Backwoods - How To Prepare A Camping Tent

A good night's sleep can make or break a backwoods adventure in camping. Choose the right spot and set up your tent properly and you can be ahead of hiking in wet gear, while battling sleep sufficiency or coddle a happy back. In the backwoods particularly, selecting an excellent tent site is an important safety exercise.

Although modern tents should be user-friendly, they still require endurance to assemble, something you may not have when you reach the site at the end of a long day. Make sure you know the inside and outside of your tent before you hit the trails, practice assembly at home and, if possible, read up on your preferred campsite earlier so you know what to expect in territory and weather.


Select a good campsite. In public and personal campgrounds, this conclusion has been made for you, with a level tent-pitching area clearly elected, and a fire pit, and possibly a picnic table, provided. In the backwoods, you are on your own to find the best site. Look for a flat, level and rather well-drained piece of ground, one with naked dirt or grass into which you can easily drive tent pegs and guy lines (ropes that help fasten your tent to the ground). Choose a spot that has sufficient room to allow for aeration and placement of any guy lines that widen from the tent.

In stormy locations, try to find a tent site that is downwind from undergrowth, low trees or other land features that offer a windbreak, but upwind from your campfire and its resulting smoke. If you are camping during rain, snow, or a spring or summer thaw, make sure your tent site is away from or at least protected from overflow.

Clear the tent site of garbage such as rocks, branches, twigs or nettles anything that makes the ground uneven or may stab a hole in your tarp or tent floor. As with any venture into nature, try to leave as little impact on your intended campsite as possible.

Unfold the waterproof tarp in the center of your site. The tarp should be at least a few inches larger than your tent floor. Plan to place your tent on the back of the tarp so that any additional canvas area is in front of the door; this limits the possibility of tracking fragments into the tent and provides a dry area for storing items external yet still within weapons reach.