Walk in camping - small tent vs the wind?

laura* · Post by laura* » Sat Jul 05, 2008 2:20 am

Hi from a newbie:

I love camping out in the desert. I have my minimalist extreme desert camping formula down pat. However, I've never been to Burning Man. From reading stuff here, it sounds like the conditions at BM are actually much less extreme than what I'm familiar with.

So anyway, I've bought a ticket for this year's BM. A number of people I know will be at BM, but I'm planning on camping alone. The walk in camping area seems to be a good fit for me. However, there is very little written about it!

How are vehicles kept out of the walk in area? The Google Earth image seems to show some sort of dark line extending from both 2:00 and 5:00 and going all the way to the pentagonal MOOP fence. Is this a mini MOOP fence?

How well does a rebar anchored small one person tent fare against the wind? Obviously in the walk in area I can't use my truck as a wind break. My tent is just tall enough to sit upright in the center. (Once upon a time I experienced a windy night in my tent, though I don't know what the wind speeds were. I put up the "rain fly" and the tent handled the wind just fine. I woke in the morning to two inches of fresh sand in my camp.)

gyre · Post by **gyre** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 2:26 am

It depends on the tent.

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 3:26 am

A good quality mountaineering tent should do fine. There's a pennant fence line between walk-in camping & the parking strip along the perimeter road. Anywhere you camp, lock your valuables in the car.

laura* · Post by laura* » Sat Jul 05, 2008 3:54 am

My tent is a Sierra Designs Clip Flashlight. An updated version (the Clip Flashlight CD 2) can be seen here:

http://www.rei.com/product/763150

TomServo · Post by **TomServo** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 4:15 am

Id rope your tent, to the truck. When you're out, would suck to have your tent blow away. You might want to consider shade..maybe a small silver tarp off the bed of the truck? Not so much sand in Black Rock..is more like powder. Ive found tomato based food and drinks, cuts right through that dust in your mouth. For your tent, 1 1/2' rebar should work fine..th top two or three inches bent in a vice..in an L shape. pad the exposed rebar somehow, so you don't open your foot on them. Then go to Black Rock Roller Disco.

DragginLady · Post by **DragginLady** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 7:09 am

We have used various small tents , and with rebar stakes, they have all done well. The one with mesh vents at the top let in too much dust, but the others were good. We used the tents from Costco, which are inexpensive. I would not take my four season tent out there~~~I paid too much for it to get trashed by the Playa. The clip flashlight I am sure would do well, but, personally, I leave that one home. Doesn't give me enough space on the Playa..... Perfect for backpacking, though.
A four or five man tent seems to be about the right size for one person and some stuff....
Last year we mistakenly packed the "Taj Majal"; my three room tent.
We staked the heck out of it, and it did fine. And I loved having the room for all the costumes and material that we took, and nice to have a tent I could stand up in.
Since it is now Playasized and it withstood last years winds, it is going again this year.
I think the secret to the tents is to have the really long stakes and to guy them down well. Check the guy lines occasionally to be sure the rope is not fraying and the knots are holding. And mark them well, so I don't stumble through your camp, tripping on the ropes and falling in your face.
I had some plastic table cloths left over from a party, bright colored. Cut them into strips and had a cheap, plentiful supply to tie on the lines of all the tents.

Post by **AntiM** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 7:29 am

TomServo wrote:Id rope your tent, to the truck. When you're out, would suck to have your tent blow away. You might want to consider shade..maybe a small silver tarp off the bed of the truck? Not so much sand in Black Rock..is more like powder. Ive found tomato based food and drinks, cuts right through that dust in your mouth. For your tent, 1 1/2' rebar should work fine..th top two or three inches bent in a vice..in an L shape. pad the exposed rebar somehow, so you don't open your foot on them. Then go to Black Rock Roller Disco.

I don't think you can have your vehicle in walk-in camping. Parked along the road or some such, not next to the tents?

motskyroonmatick · Post by **motskyroonmatick** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 8:14 am

I think most things come loose from flapping. If you can minimize flapping it will help. I also use a short piece of twine between my rebar stake and whatever I am holding down. This acts as a buffer and I don't rip grommets out of my shade cloth that way. This could protect your stake loops from detaching from your tent.
There is a fence on the airport road side and the city side. I think it is just common knowledge that you don't drive in to walk in camping from the deep playa side.

laura* · Post by laura* » Sat Jul 05, 2008 11:09 am

AntiM wrote:I don't think you can have your vehicle in walk-in camping. Parked along the road or some such, not next to the tents?

That's what the 2007 Survival Guide implies:

Walk-In Camping
A marked area immediately behind the south side of Black Rock City will be reserved for Walk-In Camping. You will need to leave your vehicle, and carry your belongings to your chosen spot. No vehicles or RVs will be allowed in the Walk-In Camping area. The sheer difficulty of this exercise will keep the area sparsely populated, and your efforts will be rewarded with solitude not available in other parts of the city.

