losing tent stakes

Okay here's another common issue I'd like to hear feedback on. I'm sure you have all had this experience. I bought some nice titanium stakes a while back and now I don't have as many as I did when I bought them. The missing stake is in the dirt. I know about where it is approximately but I just couldn't find it. Titanium looks too much like, well, dirt.

What do people do to keep their stakes from disappearing? I've thought of reflective paint or maybe reflective tape. Does that work for anyone?

I considered tying my stakes to the guy line rather than just looping the guy line over them. But I always end up re-tightening my lines after setup and I was afraid I wouldn't be able to do that if the stakes are tied to the lines.

Thoughts?

Heber

P.S. Sorry for all the questions I've been asking lately. It's been so wet around here (with some pretty severe flooding) that I haven't been able to get out on the trail like I'd like (last weekend I was sandbagging instead). Thinking about hiking and gathering knowledge from more experienced hikers is the next best thing.

It's hard to get paint to adhere to titanium. I spray aluminum stakes with fluroescent paint, which does the trick. With titanium, some bright electrical shrinkwrap or a length of bright string tied to the hook does the trick.

Good hunting for that missing stake!

To find the stake, throw a penny or something small in the area you think the stake is. Go inside for a while, then go look for the penny or small object. Since you won't be looking for the stake, you are sure to find it. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Since the stake is always (or almost always) in a loop of cord or tape attached to tarp or tent, try to develop the habit of pulling the stake and bagging it when you remove the loop from it. Failing that, tie a short length of colored yarn to the top to assist in locating the stake. My problem is less with loosing stakes than it is with mangling them when hammering them into rocky desert soil. Anybody want a U shaped 8" Easton stake?

I like the new trend of "flourescent/reflective" threaded cord attached to the stakes.

Bright colored or reflective tape tags, like you can apply to your bike for night riding, works for needles and other stuff that cord falls off of easily.

I'd have to admit that I have found a lot more stakes than I've lost over the years (that goes for gear in general - except for pocket knives for some reason).

We picked up quite a bit of materials including a Jansport pack and Slumberjack bag that was dumped with a note saying "yours if you carry out" on the Bill Hall Trail. Someone must have been hurting.

Boy I remember that! Growing up in New Mexico I did a lot of camping as a boy in the mountains and found out why they call them the Rockies! And when we went to the desert we came across this soil that resembles concrete. I eventually gave up on tent stakes and figured my weight would keep the tent from blowing away. If it was windy and I had to leave the tent (besides to take it down) I would throw my pack in there as a weight.

I mostly find tent stakes. I found one two years ago at Twin Island Lakes along the Sierra High Route - maybe it was yours!

I just count them and make a real effort to find them when I come up missing one. I do not move the tent until I have accounted for all stakes. So far that has worked.

I paint the ends with bright flourecent paint. I also only pull one stake out of the bag ata time and do the reverse when pulling them out of the ground. Then I do a stake count and if everything is ok, I close the bag up and put it in its proper spot. But even this has not prevented me form loosing some. I lost five total last year. Will see what happens why I fire up the lawn mower in about a month <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

I use Pika's method--pull the stake up by the loop or guyline it's attached to and immediately put the stake in its bag (which is in my pocket until the tent is packed up). I normally use the Ti hook stakes which are hard to find, so I don't want to risk losing one.

I do the same when pitching the tent--none of this tossing stakes to the 4 winds (corners) of the tent--each stake comes out as I walk around the tent and is inserted into the appropriate loops as I put it into the ground.

We just got back from New Mexico, car camping way up on the rim in the Guadalupe section of the Lincoln National Forest (where they were doing "controlled" burns in the low areas during dry season with winds gusting to 30-40 mph -- insane). I stacked rocks in the tent corners to keep them from rolling/soaring away. When digging cat holes I was glad I brought along a real shovel, but what I really needed was a pickaxe!

Murphys law: A lost object is normally found within 18 inch of where it was last seen.

This works for me almost all the time except for kids who seem to wander away but are found within a half mile radius.

They seem to always be in the last place you look. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

That must be why MSR groundhogs are red with reflective red cord loops in the end. I picked up a bunch of them and need to get a few more - my caternary tarp has more tie outs than my tent. Haven't lost them yet.