Just three weeks before our entry date and wanted to research a small, stable, functional table for use under the tarp. Mostly for a place to set a plate with snacks and our two drinks, playing cards, etc. Since the 60L blue barrel/ cooler was coming anyway, I ultimately decided to use it as the base.

The group I'd usually gone with hauled in a cooler on a pack frame and I'd gotten spoiled having a nice flat surface under the dining fly. My Blue barrel/cooler will have to be gotten into a few times a day but with just the two of us on this trip, the amount can be minimized.

I made some curved, plastic shims that I Loc-Tited to the barrel's top and then added Velcro to them and to the bottom of the top. The top is 1/8 X 17 X 20 to fit in my Granite Gear pack. Made from an Al skinned composite, it's still a bit heavy at 31 oz but that's close to the weight of a lot of the knock-down tables I'd researched. My neighbor had the scrap Al material so the table's price was about $3 for the special glue made for plastics.

Really like my helinox table.

That was the one I would have bought had I gone that way.

Very creative. The imagination of the members of this board is amazing.