Sil Poly Tarp Contest/Giveaway!

[hk2001]

Please Read this thread concerning the evolution of this tarp.

The story: I was provided with an 8 yard production sample of the new SilPoly tarp material from Kyle @ ripstopbytheroll.com to play with, and make any tarp of my choosing. Since I was doing this at pretty much no cost to me, I decided to try some things that I've never done before: A double french seam RL, with Grossgrain binding (like a superfly) and binding all the edges. Using all the new techniques, I'll admit I messed up a time or 2... there are photos in the above post to reflect that. But I cannot speak highly enough about this fabric

This tarp has been hanging up in my back yard for the last week, and will be there until the end of today. It's been rained on, snowed on, sleeted on.. and subject to 7 days of 15-20mph winds. And it's held up perfectly, even with the quick tacked on tie outs I added.

At some point in time in the near future, I will take off the tacked on tie outs, reinforce them, and add line lock 3's or D rings on all around (winners choice)

The tarp is 12'8" long by 9'10" wide, and has an additional set of tie outs on 1 side for doors. Please be aware, I have not been nice to this tarp, and it should last quite a while, but it is being offered AS IS (other than the addition of linelocs or D rings).


Now on to the contest! To keep the playing field fair.. this will be judged by my 8 year old daughter so keep it clean please.

Give me your best misadventure in the woods.. Weather, animals, bugs.. whatever. But remember who's judging it, so keep it lighthearted, and short If you don't have one.. get creative. And my daughter isn't a princessy type.. a little insight into her: Her favorite show is Mythbusters, and she wears boy shorts because "They have more pockets for stuff"

Contest ends Dec 1st, judging will take place during that week (depending on entries, and how long it takes her to read them) With the winner announced by Dec 8th. I'll then add the tie outs of choice to the tarp, and have it in the mail a few days later with a few other goodies from Santa.

[Gresh]

This isn't even a recent story, but taught my friend and I a valuable lesson about life.

Back in the early days when the Earth was still young and we rode dinosaurs to work, I was a Boy Scout down here in South Carolina. During a backpacking trip, we were told specifically not to go across the creek which obviously meant that we were going to cross the creek...that's what kids do when they're told not to do things. The way across was an easy one, jumping from a smaller stone in the creek to a bigger one out further in until we'd made our way across to explore that which was forbidden to us.

We made the mistake while over there of being seen by the Scoutmaster, who hollered at us to come on back across the creek...so we did. Stone to stone, we crossed until we got back to that last stone - the small one upon which we started. I and my friend stepped out in turn, trying to land the small jump to the last rock and landing with a mighty splash in the frigid waters of the creek. We learned that day a lesson that's stayed with us to this day: You can always jump from a small rock to a big rock, but you can't always jump from a big rock to a small rock.

...and then we saved the magical unicorn princess from the evil mosquito queen.

The end.

[RedStix]

About two years ago I went on a camping trip with my kids and their nephews. We wanted to make it a fun trip and keep the kids busy, so the adults set up a treasure hunt. We strategically hid items around the campground with clues to help the kids find the items. One of the clues lead the kids to a bayou (river bank). My son, who was about 7-8 years old (about your age) at the time shouted out, "I found it" and ran toward the bayou. Wearing his rubber boots and not knowing how deep the bayou was, he took one step in and sunk up to chest! The water was cold and he was extremely surprised. As everyone watched and laughed we pulled him out and congratulated him on finding the treasure!

RedStix

[gunner76]

Remember, this took place before cell phones and computers and getting a good weather forecast back then consisted of looking outside the window.

Back in the early mid 70's, a friend of mine by the name of John Boy asked me to help him lead a group of Explorer Scouts on a New Years winter hike on the Appalachian Trail across Roan Mountain as I was one of the few adults he knew who also enjoyed cold weather camping and hiking and had the gear. We got dropped off at our start point and the driver agreed to meet us with our van in 3 days. It was a beautiful day for hiking, clear blue skies, just above freezing and a slight breeze.

We reached the top of a bald and set up camp along with others who were out hiking the trail. Once we made sure all the scouts had set up their tents ( this took place before hammocks as we know them were used ) and had dinner we decided to see how many people we could cram into a tent. Five adults including my wife who I was dating at the time piled into a two man tent and sat in a circle with our legs crossed over each other. We would pinch the toes or tickle the feet to find out whose feet belonged to who. We made hot chocolate and ate snacks and told tales of great hikes adventures and rock climbing.

