[Elfsea] Preparing for Gulf War

[Richard Threlkeld]

Being a good Boy Scout leader, I must interject here.

> Trenching......the differance between a dry floor and a wet floor.
>
> Bring or borrow a shovel to trench around your tent.  look at the
> slope of the ground and trench on the high side.  This will keep
> water from going under your tent.  Try to never put your door
> facing up hill, this only invites water to run inside your tent.

Trenching causes erosion and is a major no-no. Even if you fill in
the trench, you have created a path for water that will wash out
next time it rains. To keep your floor dry, put down your tarps and
make sure the uphill edge is rolled so the water goes *under* the
tarps. Don't have any part of the tarp stick out from under the tent
because it will catch rain and scoop it on *top* of the tarp and
onto your floor.

One other issue. When you build a fire, it sanitizes the earth
for several feet around the fire and several feet down. Nothing
will grow for a year or two. The ash from the wood burning also
changes the Ph of the soil. Depending on the soil this can also
prevent the germinating and survival of new plant life for some
time. Boy Scouts used to make sure they covered up their fire
pits so others would not know where they had camped. We now
leave the pit with a stick standing to show we put the fire out
and where the pit was placed. The next camper will try to use
an existing fire pit instead of killing new ground. Some of the
Boy Scout campgrounds had little green left in the camping areas.

The rest of the note is very good information. If everyone took your
advice on camping, they would be very happy indeed.

> Arabella
>

Caelin