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Rigging Tarps

I'm essentially a backpacker that travels by canoe, but I've been a tarp camper most of my backpacking life. I don't have any experience camping with heavier tarps, canvas and such, but I know a lot about silnylon.
The best bang for the buck I've found in the tarp world are Etowah silnylons. They have a stuff sack sewn onto the edge of the tarp, and I don't know why every single silnylon tarp maker doesn't do that (as well as every bivy sack, every ground cloth, etc.) Extremely convenient. I enjoyed learning about the grommeted stuff sack in this thread; I'm a bit leery of a pre-fastened ridgeline because I may want to orientate the tarp differently in different conditions, but admittedly an A-frame works about 90% of the time. I just secure a paracord ridgeline (evenk hitch! best hitch!) when I decide what tarp lay I want, and then have a nicely compact stuffsacked tarp to

I use about 5 or 6 inches of shock cord tied onto the near side of a 6-foot piece of paracord for my guylines. (Shock cord to tarp loop: larkshead; shock cord to paracord: double fishermans.) This does two things: reduces shock to the tie-out loops in when it's windy, and counteracts the stretchiness of silnylon over a moist night. (The shock cord will contract as the tarp loosens up, keeping it relatively taut-pitched.) This is NOT a Really Heavy Weather setup, because high wind can stretch the shock cord and let weather into your sleep system, but I don't go out looking for gale-force camping conditions.

I like silpoly better (less stretch) and have a dutchware 8x10 silpoly, which I really like. Its a little tougher and a few bucks more expensive at about the same weight as the Etowahs, but I've been using Etowahs for so long they're dear to my heart.
 
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