It was during this time the wind picked up and the clouds moved in and a blizzard hit. We scattered to our tents to bundle up for the night. While we listened to the wind and snow, we would hear people yelling and screaming. When we looked out side we would see tents being blown across the landscape with the people still in them. One of the tents I saw being blown away was the same model I was using. When I saw that I hoped I had my tent set up properly. We checked on the people who got blown away and found they were ok. We went to check on the scouts and could not find one of the tents. We could not look too long because it was dark and with the blizzard we could not see very far and we did not want to get lost ourselves.

It was a long night and at one point the wind was able to get under my tent enough to pull the stake holding one corner out. I placed as much of my body in that area to keep the tent from being blown away and it worked.

The next morning it was still snowing but we were able to search for the missing scouts. We feared that they had frozen during the night. After searching for an hour we found them. After their tent had was blow down by the winds, they tried to set it back up but could not. The remembered seeing a trail shelter close by from when we were setting up camp so they took the tent to shelter and climbed inside and wrapped the tent around them and survived the night.

The scout master wanted to continue our hike but I was able to convince him to turn around while we could as he and I were the only ones who had the gear needed to hike and camp in these conditions. I was able to hike to the nearest road thru the snow and get a ride to our shuttle drivers house and get the van. When I got back to our starting point I hiked back to the camp site. On the way I came across several of the scouts hiking to the road and our ride. I gave them the keys to the van and told them that once they got to the van and settled in to start cooking a hot meal for everyone.

Once I got to the camp site, I found the others were breaking camp to hike back to the van. I packed up my gear and tent and my wife and I hiked back to the van. It was so cold out that a long piece of hair sticking out and under my wife's toboggan froze solid and looked like a white spike with the ice and snow on it was coming out of her head. Once we got to the van we had some hot food and we all drove home. cold but alive.

[TZ75man]

Ok, mines not that good, but it did happen the first time out in a hammock. I set up a small hang with a buddy of mine who had been hanging for a couple of years. He was in a Clark Jungle hammock and I was in Vietnam era issue hammock that I customized with some homemade spreader bars and drape over bug netting. I brought my 2 grandsons along, ages 10 and 6. They were going to sleep in a small hub tent that night. I had a small flashlight with a night lite built in for them to leave on in their tent. We spent the day squirrel hunting, fire building and trying out newly acquired survival stuff. After eating and roasting marshmallows on a fire the kids built, it was time for them to go to bed. My buddy and I stayed up a little while longer chewing the fat around the campfire and then finally went to our respective hammocks to go to sleep. About midnight, while in a very deep slumber, we were awakened to some very loud screaming from the grand kids tent. I rushed over to see what was wrong and the oldest grand son was freaking out over a Grand daddy long legs spider that was in their tent. He wanted to go home now and I couldn't convince him to stay even tho I got rid of the spider. My youngest grand son wasn't going to stay unless the oldest did so needless to say, I had to pack all their stuff up and call their mom to let her know they were coming home. The youngest still teases the oldest about being a weenie that night. I've since decided to get them each their own hammocks for Christmas and try it again this next spring and hopefully they can keep the spiders out and I can get a full nights sleep!

[Futhark]

*Grabs popcorn* This is gonna be good...

[bowl-maker]

Back in the good old days (15 years ago), when I was dating my wife in college, we took an inexperienced trip along part of the Appalachian Trail to a shelter at the bottom of the mountain. It was supposed to be fairly cold. I had hiked and camped a little before, and had my trusty German down mummy bag. My wife (then girlfriend) did not have a sleeping bag. She went to her brother, who had been in the military. He let her borrow his sleeping bag and assured her that she would be "sweating bullets" no matter how cold it got. I borrowed my grandpa's Coleman single burner camp stove. We also used a couple of external frame backpacks from the 70's, one that was lashed together with rope and used military belt suspenders for the shoulder straps.
We got to the trailhead late...just at dusk. We then spent a large amount of time hiking the trail in the dark, due in part to being unfamiliar with the trail and due in large part to picking a trailhead that was a mile of crawling under trees, crawling over trees, and climbing rocks. We had never been on that trail before, and didn't know that there was a trailhead 100 yards farther up the parking lot that was a smooth walk.
We finally got to the shelter, and took the upper shelf due to the lower shelf being taken. I tried to start the stove, but couldn't get it to light (I now know that it was too cold for it to operate properly). We ended up enjoying the Slim Jim's that my girlfriend brought with her instead of a true meal. Then we laid down our sleeping bags and crawled in.
About 30 minutes later, I noticed that my girlfriend was shivering violently. I was fairly comfortable in my bag, but she was not doing well. I asked if she was OK, and she told me she was freezing. 10 minutes later she was resting comfortably in my down bag, and I was trying to adjust to life in her brothers "sweating bullets" sleeping bag. Needless to say...I was not "sweating bullets".
As an added bonus, during the night mice and rats and who-knows-what scampered across us looking for food and warmth.
The next morning, we got up to try to get the day started. The stove still would not light, even though the thermometer at the shelter indicated that the temperature was a sweltering 15 degrees Fahrenheit. Again with the Slim Jims.
When we got back to the truck later that day, it was very interesting to observe the vehicle that a bear had broken in to overnight. It had apparently seen or smelled food and broke in a window and clawed it's way inside. Not my vehicle, thank the Lord.
So...we learned to be a little more prepared the next time we went backpacking.

