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


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  • #1310926
    Kevin Burton
    BPL Member

    @burtonator

    Locale: norcal

    I always worry about losing my tent stakes…

    Either I can't find them because they're camouflaged or the wind caught my tarp and ripped them out of the ground throwing them somewhere…

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

    Then I would just use a taught line hitch around my tarp to adjust things.

    This way I have a 10 foot, orange and reflective cord coming off my tent stakes and they would be impossible to lose.

    #2053608
    Franco Darioli
    Spectator

    @franco

    Locale: Gauche, CU.

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

    #2053615
    Kevin Burton
    BPL Member

    @burtonator

    Locale: norcal

    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.

    #2053616
    Bob Bankhead
    BPL Member

    @wandering_bob

    Locale: Oregon, USA

    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

    #2053618
    Bob Gross
    BPL Member

    @b-g-2-2

    Locale: Silicon Valley

    "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.–

    #2053635
    Mary D
    BPL Member

    @hikinggranny

    Locale: Gateway to Columbia River Gorge

    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.

    #2053672
    Ian
    BPL Member

    @10-7

    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:

    .ground hog

    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.

    #2053673
    J R
    BPL Member

    @jringeorgia

    "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.

    #2053676
    Ryan Smith
    BPL Member

    @violentgreen

    Locale: East TN

    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

    #2053679
    Jerry Adams
    BPL Member

    @retiredjerry

    Locale: Oregon and Washington

    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.

    #2053751
    Mark Ferwerda
    BPL Member

    @mnferwerda

    Locale: Maryland

    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.

    #2053753
    Franco Darioli
    Spectator

    @franco

    Locale: Gauche, CU.

    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.

    #2053756
    K C
    BPL Member

    @kalebc

    Locale: South West

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

    #2053765
    Billy Ray
    Spectator

    @rosyfinch

    Locale: the mountains

    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

    #2053767
    Roger Caffin
    BPL Member

    @rcaffin

    Locale: Wollemi & Kosciusko NPs, Europe

    > 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

    #2053772
    Billy Ray
    Spectator

    @rosyfinch

    Locale: the mountains

    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

    #2053782
    Justin Baker
    BPL Member

    @justin_baker

    Locale: Santa Rosa, CA

    "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.

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