Hi folks! > Am presently looking to purchase a good quality tent and sleeping bag that I > can use on my kayaking trips beginning in its me another time in Engish... I read all the mails about tents and have to smile. Maybe iīm a little bit extreme, but most time I didnīt got a tent on my tours. Yeah! NO tnet. Only using a 3 x 3 metre (about 10 x 10 ft) polyester, silicone coated Tarp. From former Mountain Sport (now Tatonka or so...). Why? Itīs the easiest, fastest and dryest way to take care for malmost everything. I place my kajak, get out the tarp, I place it somewhere by the footrest, click it with two cat clips (each one is fixed diagonal to the tarp an close to the ends of the kayak) to the kayak. The back parts is fixed temporary with a stone or a tent peg, on the front parts is a 2m little rope. I fix the tarp end on the top of the paddle directly under the blade with the rope and fix the rope with another tent peg or something heavy so, that the paddle stands sloping and the tarp is hold in the air over the kayak. then I fixed the half spare paddle to the middle of the tarp and place the paddle in the cockpit. Now the back part new and coser fixed to the ground. Ready! I could get all my clothes out of the kayak and its dry. If its windy, I have to place the back part toward the wind, and come the rain straight from the side, I have to place the whole tarp as falt as possible. Then the side will also be fixed with tent pegs to the ground. I got a little parts for the side, I fix it with clips to the tarp and the rain and wind canīt come over this side... I place a Thermarest before my boat, and everything is okay. I sleep in a selfmade bivouac sack and always awake when the light comes up and the birds are crying. Okay, its a problem if there are lot of mosquitos, then I hang up a mosquito net. I also could hang up some light, when I place some rope between the spare paddle and the front end. Itīs an incredible various system. Quick, lightweight, gives you a real outdoor feeling and sometimes in the morning a slightly cought.... :-) But I never got real problems with rain. Everything keeps almost dry, and the last thing I get into my boat before I start is the tarp. So nothing ahve to get wet until Iīm on the water. Youīre sitting in front of your boat, hang up a light and watch these "real life TV" happening to your feet... Iīm dreaming of a deluxe version. A light tarp, special designed for kayaks, with it you could build up a various "tent" over your kayak and depending on the weather, on the place, temperature, you fix some additional side-elements or none. In Norway, weīve sleep under the tarp with two persons. I test an alloy stick, going diagonal to the tarp, but its too soft, the wind push it inside, the version with the spare paddle is the most easiest way, but then the wind lets the tarp make flutter in some parts. Then you have to push some more tent pegs to the ground. One morning, I build my "tent" up in extrem rain and I couldnīt take tent pegs, because the ground (kind of street) was to strong so I hang up a heavy barrel to the paddle and fix the after part to a sign. So this morning the tarp looks a little bit different. but everything was dry! I get up and look (no more raining) on the tarp. There was a big sea in it. About 40 litre? I could wash my whole head in it. Huuu! What might had happend if the paddle would had fallen by the side? But the paddle was still standing with the hanging barrel on it. Great work! There are only a few situation I take a tent with me. Most of the time I find some great place for my tarp-tent, so I let stay the tent at home. Sometimes I sleep wihtout the fixed tarp, but the tarp is then lying beneath me. So if there is coming up some rain or thunder, I pull it over me and the boat and keep on sleeping. For some moody ground I got a little plastic tarp, on which I could sit and lay. Maybe an alternative ??? best regards Jochen Grikschat *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Fri Feb 23 2001 - 06:59:50 PST
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