Interview with guide and author Cliff Jacobson
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Links on Podcast 54
Cliff Jacobson's website
Expedition Canoeing - 20th anniversary edition on Amazon
Here's my review
Here's my review
Woodcraft and Camping by Nessmuk on Amazon
Here's my review
New Way of the Wilderness by Calvin Rutstrum on Amazon
My copy is on order; look for a review soon.
Scoutmaster Podcast Music
Good program, Clarke. I've read Rutstrum's books and I have learned quite a bit from his canoeing instruction. I have worked on his backwards J stroke and I can do it, especially when on an open body of water. We often canoe on things like spring runs so there isn't a lot of actual paddling and I find myself reverting to ruddering and J-stroking most of the time.
Ok, I'll step into it about tents. Cliff is wrong. (caveat, I camp almost exclusively in Florida).
1. Tent floors ARE for keeping things out! When I zip up the door of my tent I create a barrier against almost everything I want to be protected from. And it's not rain, though staying dry is a good thing. Let's see what we don't want inside with us: Rattlesnakes, Water Moccasins, Coral Snakes, Copperhead snakes, mosquitoes, ants (lots and lots of ants), scorpions (yes there ARE scorpions in FL!), wasps, deer flies, ticks, cicada killers, no-see-ums, and spiders.
2. I use a heavy duty plastic ground cloth UNDER my tent floor. Ants will chew right through a common tent floor. The plastic tarp, not so much. The ground cloth is wet on the bottom every morning and all of the wetness and wet leaves and junk are rolled up inside and not on the bottom of my tent. I roll the edges up underneath the tent. If I put my tent direcly on the ground it would get very dirty very fast.
3. We almost always camp in sandy soil. What keeps you dry is a tent fly that overhangs the tent ALL the way around. A Eureka Timberline tent is a good example of tent with a fly that totally covers the tent. The rain runs off the fly and soaks up immediately into the sand. I don't get wet. Ever. I bought a Eureka Prism tent in 1991 and used it until last year (2009). Always put the ground cloth under the tent, never got wet in the tent (it does rain in Florida :-) ) and the tent stayed pretty clean and serviceable for 18 years (I camp almost every month of the year). I've never seen anyone down here put the ground cloth inside the tent and my scouts don't get wet (it does rain here in Florida) (unless they don't set their tent up correctly :-) ).
We use the same techniques on the Appalachian Trail hikes (did I mention that it rains real regularly in Western NC?) and we don't get wet. I am trying to imagine how dirty my tent would get without my ground cloth under it. YMMV.
Posted by: Larry Geiger | February 01, 2011 at 04:11 PM