everal
people over the years have asked me about my trek tarp, having seen
it in pictures on this website or seen it with me while trekkingh.
I am finally letting people in on my big secret. I say "secret"
because it's not something available in general, it was made for
me by special request. Also, I've provided several examples of how to set up my primative trek tarp.
My trek tarp is a wonderful thing. It is made
by
ouf of Egyptian cotton. It is not standard stock. As far as
I know mine is only the second of three he has made—all
by request—so if you contact ,
tell them it is the trek tarp Peter made for Sarah/Chauncey.
He should know exaclty what you mean.
Here are the details:
It is 112" long by 78" wide.
It weighs 3 lbs, although it seems much
lighter.
It has loops on the corners, and, including
those, has five loops on each side and three loops across
the center seam (not including the side loops at the center seam).
It is waterproof.
It rolls up into nothing.
It can be set up in a variety of ways, using sticks, trees, twine, stakes, all depending on what is at hand.
To the right is a diagram of what it looks like.
One-person Trek Tarp:
Because the cotton is a very light color and I needed it darker,
I got the following information from Peter at Tentsmiths and it
worked perfectly to stain it and keep it waterproof:
Soak it in a black walnut hull dye bath until
it's the right color. Mine took several weeks soaking in a trash-can
dye bath.
Coat it with Nikwax. The right Nikwax to use
is called Cottonproof, and you should follow the instructions
for diluting it and painting it on tents. Nikwax is available
at sporting goods stores and online—for resellers, go to
.
I don't have any fixed way of setting it up. That depends on
the terrain and what is available. Sometimes, I will use a large
stick (that is easy, as they are almost everywhere!). It may need
some tent stakes, and sometimes I stake it down with hand-made
stakes from local sticks and a good hatchet or tomahawk. Sometimes
just ropes through whatever loops work best, tying it to trees
with some cord. I have never used a center pole, but I suppose
one could make one.
My trek tarp is the one in front in the picture to the right.
This was before I had died it darker. Because of the rain at night,
two of us and our blankets were under the tarp with plenty of
room to spare.
The material for the dark brown tent in back is oilcloth, which is effective
but heavier and it doesn't breath the way Egyptian cotton
does.
Here is another way to put up my particular trek tarp (on the right), from the Crown Point tactical in the Spring of 2005. In this case, it is attached at the middle of a short end to a nearby tree, and four corners ar estaked to the ground. You can use metal stakes, or make wood stakes with your tomohawk.
Rather than crawling in sideways as in the picture above, here I crawl in from the top, and my gear is packed to one side. The tarp on the left is the same thing but dyed darker. It belongs to Wade Stoner.
Since this picture was taken in April 2005, I have had to sew patches onto my tarp (from using it as a floor cloth when I should NOT have), and I redyed it much darker. I used Ritberries, two browns and a black. Then, I treated it again with NikWax.
You should be able to see in this picture how much darker my tarp is. In this case, I wasn't worried about rain, I just wanted something over my head. So I put up a simple, wide open set-up using a rope tied between two trees and brought under the tarp from side to side, leaving a little bit hanging down in front. I tied each foot corner to another tree to keep it off the ground, but without these two trees at the feet, I would have staked the corners.
So, please feel free to contact to order one, but be sure you let Peter know where you got the information!!
