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Saw a guy at Yosemite last weekend using a tarp as a rain fly and it got me thinking
I was camped near Bridalveil Creek in Yosemite last Saturday and this dude next to me had this giant blue tarp just hanging off ropes over his tent. It flapped so loud all night and barely kept the drizzle off his gear. Has anyone else seen people using tarps instead of actual rain flies and wondered how they make it work?
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julia_anderson1mo ago
Guess it depends on how much you want to look like you're living in a construction site while camping. I'm not convinced most people who do the tarp thing actually have it all figured out, you know? Like sure, maybe a handful of seasoned bushcrafters get it perfect, but 9 times out of 10 it's just someone who forgot their rain fly and grabbed whatever they had in their trunk. The flapping and the condensation issues alone (because let's be real, tarps don't breathe at all) seem like a hassle nobody needs. It's one of those things that sounds great on paper but in practice it's usually a mess.
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jamesroberts1mo ago
Oh man, tarps get a bad rap but they can actually work if you set them up right. The trick is not tying them directly over the tent like a floppy parachute. You gotta pitch it tight with a ridgeline and use rocks or stakes to pull the corners out so it doesn't flap. That guy you saw just threw it over like a blanket which is why it sounded like a helicopter landing all night. A properly angled tarp can shed rain way better than some cheap factory rain flies I've seen, but it takes practice and some basic knots.
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