A stranger at Shenandoah told me my tent stakes were a joke, he was right

Guy saw me hammering in those cheap plastic stakes after a storm warning and said 'those won't hold past midnight, trust me.' Switched to 8 inch steel ones the next trip, and it survived a 40 mph gust that snapped my neighbor's pole. Anyone else get gear advice from random campers that actually beat the reviews?

2 comments

2 Comments

sammoore20d ago

Old man at a Wyoming site watched me struggling with a basic tent peg and handed me a set of those heavy duty screw stakes from his truck. Said the ground out there eats cheap metal for breakfast. That was three summers ago and those things have held through every storm since, plus they twist out easy with a cordless drill. The funny part is the reviews online for my old stakes were mostly great, but that one stranger knew more about real conditions than a hundred commenters. Now I always ask locals or folks who've camped the area for gear tips before I trust the stars.

hill.andrew19d ago

Honestly that old timer got lucky with the weather. One good storm with wind from the wrong direction and those screw stakes can shear off or just pull a loop, same as anything else. Online reviews are averages over years and many kinds of ground, which beats a weird old dude's guess about your specific spot on a random Tuesday.