I usually separate my poles from the tent fabrics. I find that I have more flexibility in packing options this way. The tent fabrics will compress nicely, and the tent poles can be slid into a pack somewhere else.

Of course, this leads to the possibility that you arrive on a trip with your poles sitting back at home or in the truck...

I stuff my tent, sleeping bag, pillow, and sil-nylon tarp into their respective bags. I still roll my thermarest to get the air out before slipping it into its bag.

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Dave W
"Everyone must believe in something. I believe I'll go canoeing" - Henry David Thoreau

Given the above comment from those who I assume are experienced campers, I plan to continue stuffing my tent. Rolling can sometimes be a PITA in the wind as well. Makes me wonder why I didn't consider it before now!

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Old canoeists never die---they just smell that way.

We stuff everthing except our camp shoes, including the tent, into their respective compression sacks. Pegs in with tent poles. With the tent, put the fly in first, then the tent on top (if you plan to set the tent up first thatis and not due a fast set up with fly only). Keeps the tarp from blowing away when you take it out. Also before you pack the tent unzip the tent, stick your head in and hold the tent up over your head to shake all the greeblies out (pine needles, sand, dead bugs, the sock you missed). Then zip it up, take down the poles, put then in their sack, add the pegs, and then it in on top of the tarp that has been kept safe from blowing away by already being stuffed.
BTW, we attach our ground sheet using diaper pins. Never had one come off. Makes set up faster.
I have taken to keeping the compression sack for each sleeping bag (we actualy use quilts) by attaching it at the bottom of the bag when it is out at camp, and when it is in it's larger storage sack at home. No more fiddling around findng the right sized compression sack.

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"I've never met a river I didn't like. The challenges are what we remember, and the experiences will make great memories for when I can pick up my paddle no more". Me

Now that we are getting into a bit of 'topic drift', maybe I should add a tip that I find useful----when rolling a Thermarest I first fold it 3-4 times, kneel on it to squeeze most of the air, close the valve, then roll. It seems to get more air out that way.

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Old canoeists never die---they just smell that way.

Will never roll a tent again. I've spent way too much time cleaning off pine needles, moss and sand/gravel when trying to roll. Over the shoulder and stuff. One clean tent in the bag. Poles bag goes into the main bag first then the fly, then the tent. Lastly the ground stake bag.
Had a friend who liked to roll his tent until he stuck a half-dozen pine needles into it when rolling.

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To the Silent Places
www.parkerclan.ca

Now that's the idea I had been missing. Putting the poles in first solves the problem of potentially poking a hole in the tent while trying to fit the poles in later.

I'm always surprised at the # of folks who are comfortable packing poles separate from the rest of the tent. That has always sounded like a recipe for disaster to me.

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No, your other left!
Loon Island Outdoors
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Maybe it’s a continuation of the ground cloth innie vs outie thing. I’m an outie, and use a ground cloth or, actually, a custom DIY foot print under the tents. When I take a tent down I remove the fly and hang it briefly on a drying line, then undo the poles and the tent body falls atop the clean foot print.

Much of what I paddle is coastal sand and loblolly pine needle duff, or desert dust. Or worse, pine needle duff alive with ticks. I really do not want fold or roll things on any of that the naked nastiness.

The tent gets folded and rolled where it dropped atop the foot print, along with the fly. As do other things, my solo tents are a little squinchy for rolling up a big boy sized Therma-rest while inside, so that too gets rolled on the footprint. And stuff sacks with sleeping bag or clothing go on that clean/dry ground barrier before they get put in the appropriate dry bag or pack. Usually on that barrier*

Once all that is done the footprint, which is often ground damp underneath, gets hung on the line and is one of the last things to get brushed/shaken off and packed. Also a good last thing reminder; it is harder to overlook taking down the clothesline when it has a footprint draped over it.

All of our tents have footprints, with scalloped edges that don’t stick out in the rain and corner grommets matching the tent body stake locations. Having corner stakes on the footprint is important to keep it from blowing away or folding over in the wind. It is there, staked firmly to the ground, while I put the tent up and after I take the tent down.

A couple of our tents have stupid-pricey manufactured foot prints, but most have DIY footprints made from visqueen plastic with scalloped edges, 2” Gorilla tape tabs and grommets. Identical to a $40 footprint but only a couple bucks in materials.

Photo of a DIY visqueen, duct tape and grommet footprint here (post #15)

http://www.canoetripping.net/forums/for ... e-old-tent

*Usually. On family trips we have four of everything, 4x tents, 4x sleeping bags, 4x pads, 4x bags of clothes, etc. We bring an old/junk 8x10 nylon tarp and it gets staked to the ground as a group rolling and folding area, and then as a gear staging area on which to set everything before it goes into the correct dry bag or pack. It is quite a 4-person mountain of gear, and each of us gets their own corner of that ground tarp to stage our stuff, so it can go into the dry bags without a stuff sack coating of sand, dust, pine needles or freaking ticks.

That junk tarp is handy over the woodpile in the rain, or as a windblock off one side of the tarp.

Depends on the tent. Some I have owned seem to pack better when rolled around the pole bag. Other not so much so they got stuffed. The biggest problem I have had with rolling was when it was wet and laying it on the ground to roll. But now I too am a hammock hanger these days, have done so for many year, so that gets slimmed into its snake skins and that whole sausage like affair gets stuffed it its bag like a long small intestine. Years ago I heard advice that you should not time after time fold a tent or tarp on the same way on the same seam because that causes it to get weaker on the seam line.

I heard the same many years ago as well but it seems unlikely that you'd be folding along the same line repeatedly.

Poles in same bag first----yup. I can see the inevitable happening. I have forgotten too much stuff already incl., on one trip, the TP. What a PITA that was!!

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Old canoeists never die---they just smell that way.

I'm with the stuffers. My canvas baker tent is the only one I haven't stuffed in decades of tenting. Fly in first, tent on top cruch it in a compression sack. Footprint goes in its own bag, poles & pegs down one rear corner of the pack.
In over 30 years I've only experienced one mishap with the separated poles, and that was a solo trip where I took the poles for a three-man tent.... Spent a nice week sleeping under a tarp. Good thing bug season was over!

I aired out and stuffed a tent we had in storage today. The bag was only about 2/3rds full after stuffing. It was full to the brim with the rolled tent.

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Old canoeists never die---they just smell that way.

I think I've become a convert to tent stuffing.

I know I'm late to the discussion, but was considering this over the winter as I'm always trying to save packed size in our portage pack when tripping without having to get a new smaller packing tent.

I found a couple websites/online magazines that actually contacted the tent manufacturers themselves for what they recommended as the authors/contributors that worked for the sites all had conflicting ideas over folding/rolling vs just stuffing.

When it came down to it every tent manufacturer recommended folding/rolling vs stuffing, with most citing the increased chances of stressing screens/fabrics in stuffing a tent vs. folding rolling. They even called out the old wives tale of "stressing the fold lines" from repeated folding as being pretty much false.

Being curious, I tried stuffing our tent, even tried a compression bag and noticed not much of a noticeable difference with our model, nor did it really save time/effort over folding/rolling, so we've kept up the folding/rolling.

In the long run I don't really think there is a "wrong" answer on this one, just whatever is personal preference.

Tim

Those responses must have come for the Pat Answers dept of the tent mfrs!!

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Old canoeists never die---they just smell that way.