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Eureka!
Backpacker
VCS Tarp with Mesh Room
Tarp-ology at its finest
©
Outdoor Adventure Canada - written by Bryan March
Two
things that can turn a perfectly good trip into a nightmare are
rain and bugs or both. Through the years we have made some pretty
crafty tarp riggings to keep us dry at camp. While working fairly
well and managing to keep us dry there were always flaws in our
system. Pooling water on the tarps, bulky, noisy and heavy plastic
to deal with and a tailor made system for every camp had to be
made up. This left us always searching for sites with the trees
in the right spot and ropes running everywhere. Eureka offered
us a VCS tarp with a mesh room to test. I jumped at the opportunity
to compare a scientifically designed tarp system to my previous
attempts at tarp-ology.
The tarp is
made of 75 Denier rip stop nylon, with a 3000 mm coating that
works extremely well, even the heaviest rain. The VCS is roughly
12 feet by 16 feet and can be erected with or without poles. The
tarp is constructed with a Para-wing design which defies water
pooling and remains taught in the wind.
I absolutely
loved the clip in bug shelter. I can't count how many times the
biting insects have chased us into our tents after supper. When
the screen room is clipped in there is about 8ft 6" x 8ft
6" of floor space and 6 ft of head room which made my tall
wife happy.
The components
of this system are all sold separately and can be packed separately
to reduce weight. The 2 pound frame consists of 4 poles which
work great if there aren't any trees or you are pitching the shelter
on beach sites. The tarp weighs a modest 4 pounds 8 ounces and
the screen room is 3 pounds.
I also found
the tarp useful as a sun shelter where I found myself dozing off
under it while reading a book on the lay over days. I highly recommend
taking the Eureka! VCS Tarp along.
For more information
about other Eureka models, please go to: www.eurekatentscanada.com.
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and gear reviews please view the archives.
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