outlined in Tent Stake Holding Power. Notes: [1] The sand anchor consisted of an REI Snow and Sand Anchor wrapped around a 6 in diameter stone and buried 8 in below the ground surface. [2] The cobblesack contained approximately 50 lbs of mixed sand, gravel, and stones with the latter two averaging 0.5 in to 3 in diameter. These are representative values and are not meant to reflect all types of stakes in all types of riverbed soil.

The purpose of this article is to provide you with some insight into riverbed camping challenges, and some techniques to overcome those challenges.

ARTICLE OUTLINE

  • Introduction
  • Weather Protection, Campsite Location, and Shelter Orientation
    • Orienting Your Shelter With Respect to Wind Direction
    • Where to Pitch Your Shelter in the River Corridor
  • Staking a Tarp in a River Corridor
    • Types of Stakes
    • Other Attachment Points
    • Staking in a Wind Storm
  • Other Considerations
    • Sleeping Comfort
    • Conservation Issues
    • River Channel Property Ownership
    • Rising Water
  • Conclusion

# WORDS: 5590
# PHOTOS: 13

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