Common Mistakes Campers Make When Pitching a Tent

Eric Greenfield, principal and lead consultant at Bookkeeping Manhattan, splits his time between providing a variety of bookkeeping and accounting services and helping oversee his family’s real estate business. Outside of work, Eric Greenfield enjoys a variety of outdoor pursuits, such as camping.

Pitching a tent is a pretty basic part of camping, yet many campers don’t pitch their tent properly. Below are several tent-pitching mistakes which are best avoided:

- Angling tent stakes: Tent stakes provide the greatest amount of holding power when driven straight into the ground. When campers are worried about stakes pulling loose, they should place a heavy object, such as a rock, over the stake instead of driving it into the ground at an angle.

- Ignoring what’s above: Most campers look all around them before setting up their tent, but many people forget to look up. This is important, because it gives campers a chance to spot dead or broken tree branches that may fall onto the tent. It also lets them spot beehives, spider webs, and other hazards hiding overhead.

- Leaving too little time: Even experienced campers may take an hour or more to set up a tent and get their gear organized. For this reason, campers should ideally start setting up their tent with enough time such that they can finish the task before nightfall.

- Not finding good ground: It’s often tough sleeping on the ground, even with a sleeping pad. As a result, many campers may seek out soft ground. While soft ground may be more comfortable, it doesn’t hold tent stakes very well. Similarly, campers will want to pitch their tent on high ground that won’t collect rain and ground that is free of embedded rocks which can’t be cleared away.