Why nobody talks about how tent stakes can ruin your sleep

Last summer I camped at Lake Crescent in Washington and spent three nights tossing around. I brought those basic orange plastic stakes that come with most tents. Every time I rolled over, the ground sheet would shift and I'd feel the stake heads poking into my back through the pad. After the second night I grabbed a headlamp and dug around my gear. Turns out the stakes were bending sideways under tension from the rain fly. I swapped to some cheap aluminum shepherd hook stakes I found at a hardware store in Port Angeles. They held solid the rest of the trip and I actually slept through the night. Has anyone else dealt with bad stakes ruining a trip or am I the only one who ignored this for years?

3 comments

3 Comments

piperwhite27d ago

Why do people still buy those cheap plastic stakes?

patricia_green2127d ago

Guilty as charged @piperwhite, my garden looks like a plastic graveyard too.

simonl1127d ago

Those plastic stakes are just AWFUL. They snap in the first strong wind then you're left with little jagged pieces poking up everywhere. I swapped to metal ones last year and never looked back. People just grab what's cheapest without thinking about durability.