[shef]

I am very blessed with great family and friends who enjoy getting together regularly to spend time outdoors. We started several years ago going car camping together; each time trying a new park. The instance I want to tell you about happened a few years ago, along the shore of Lake Hartwell. We had booked our site online (site unseen), and found when we got there that we were among several families who were camping in RV's. We had arranged our (identical) tents so that each of our entryways shared a 10' x 10' pop-up tent that we used as our communal kitchen/sun shelter. The doors to our tents were lashed to the pop-up. This fact will become important in a minute. But, we were very pleased with ourselves, and the construction of our 'compound'.
Between our families, there were four adults, plus three young girls under the age of 7, and our son, who was the oldest of the children, at 8.

The kids were playing along the bank of the lake, and it was getting close to lunch time. I had brought our two burner stove, and an elaborate camp kitchen, and was cooking quesadillas for everyone, under the pop-up tent. The only complaint I had about the day was how hot it was. I was so thankful for the shade.
Just as I was taking the last of the food out of the pan, and putting it onto plates, I whistled for the kids to come eat lunch. They dropped the sticks and rocks they were playing with, and ran back to eat. Just as they got to the picnic table, the oldest girl looked at her mom and said, "It's about to rain." I didn't even have the opportunity to laugh at her. It seemed she had summoned a storm with her words. Suddenly the blinding sun was muted, and a wave of water came blowing into our camp from over the lake. It was so sudden, all the paper plates loaded with food blew off the table, and disappeared.
There was no point trying to take cover under the pop-up. The rain came in sideways and drenched us all in seconds. The girls screamed as they tried to scramble into their tent. Their mom told the girls to take shelter in their minivan, which had a remote sliding door, so they were able to run to the van, and the door closed behind them. My daughter went with them, but my son wanted to help.
We were securing whatever we could to keep it from getting wet, or blowing away: cell phones, radios, food... and then I saw the pop-up start to lift off the ground. I immediately grabbed one of the legs and pulled it back down. My son, following my cue, ran to the opposite corner and wrapped his arms and legs around it. My wife, and my friend each grabbed the other corners. The wind was still able to lift the tent, and I was afraid we were going to lose it. That's when I remembered that the pop-up was lashed to both of our tents. Afraid that our shelter would fly away with the tents, I did the first thing I could think of, which was to pull out my knife and began cutting the lashings free. This was the last straw for my son, and he started to sob. When he saw me cutting the lines free, he knew things were not under control.

As we were clinging to the shelter, we heard a horrible sound at the adjacent site, and we all turned to see our neighbor's aluminum camper awning ripped up and flopped over the top of the camper like a towel over it's shoulder. My son then screamed, "I just want to SURVIVE!"

Just as words of a child had seemed to summon the storm, the words of another seemed to quiet it. Immediately the wind and rain stopped as the quick moving cell blew over us. Pumped with adrenaline, soaked to the bone, and totally awestruck by what had just happened, I began to laugh uncontrollably. I let go of the shelter, scooped up and comforted my son, and commended him for his bravery. Everyone pitched in to clean up the mess. Lunch was nowhere to be found, so we just ate snacks, but we spent the rest of the day recounting our versions of the story and letting our clothes dry.

[Anon83]

This story is about my first encounter with a Grizzly Bear... not my first bear encounter, but the first with a grizz...

When I was about 12 years old, a little older than you are now, my dad and I went on a camping trip to the Bowron Lakes. (Here is a link to a map of the park, check out some of the pictures, it's amazing) This is the only natural chain of lakes in the world where you start, and finish, in the same place. My dad had taken my mom there for their honeymoon, so he had been there before, but this was the first time for me.