TomServo · Post by **TomServo** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 11:14 am

AntiM wrote:
TomServo wrote:Id rope your tent, to the truck. When you're out, would suck to have your tent blow away. You might want to consider shade..maybe a small silver tarp off the bed of the truck? Not so much sand in Black Rock..is more like powder. Ive found tomato based food and drinks, cuts right through that dust in your mouth. For your tent, 1 1/2' rebar should work fine..th top two or three inches bent in a vice..in an L shape. pad the exposed rebar somehow, so you don't open your foot on them. Then go to Black Rock Roller Disco.
I don't think you can have your vehicle in walk-in camping. Parked along the road or some such, not next to the tents?

shows how much I pay attention.. get a really long rope and tie it to your truck

phil · Post by **phil** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 11:58 am

>1 1/2' rebar should work fine

I'll second that. I have a much larger tent, and I put 18-inch or 24-inch rebar on the four corners of my fly, with 18- or 24-inch stakes on the tent under the fly. I check the regular stakes every day, as some come loose in the wind, and sometimes the straps pull off. Since you're coming in a truck, bring back up rebar in case you need it. The clip flashlight should shed wind very well.

The issues aren't so much "desert" as wind and dust. It doesn't get much over a hundred ever, cools down at night; but the wind can be brutal, and the dust storms can really get the inside of your tent filthy. See here:
http://civex.smugmug.com/gallery/432849 ... 0292_fesej
for a photo of the inside of our tent after one dustiness (other photos of the inside in the thumbnails to the left). It was a tent that withstood the wind fine, but had too much mesh for the playa. (You bet a better feel for it if you look at the sizes larger than "large." :->)

Someone else has mentioned flapping, and I'll agree on that, too. Keep your tent staked as tightly as possible without stressing the seams, make sure everyday that your pegs and rebar are still snug in the loops, and you'll be fine. Visegrips work wonders getting the rebar back out, by the way.

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 12:38 pm

Tent that size would be fine with 8"-9" stakes for a couple nights -- use 12" to make sure, and 12"-18" stakes if you rig up ad hoc shade over the tent. Scratch out a divot & pound them just below the ground surface. Military surplus stores have better stakes than REI carries.

Try Google for pics of walk-in.
http://images.google.com/images?q=%22Bu ... walk-in%22

Josh-n-Cody · Post by **Josh-n-Cody** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 7:39 pm

gyre wrote:It depends on the tent.

i've been fortunate to purchse a tent rated for 60 MPH winds and up to 100MPH gusts. It is a Eureka K-2 tent which was designed to withstand the rigors of Mt Everest

http://www.eurekatent.com/p-72-k-2-xt.aspx

The "four season" tent is very good for several reasons other than the wind tunnel tested design.

1) The tent can zip up tight as a drum, and no hot glue gunning requried.

2)It is roomy with a 48" headroom

3) sealed vestibule can act as a "dust lock" ... you crawl into the vestibule... drop your dusty dirty stuff (like a mud room) cloe up the flaps and THEN open your interior tent.

We are purchasing directly from "Bill" ... the Tent Dude at Eureka. Ours will arrive next week. I'll set it up, take pics, etc

cost 279.00 plus shipping direct from eureka... for a 550 dollar expedition tent!

dr.placebo · Post by **dr.placebo** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 10:53 pm

The higher the tent is the more surface area it presents to the wind, and the more unlikely it is to stand up to a good gust.

It's not that difficult to stake down a small tent properly with 12" stakes. But the poles for an inexpensive tent may not stand up to the wind. I've had good luck with a "3-person" tent (apparently based on use by really small people) for me, and I use a cot for sleeping on. One unexpected good outcome was that the cot provides sufficient internal bracing that the tent is not blown flat by the wind.

And the walk-in area is nice to be in, although it places extra demands on radical self-reliance. Some official type will come and make trouble if your car is in there, so you park the car on the last street.

TomServo · Post by **TomServo** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 11:05 pm

highest winds Ive experienced were in 1999..reports of 110mph gusts. last year not as hard, but prolonged. That desert has all kinds of surprises up its sleeve.

Hoolie · Post by **Hoolie** » Sun Jul 06, 2008 12:14 am

laura* wrote:My tent is a Sierra Designs Clip Flashlight. An updated version (the Clip Flashlight CD 2) can be seen here:

http://www.rei.com/product/763150

Wouldn't be my first choice for the playa, especially in the walk-in area where you will likely be very exposed. If you do use this tent, stake it down well, definitely keep the fly on, utilize those loops on the outside of the fly to run guylines, and be prepared to find dust inside the tent if a severe duststorm hits.

Walk in camping - small tent vs the wind?

Walk in camping - small tent vs the wind?

60 MPH WINDTUNNEL Tested tent...