PROOF You Don't Need a [tent] Footprint!
Mr. Coffee
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- A Demented Corner of the North Cascades
Honestly spending $50 or $100 on a footprint is a vicious ripoff. If you think you actually need one you are better off cutting out a piece of Tyvek to size.
Holes in a tent floor bluntly aren't a big deal. Unless you are total bonehead you will camp in a reasonably well-drained spot anyway, and after a hard night of heavy weather chances are the driest piece of ground is going to be under your tent anyway. And if the hole bothers you you can easily patch it.
Also poles and zippers fail long before you will wear out the waterproofing on the floor.
Besides, you don't need a tent anyways unless you are in Alaska or a total wuss.
Holes in a tent floor bluntly aren't a big deal. Unless you are total bonehead you will camp in a reasonably well-drained spot anyway, and after a hard night of heavy weather chances are the driest piece of ground is going to be under your tent anyway. And if the hole bothers you you can easily patch it.
Also poles and zippers fail long before you will wear out the waterproofing on the floor.
Besides, you don't need a tent anyways unless you are in Alaska or a total wuss.
Taylor57
Well-Known Member
I would choose that Hampton Inn across the street!
Slaphappygamer
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Aptos
But there is nothing like the quiet after a good night sleep, away from all city noises, in the morning. Then feeling the cool air while making your first cup of coffee to start the day. I can smell the trees now. It’s so nice.
il Munduato
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
I make my own footprint out of old tire tubes.
Then I bring along a big can of rubber cement so I can multipurpose it into an emergency parachute, hot air balloon or white water raft.
Then I bring along a big can of rubber cement so I can multipurpose it into an emergency parachute, hot air balloon or white water raft.
Jeremy McCreary
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Carlsbad, CA
Taylor57
Well-Known Member
I was teasing. I love tent camping but haven't done it for a few years. Our last trip was a reunion of 10 or so classmates (some I have known since I was 5 years old) up to June Lake in CA. One of our pals is a tour guide. He got to the campsite early and set up the tents. He made it like glamping! We had a separate tent for showering that had hot water! Breakfasts of bacon and eggs cooked in a ton of bacon fat and one night a trout fry of the trout we all had caught from the lake and surrounding streams. Everything tastes better when you're camping!
Mr. Coffee
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- A Demented Corner of the North Cascades
Actually my worst experiences with creepy-crawlies were in a semi-glamping experience in India where the cooktent was spectacularly infested with spiders the size of the palms of my hands, and a cabin rental in Ecuador that had billions of ants living inside it.
Slaphappygamer
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Aptos
Camping breakfast is the best breakfast. Cook bacon first. Leave some bacon grease in the pan and cook your diced potatoes. Then leave all the bits from the potatoes and bacon (but not too much as to drown the eggs) and scramble your eggs in there. This method doesn’t create a lots of dirty dishes, which are the last things you want to deal with while camping. 
Nvreloader
Western Nevada
- Region
- USA
Wait until you wake up and find a Bell worm lying right next to your bedroll, You'll appreciate a tent then, next time you go out..........Lol
A bell worm = https://www.ndow.org/species/mojave-green-rattlesnake/
ymmv
A bell worm = https://www.ndow.org/species/mojave-green-rattlesnake/
ymmv
Child 1 was borrowing a tent on the weekend a d it started the usual discussions - why so many / how long do they last etc.
It was enough for me to reflect on just how good an investment a tent is! My wife recently retired her original light weight mac pac - 35 years old! The titanium poles and pegs still work, although it's crazy heavy by modern standards. My ultralight bivvy is 17 years old, and the tent child 1 original settled on, my 2 person comfort motorbike tourer - it was 10 years old!
NONE of these have ever been used with a footprint - and there were 2 tents that left a gravel pit of outback dust on our lounge room floor as I set them up for her....
It was enough for me to reflect on just how good an investment a tent is! My wife recently retired her original light weight mac pac - 35 years old! The titanium poles and pegs still work, although it's crazy heavy by modern standards. My ultralight bivvy is 17 years old, and the tent child 1 original settled on, my 2 person comfort motorbike tourer - it was 10 years old!
NONE of these have ever been used with a footprint - and there were 2 tents that left a gravel pit of outback dust on our lounge room floor as I set them up for her....
Brian-s
Active Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Kent ohio
Whether to have "footprint" or not it's not what to bothering me. When did they start calling a ground tarp a footprint? I know I'm not hip to the cool language that you youngsters are using but I saw the article and I thought footprint was going to be about the amount of ground covered by the tent. .. as in its footprint
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