You should know before we get too far here, that this is in a part of the world where the bears out-number the people. It's a very wild place, but also very beautiful. The mountains sweep down from their peaks directly into the lakes, and huckleberry bushes line the banks. We picked and ate a lot of huckleberries on this trip, and never have I enjoyed picking berries more.

Ok, so on to the bears...

We had gotten up early that morning and paddled (and sailed a bit) the length of Isaac Lake in our green Old Town 14' canoe. We had started at the top of the long part of the upside-down "L" that forms the lake, and pulled into the large camp area on the very south-east tip of the lake before dark. We had made really great time due to an improvised sail we made out of the tarp for our tent, a couple paddles, and a very strong tail wind. Paddling the length of Isaac Lake is normally a 2 or 3 day trip, but we managed it in a day with the tail wind, and even arrived early enough to have light to make dinner and setup camp. Back then there was just a large, round chimney with a roof on it, and a bunch of grills setup around the chimney. When we arrived, there were already a lot of people there, maybe 20 or so, which was a surprise given that the parking lot was nearly empty at the base lodge. Everyone was cooking and chatting and just having fun. We all cooked and ate together, and I made some friends there that I still keep in touch with today. It was a wonderful time, with lots of good food, good people, the sounds of Loons in the distance, and fantastic views of the lake, mountains, and the upcoming run of the Isaac River. By the way, if you have never heard a Loon, here is a link to what they sound like.

The theme for the night after all the cooking and eating was done was bears. We were all very careful to make sure that all of our food, dishes, cookware, and even the clothes we prepared and cooked in were sealed in bear caches or dry-bags and hung from the metal wrapped pine trees. We all checked with each other to make sure everyone knew that they shouldn't bring any food into their tents for a late night snack, or dessert. I knew better, of course, having grown up in an area that has lots of bears and spent most of my life camping, and I remember wondering why people needed to be told about this! Anyway, I went to bed very excited about running the river the next day and had dreams about racing through the rapids in our canoe dodging dead-heads and other paddlers. Just as I was coming around a bend in the river in my dream I was VERY rudely awakened by the sounds of a woman screaming! My dad and I jumped up, scrambled out of our sleeping bags and clambered out of the tent, each with a flashlight in hand. Standing about twenty feet away, and I do mean standing, was the BIGGEST bear I have ever seen! We immediately started yelling, waving our arms, and jumping up and down along with a large handful of other campers who had reacted in the same way. Well, a couple of them had hand guns that they fired into the air, and as soon as those guns went off that bear dropped to all-fours, turned around and ran for the hills! It was one of the funniest things I have experienced in my life. Imagine this: A 600lb Grizzly is standing there looking around at all of these people who are now out of their tents screaming and waving their arms while a woman is screaming bloody-murder at the top of her lungs in a tent at it's feet. Then 2 gunshots ring out in rapid succession. BOOM-BOOM! And this giant beast of a bear, drops down, tucks it's little stubby tail, and disappears at full speed into the brush. It was great!

Afterward, once the woman in the tent stopped screaming, we all stood around and talked for a few minutes and made sure no one else had any delicious smelling morsels in their tents, then went to bed. As you can imagine, I had a pretty hard time falling asleep after that, but I did manage a few more hours rest before the sun came up and it was time for breakfast. When we all crawled out of our tents in the morning, the couple that the bear had sniffed at was already gone. I guess they were pretty embarrassed that they had been the cause of a bear encounter in our camp. Oh well, all is well that ends well I suppose.

To finish out the story, we spent the next 3 days finishing our journey back to the main parking lot, and when we stopped by the ranger cabin on the way back to report that we were leaving the park, the ranger had us leave our names on the roster for "The fastest father-son team to complete the circuit". We didn't even know there was a record to beat. We did the whole thing in 5 days, and destroyed the previous record of 12 days. I have been back there 3 times since, and not ever managed to complete the whole circuit again. Always due to weather or equipment failure, or both. But it remains one of my favorite places in the world. I will be making another trip there with my girlfriend this coming spring, and who knows, it may even be for OUR honeymoon.

Hope you enjoyed the story, and I hope this helps make you a little less afraid of bears. I know it helped me.

[hk2001]

...and then we saved the magical unicorn princess from the evil mosquito queen.

The end.

Pics (or cave paintings) or it didn't happen