I think there's quite a few of us who use a fairly simple tarp for shelter, and most of these are erected over two poles. Lots of backpackers use trekking poles for walking, so they use those for the tarp. Some poles are adjustable and some are fixed length. The adjustable poles can fit underneath the tarp roof, and often the fixed length trekking poles are outside the tarp, so the roof corners guy _up_ to the poles. However, I am one of those who doesn't use trekking poles, so I erect the tarp over a couple of Fibraplex carbon fiber poles (only slightly over two ounces for those). One is longer in the front, and one is shorter in the rear. Now, if I am good, I can stretch the tarp so tightly over the two poles that they are held firmly in place against the ground. However, on some nights this is difficult. The wind might be flapping the tarp up and down. The guyline stakes might be in a poor location, so the guylines might loosen. The ground may be sandy and slippery. I needed something to _stick_ the poles into position better without adding much weight. So, I screwed a skinny metal screw into the bottom of each pole and sealed it with epoxy. That makes a sharper point to go down into the ground, yet the screw head isn't pointed enough to poke into my gear. Then, for the pole tops, I screwed pieces of Velcro on with screws and epoxy. The corresponding pieces of Velcro are on the underside of the tarp, along the ridgeline in the front and back. So, when it is all stuck together, everything holds its place, and the total additional weight (screws, epoxy, and Velcro) comes up to two-tenths of an ounce or so.
–B.G.–
