hello Shug here and I want to talk a little bit to some of the new people
about some tarp pitches while you're in camp and particularly those of you that
are wondering how you can still see the night sky but maybe have your tarp
partially pitched yeah you're the folks I'm talking to you know those guys had
been hammock in for a while I think we tend to make a lot of assumptions that
everybody that gets in the hammocks knows a little something about tarps and
and they don't cuz that's one thing when you get into hammocks you've got to
learn to do some tart pitches so I'm gonna cover a couple of this simple tarp
pitches so you get to camp a little bit early early I'm gonna do what's called
pullback mode and a quarter pullback and this way too you can lay in your hammock
at night if you're sleeping you think it's gonna be a good night but if you're
like me every time I don't put a tarp up that's when I'll get rain or pine
needles falling in my eyes or spider on my face sometimes a lobster now the
first thing you may notice is my tarp is kind of hanging up and what they're in
are these things called snake skins here it's just a mesh fabric that holds my
tarp has a little pocket down in the end so I can take my tie line and I go right
off my d-rings on the end and on this particular tarp I'm using a Dutch wasp
and this is my 11-foot Ridgeline DIY black crow tarp I've been using it for
years snakeskin comes together right in the middle right here I've got two
halves as you can see and the nicest thing about this is your tarp is kind of
wrangled so if you're at camp you know your tarp is basically up all you got to
do is drop it and stake it
as exposes one half of my car which is another great thing about the snakeskin
if it's a windy day I don't have to let them a whole tarp out with the wind
blowing it everywhere I can let out one half secure it with a stake do my other
end now that particular snakeskin I made myself it's not too difficult if you've
got some sewing skills I'm gonna put a list below or where you can get yourself
a snakeskin if that appeals to you so shoes what if I I want to sleep it's a
no rain and I want to see sky but maybe still have tarp up what something you
could show me I don't think you could but you put it and you know everything
well Sebastiani let me tell you this there are two of my favorite pitches one
I call the half pitch and the other I call the quarterback or the quarter
pitch or you take one corner and pull it back both of these are great for the
nights that you want to maybe sleep and not have your tarp fully deployed
because it doesn't look like rain but if something should happen to come up or
for some reason you want to get your tarp pitched you're good to go you're
more than halfway there - it's a great way to just sort of have it pitched up
while you're in camp messing around all day if you have one of those days where
you're there a little bit early so we're just gonna start with what I call the
quarter pitch all right so I can bowl well now I'm gonna unstick it I can
leave my stake right in there because I'm using a Marlin spike hitch and
that'll just kind of stay right in there
take this corner pull it back and I could tie it off or stake it back if I'm
laying in my hammock almost kind of covered but I can see the
sky Hey shoosh I don't always believe what you
said because I just don't because you were bigmouth but could you show me this
view and maybe maybe I would believe you all right so I'm just kind of laying
back here in my war bonnet el dorado hammock and laying here just staring at
the sky and if it did rain I would probably feel those first little drops
touching my face and I could get up and get everything done
so here's what it looks like there's my view so I can totally lay here and see
the sky yet I'm protected everywhere else
it's a great pitch let's take a look at pulling the whole
front half back same technique I just leave mistakes on because I use a
Marlinspike and I'll just undo that other corner and pull it all the way
back so half of me is protected in half as not simple pitch but I realize not
everybody knows it and you got your tarp set up like that now I just kind of
threw my lines back there on a windy day you're either gonna have to tie it off
to your other tarp corner or just stake it down into the ground and that way
same thing you're just laying in your hammock you've got a full view of the
sky but that's your half pitch and if it starts to rain it's easy enough get
yourself pitched down real quickly and now I'm pitch down for the rain I'm good
to go I'm gonna be dry so here we are in what you call porch mode now one thing
you may notice is I'm using my hiking poles to support it all right
and what I do is I just take my guide line coming off and I just wrap it
around the top of my hiking pole that way I don't have water running into the
other parts that's always worked for me and that stakes out to the ground and
you may notice there's a little bit if you look at it from the front I have
there's a little bit of a slant you always want to get one end lower if it's
going to rain and that way your water will run off that corner rather than
pooling up in the center here if both of these are the same height so just tilt
it your water will run away there and but that's ports mode greatest thing
about porch mode is you can be sitting back make yourself a cup of coffee or
tea fix your dinner if it's raining make sure you got yourself on a little bit of
a slant so my water is gonna run off that way and if you don't have hiking
poles just go out in the woods get yourself a couple of sticks or stomps
and you can have yourself porch motor so the snake skins porch mode
your quarter pitch with a quarterback pitch and your halfback pitch meaning
half your tarp is back those pitches I'm gonna start calling a quarterback and
halfback and those are your pitches that are great for around camp and also when
you want to get a look at the night sky but if it does rain or snow or get spine
neatly or armyworms drop on you or a big spot or whatever it is you can get
covered up really quickly now one thing that makes it kind of easy on your your
guy outs is have a little loop just tied right on there and that goes to the
corner of my tarp right here oh that's just my corner d-ring and you may notice
that shot cord there I prefer a tarp tensioner I've covered that in other
videos and that'll be in my tarp tutorials and that keeps your tarp tight
particularly a sill nylon tarp when they get wet or sometimes it got skinny trees
and when you lay in the hammock it slackens the line on your tarp and what
happens is if you have it stretched out like that when you set it and the tarp
starts to you know give out a little bit that happens in that shot cord will keep
your tarp pretty tight instead of it doing that all right so I just tie these
little loops with a little uh I just tie a little bite and what that is if you
wanted to tie one it's gonna make a loop in your line like that I'm just kind of
like making a little knot all right and then you got a loop I'm taking that
out though because I don't need it but normally I tie a Marlinspike and I have
a loop at the end that way I can loop another line through mine or in a quick
pitch just put my stake right through that but a lot of times I like to use
the Marlin spike I've shown this a lot but I'm gonna show it again there's a
mistake loop and bring it up and pull my other line through it I get
this kind of little look and I do that and then stick it into the ground when I
want to take it out just pull my stake right out of it and let me do that let
me do that again just a little quicker I make a loop put my fingers through now
kind of pulling this bit of line through my loop and I can do that really quick
it's hard to actually do it slow usually I'm kind of doing it just like
this boom boom boom bang and that way my stake is being held in there by that
knot that's the Marlinspike kind of my preferred method gives me a
lot of options but there's so many ways to stake a tarp all secured in Sector
seven which if you're curious and I've said it before is 200 feet around me
that is my personal sector seven
what is it with you and hickory with the word early followed by another early I
heard someone say it and I'm repeating it I don't know why it's a it's another
it's just a stupid thing hickory and I do and I think he sort of started it and
I think it was Brad Pitt's name in a movie and his name was early and we were
talking about one time and he said I think they was earlier I was talking
about it he went early and so whenever we say the word early we just repeat it
back says hey man let's meet two early early
it just is nothing it's just one of those stupid things that you do and it's
just like you know it's like punching somebody in the shoulder just because
you love them it's just a fun thing I think it's funny that you're doing it's
fun to say so no big history to it just kind of a stupid thing we do sanika
croak comforts me that is my spirit animal
I like chickens