I was on a long canoe trip most of last week. Because of pretty miserable weather, the Allegheny River was way high, debris-filled, and fast. These conditions, and a capsizing that led to a loss of gear, caused my group to use all of the available rope we had to tie down gear in the canoes and at campsites. As a result, a couple of nights I had to use bungee cords (shock cords) to suspend my tarp above my hammock. I mean I bungeed the corners of my stock Claytor JH tarp directly to the trees. The cords I used were the usual hardware store kind and they were stretched relatively tight in use.

I was wondering, does anyone think I damaged my tarp? I inspected it and it seems OK and it stayed watertight, but now I'm not sure. I had always assumed that nobody uses bungee cord because the constantly varying tension is not good for the tarp. Am I off base in this assumption? The Claytor tarp is a urethane-coated 210T nylon, if that makes a difference. Any thoughts out there from the tarp experts?