Not being facetious, but I'm not setting up a camp where there are a bunch of tree roots and rock.[/quote]


No choice...here in southern Nevada there are some trees,but not many. They are usually on a mountain side,and it is the best cover you can get when it is windy and raining. You never want to set up your tent on a flat desert plain with no cover. Peoples tents have blown away in the wind and sometimes they get washed away and die in a desert downpour at night. So high ground is the best choice here. Life never gives you the best option all the time.

Dang Bid, with all the critters and varments around, where do you fins a space enough for a tent?

I knew when you mentioned it and Grim was in the forum....... It was on.....

I was just LMAO........

The spikes that Nemo mentioned would work in some situations but they are heavy and I wouldn't want to have them in my BOB. I know what he was talking about with the plastic stakes. I have broken many in the Pacific NW ground too.

Great tip when it's time to bug out you would want to be hidden and sometimes that area is full of forseen problems even though it is a perfect site

sometimes you don't have a choice. around here (Northern Nevada) the ground is rocky with few trees for hundreds of miles in all directions. i carry 10" lag screws (more gripping power) in my camping gear. that said, i don't have a tent of any kind in my BOB, instead i have tarps and materials to make do. in a bug out i don't plan to set up a camp site, just a place to get some rest...it's not camping, it's survival. a sage bush to hold up the tarp, some dirt or rocks to hold down the sides and i'm all set. this has the benefit of being low profile and hard to see, even from fairly close by. adding the camouflaged sniper veil i carry and you can almost trip over it before you see it.

So, when you pound stake/spike into tree root, how do you get it out?

I've seen a plastic stake left at camp site, cause it couldn't be pulled up/out.
Not mine either, I couldn't pull it so I left it too.
Only thing I didn't try was car jack and chain.
Ground was too hard to dig up too.

I've never seen a plastic tent stake that would drive in too a tree root, hell I'd just cut it off with a branch saw so nobody trips on it call it good. DON"T pound your stake/ spike in to tree roots

while they can be convenient, tent stakes aren't absolutely necessary for dome style tents as they maintain their own shape and you and your gear will hold them in place easy enough, especially if you're only staying overnight. for 'A' frame tents there are many solutions, if you get creative. rocks, logs and piles of dirt can hold down corners. you can also tie guy wires to them or trees and shrubbery near by. you could also take an E-tool with you and bury anchors. they can be most anything, just tie your cord to an object (pop bottle, tin can, sock filled with sand, stick, etc), bury it a foot or so down and tamp the ground around it. to remove just unbury and untie the cord...the object can be left in the ground if you wish.