Why You Should Pack a Tarp/Ground Cloth

You already have a tent. So why is it a good idea to also carry a tarp?

Most campers and hikers today carry a tarp as an added layer of protection for their tent floors. Tarps offer other benefits as well. Here's what's available:

Types of Tarps

• Coated Nylon: A sheet of urethane-coated nylon, either taffeta or oxford, a thicker grade. Taffeta is the material used for most tent floors.
• Polyethylene: A woven, laminated, waterproof plastic sheet that is resistant to mildew and rot. It's tougher than nylon, but stiffer and a touch heavier — the type of material often used to cover woodpiles or boats in dry dock.

  Note: Both nylon and polyethylene tarps are rectangular (starting at 6' by 8') and come with grommets (small, reinforced metal holes) in the corners.

• "Footprints": These are custom-trimmed nylon ground cloths created by tent manufacturers; each model is cut to match the precise floor plan of an individual tent. Footprints usually include attachments (elastic loops, for instance) that connect to the main tent.

Uses for Tarps

• As low-tech tents: Tarps originally found their way into the backcountry as minimalist shelters. When combined with some cord and a couple of well-spaced trees, a tarp is transformed into the chief building block of the venerable tube tent — the original outdoor home used by hikers and scouts throughout the mid-20th century. Ultralight hikers today still use tarps in this manner.
• As lightweight weather breaks: Tarps are often deployed at backcountry camps (particularly at multi-night base camps) to shelter the camp kitchen. Rigged by cord to tree limbs and trunks, they serve as single-wall rain shields, wind buffers or sun screens.
• As tent-floor protection: Backpackers began abandoning tarp shelters for fully enclosed tents decades ago. Tarps, in turn, evolved into "ground cloths" — thin but useful barriers that separate the bottom of your tent floor from the dusty, irregular earth. Admittedly, a sheet of nylon or plastic can do little to prevent a jagged object from poking through the tarp or tent floor. (You must clear away such things when you inspect each campsite.) But a tarp/ground cloth can take the brunt of any mild tent-floor abrasion caused by movement inside your tent. A tent floor will simply last longer if given an extra layer of protection.

Additional benefits:

• When breaking camp, a ground cloth offers you a clean surface where you can fold and roll your tent.
• Most ground-level condensation that forms overnight sticks to the tarp (which is closer to the ground), not the tent. This helps keep your tent dry; you can live with a little moisture on your tarp.
• If it's raining when you want to set up your tent, try rigging your tarp as a temporary awning over the spot where you want to place your tent. That will help shield your tent's canopy until you get the rainfly in place.

Tarp Tips

• If you're using a rectangular tarp as a ground cloth, fold any extra material under the tent's floor to avoid collecting rain. This is one of the beauties of footprints — no excess material to fret over.
• Try to keep the wind behind you while you work with a tarp. Otherwise, it may keep slapping you in the face. If you're rigging it as a slanted awning (to serve as a kitchen shelter, perhaps), angle the lower end into the wind so the wind blows over it, not into it.
• If your tarp loses a grommet, find a small stone, In the corner where the grommet is missing, wrap a small amount of tarp fabric around the stone, then tie it off with a piece of cord. You can then use that nub as an attachment spot for a guy line.
• Left-behind tarp material has been a discouraging backcountry litter problem for years. If your tarp gets shredded somehow, do your part to keep the wilderness as you found it — pick up the pieces and pack them out.

Back to Top