Tarp set up practice

Some of Paddle Canada's courses contain what I call "boy scout" stuff like camp set up, assignment of duties in camp etc.  Its not something I've paid a lot of attention to before because I'm more interested in the nuts and bolts of paddling.

Last year Brian had a great set-up at Black Island where he put a tarp up over his tent.  It was wet in the morning and the tarp allowed him to take his tent down without getting it wet.  So, I got a tarp.

Never having set up a tarp by myself I thought it might be a good idea to practice it on a still day, all the while considering how I'd deal with wind.

My first set-up was a basic configuration.

Then I worked out changing the configuration without taking the tarp down.  I just moved the poles back one loop on each side of the tarp, one at a time.  I reasoned in wind it might be best to get a basic configuration up and then modify it to suit the conditions.  Maybe when I get more proficient I'll be able go right to a final product.

But, for now, once I figured out how I could make a small modification to a basic set-up, I changed it a number of times getting different configurations from each set-up all without collapsing the tarp.

This was all done in calm weather but I think I'll be able to cope with a bit of wind.  There is one caveat.  The ground was soft and readily accepted the spikes.  It could get more complicated where spikes can't be hammered into the ground.  Maybe I'll practice that sometime.

The thing is, I thought it wise to at least start a bit of practice before I had to do it for real.  Like most kayak stuff, better to practice before I really, really need to get it done.