How to pitch a tent in USA?

[BikeFreak]

Hi,

I love riding/touring in the USA but I have 1 annoyance:

Pitching my tent.

I do very little wild camping, so I often stay in private campgrounds, USFS campounds, State Park Campgrounds, National Park Campgrounds etc.

To appreciate the gift of being able to stay on a covered concrete slab or a patio, I bought myself a freestanding tent.

But for a number of reasons it is still desirable to pitch the tent with stakes, it might be due to wind etc.

I estimate that in 80% of all my tent pitching cases the ground is extremely (gravel) hard packed and I seriously struggle to drive the stakes in. I spend a considerable amount of time trying to find the right spot. The beforementioned campgrounds are designed for heavy vehicles and finding a grassy spot is often impossible. Moreover, the staff really wants you to pitch on that designated hard spot and nowhere else.

The freestanding tent has solved many pitching issues for me (due to hardpacked ground) but it is also heavier and takes up more space. Its a trade-off.

How do you solve this pitching issue?

Lucas

[John Nelson]

Very rarely do I find ground so hard that I can’t get stakes in if I can find a big enough rock. Be sure to carry stakes that don’t bend. These are rarely the stakes that came with your tent. I’m a fan of MSR Groundhog stakes.

But if I can’t get them in (e.g., pitching on concrete), my first preference is to tie the tent to picnic tables. If that’s not possible, I sometimes tie my tent to rocks.

[davidbonn]

In general if I find the ground is too hard to push a stake in it is probably a very poor campsite.  The obvious reason is that sleeping on hard ground (even with a cushy sleeping mat) is much less comfortable.  The less obvious reason is that hard packed ground will drain poorly and if it rains overnight you might wake up in the middle of a lake.  Even if your tent has a "waterproof" floor or a bathtub floor you are likely to experience an extremely soggy morning.  And packing up a partially submerged tent is very messy for obvious reasons.

Nail-type stakes hammer into harder ground better than skewer and t-shaped stakes on the average if you want to carry them.

https://www.garagegrowngear.com/collections/gear/products/titanium-nail-peg-ultralight-by-vargo-outdoors

https://www.garagegrowngear.com/collections/gear/products/tube-steak-tent-stake-by-big-sky-international

A lot of campgrounds have very packed ground because heavy RVs and trailers are parked in the campsites.

Usually grassy campsites easily accept stakes.  Although you'll have a lot more condensation in the morning from the vegetation.

I run with a tarp and skewer stakes so I'm probably fussier about campsites than most bicycle travelers.

[John Nettles]

I don't use a free standing tent but like others, I rarely find some place I can't get at least 2 or 3 stake in.  I also use MSR stakes.  I carry a small of thin 1/8" paracord if I expect hard ground.  This will usually get the stake to softer ground, table, shrub, bike, etc.  I typically stuff my tent into a front pannier and sometimes use that as an anchor.  Just be sure to empty it out pretty well since any gravel flakes and chips can chew a hole into the tent fabric when you repack the tent pretty quickly.

[horses60]

Hi,
out of curiosity, what tent do you use?
I've been using freestanding tents since the 80s and have never had any issues. Sometimes the stakes don't go in, but you adapt.
Lately, I've been using the excellent MSR Mutha Hubba, and yesterday I received the Big Agnes Copper Spur HV UL3 Bikepack, which I’ve already seen is even better than the previous one.

[davidbonn]

It is probably a good idea to have three or four lengths of thin cord with a double overhand loop on one end.  You can thread that loop through one of the stake-out loops on the tent and then tie the stake off with a clove hitch.  A four-foot length is probably about right.

How to tie a clove hitch:

https://www.animatedknots.com/clove-hitch-knot-using-loops

This is a good guy cord source (the 2mm cord is fine for staking a tent or a tarp out in most cases).  Sometimes I use 120lb test kite string which is a bit thinner but still adequate.:

https://www.garagegrowngear.com/collections/gear/products/reflective-glowire-by-lawson-equipment

I've never purchased a tent that had adequate tie-out points or an adequate number of stakes included.  It is usually a good idea to sew additional tie-out points on the fly, ideally halfway between the attachment points the fly already has along its lower edges.  Those help cut down on flapping and keep the fly away from the inner tent fabric, which helps with ventilation and keeps you drier.

[Westinghouse]

Set the tent with the poles free-standing. Tie a sufficiently long length of strong line to each place where the pegs attach to the tent. Run the lines off the sides of the concrete slab, off the sides of the rock-hard designated tent-site, and peg them in the ground there.