Avoid losing your tent stakes by permanently attaching your guy lines to them…

I don't get this.
Have you tested that idea in practice ?

not yet. I came up with it last time.

What don't you understand though. Seems straight forward but maybe I'm not good at explaining it…

I'll create a video next time.

And how do you intend to keep them from puncturing your tarp when it is stored and/or carried?

While I understand your concern (and I've foolishly lost/walked away from stakes myself a few times), IMO, it's wiser to carry a spare stake or two instead. I always carry 1 or 2 titanium nail stakes with me IN ADDITION TO whatever mix of stake types I need for the shelter I'm carrying and the ground I expect to encounter.

Seriously, I submit that if the wind is ripping out your stakes, that's almost exclusively a sign of user error. If I even think it might blow hard, I'll put weight on top of my stakes, use a different type or length of stake, double-stake, or tie off to nearby brush. I can't remember the last time a stake came loose in the wind in the past 30 years of camping.

YMMV

"I realized that one way to prevent this is to permanently fix the guy lines to the trek poles instead of my tarp."

This is the part that was unclear to me.

If the guy lines are holding the trek poles, then what is pulling the tarp out?

–B.G.–

Fluorescent orange paint on the stakes helps you find them. Titanium gray is basically invisible on tare ground, much less in vegetation. Of course if you do it yourself, you need to repaint the stakes yearly. Or you can buy stakes with fluorescent orange on them, which lasts longer. (The ones from MLD which I have are quite durable.)

Re the extra stake: If I take one, I never lose any. If I don't take one, I end up using sticks, which are a pain.

Re the permanentaly attached guylines: unless you have stakes with holes in them, don't count on the guyline staying attached to the stake.

I don't think that this idea is for me but I can see how it would work where you could store the stakes separately.

Using the MSR Groundhog for example:

.

Tie a bowline in the guy line with a loop large enough for the stake to slip through sideways
Run the loop of the bowline through the cordage on the stake and make a girth hitch.
Tie your taut line to the tarp.

When you're done, just undo the girth hitch from the stake cordage and put 'em away.

"unless you have stakes with holes in them, don't count on the guyline staying attached to the stake."

^This. Or if not a hole at least a notch. I have a couple of Groundhogs to hold out my ridge line, and yes those you can fix a cord to, but it will just slide off the end of the shepherd hooks.

I must be really dense because I don't see any issue with doing this other than my fat fingers dealing with knots in the cold. Seems pretty easy and straight forward.

Edit: Re-read this. Not sure I get leaving them attached to the trek poles.

Ryan

I hate it when the stake rotates around, and then the guyline comes right off. Especially with the little Ti Shepardhook stakes. If you really pound them into the ground this is minimized.

This is what I use because of the light weight, but you have to be careful.

Worst is when the point of the stake hits a rock and you give it a good pound but it doesn't go anywhere. It makes the hole just a little bigger around so the stake rotates easily.

Putting a big rock on it helps.

I like to tie a clove hitch on stakes. If they get pulled out, the stake stays tied to the line. Plus they slip off when taking down the shelter.

Two parts to it.
First one, same as Bob Gross I can't see this happening :
"
I realized that one way to prevent this is to permanently fix the guy lines to the trek poles instead of my tarp."
So you walk around with 4-6 guylines wrapped up on your trekking poles ?

The other idea of attaching permanently your stakes to the guylines, well just do that and see what happens after a few times that you pack/unpack your shelter with those attached.
No I have not tried that, I don't need to.

So the guy lines are permanently fixed to your poles, but not attached to your tarp?

MY method:

forget the stakes entirely… leave them at home…use rocks to anchor your tent.

I haven't used or packed a single stake in over 20 years.

Billy

> forget the stakes entirely… leave them at home…use rocks to anchor your tent.

Works great – if there are any big rocks around. Plenty of places where there are none though – including the snow fields in winter!

Cheers

I do virtually all my backpacking either in the High Sierra or the canyons of Utah… plenty of tent anchor rocks. And rarely does a stake work anyway… they either won't go in, go in partway and bend, or just pull out too easy in the sand…

And these wienie stakes these guys are talking about don't do anything in snow anyway…

need snow anchors for that…

Billy

"forget the stakes entirely… leave them at home…use rocks to anchor your tent."

I used to do something like this but with wooden stakes that I would carve on site. Eventually I realized that when it's pouring rain and I really need a shelter, the last thing I want to do is worry about making wood stakes or finding rocks.
But I still do this in dryer weather when I plan on cowboy camping most of the time.