How to Set Up a Tent

• 1). Choose your tent site. The right tent site is flat and free of debris, rocks and roots (you don't want any jabbing you in the back when you're trying to sleep). Your tent site should be the highest point of your campsite. This is to keep water from leaking into your tent in the event of rain.
  
  
• 2). Lay down a tarp to keep moisture from seeping in through the tent floor. Choose a tarp that is already (or can be) folded to fit the size of your tent.
  
  
• 3). Open up your tent and position it on top of the tarp, shaking it out a little to loosen it up. Adjust it so its edges match up pretty well with the edges of the tarp. At this point, you can put in one stake if it's windy out.
  
  
• 4). Take the tent poles out of the bag. Poles are usually connected with a kind of elastic band, so the places where they join tend to seek out each other. Align the individual pole sections so they connect to form long poles.
  
  
• 5). Insert the poles through the loops (or tubes, or whatever is used to hold them). One end should be inserted in its corresponding ring at the base of the tent, and the other end (on the other side) in its corresponding ring. There will be tension on the pole, but this is to keep the tent standing firmly once the other side is in place. Pop the other end of the pole in the corresponding ring on the other side, and you will begin to see your tent take shape.
  
  
• 6). Insert the stakes in the loops provided on the edges of your tent. Position the stakes at a 45-degree angle and use the mallet to hammer them into the ground. If you don't have a mallet, and the ground is soft enough, you can also use your foot to press them into the ground.
  
  
• 7). Attach the rain fly, if you have one. Once all your stakes are in place and the rain fly is on, your tent is all set up!