Show me your Tents?
#26
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I dunno, that looks awfully awfully heavy, but on the plus side must be good in high winds, plus the grey blends in and isnt noticeable with stealth camping.
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#30
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Things to look for:
- quick to put up, better if the tent just catches onto the poles with little hooks rather than requiring pole threading through sleeves.
- dual skin, if it's hot, or really raining heavily then two separate layers of material are much to your benefit
- free standing (most tents do this now), if you're pitching on really hard ground then it's good if the tent can be put up without actually having to push pegs into the ground. (Careful that it doesn't blow away like a tumbleweed though)
- quick to put up, better if the tent just catches onto the poles with little hooks rather than requiring pole threading through sleeves.
- dual skin, if it's hot, or really raining heavily then two separate layers of material are much to your benefit
- free standing (most tents do this now), if you're pitching on really hard ground then it's good if the tent can be put up without actually having to push pegs into the ground. (Careful that it doesn't blow away like a tumbleweed though)
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#32
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My tent is an Alps Mountaineering Mystique 1.5. It is not free standing but for me that is usually not a requirement. It is well made,nice quality tent that I only cost me $100. The other tent in the first photo is a Big Agnes Lynx Pass which I think by friend is happy with.
#33
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boy that Big Agnes Fly Creek UL1 is something, packaged weight at just over 2 lbs and as your photo shows it, you would even have ample room to have a couple of panniers in there without issue, even more so for a skinnier fellow like me. Its even on sale now at rei for 240 american.
pretty amazing the neat tent designs out there now.
Last year got a 2 per. Hubba hubba and its a couple of pounds lighter than my old tent, but these 1 per ones are really neat and compact.
pretty amazing the neat tent designs out there now.
Last year got a 2 per. Hubba hubba and its a couple of pounds lighter than my old tent, but these 1 per ones are really neat and compact.
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Stuart Black
Plan Epsilon Around Lake Michigan in the era of Covid
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Gold Fever Three days of dirt in Colorado
Pokin' around the Poconos A cold ride around Lake Erie
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Picking the Scablands. Washington and Oregon, 2005. Pie and spiders on the Columbia River!
#34
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Been looking at this one myself, freestanding, lightweight, to throw in my BOB for 1-3 nighters up in the nearby canyons....
https://www.alpsmountaineering.com/al...1#.Ula2Zzqc71Y
https://www.alpsmountaineering.com/al...1#.Ula2Zzqc71Y
#35
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Another vote for the Tarptent Contrail.
Last edited by nun; 10-10-13 at 10:20 AM.
#36
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I have a great three season tent, Northface Tadpole, free standing, easy to put up, lots of space and very good in a downpour but when the temperature goes down below say 38° F it gets uncomfortable outside the sleeping bag. A four season tent is too warm in the summer months and twice the weight of a three season tent. There must be a convertible tent that can be breezy in the summer, (and bug proof), but warmer when the temperature falls. Northface should build the Tadpole with a little less ventilation screening, that may work. Anyone else have a problem with their tent when the temperature drops?
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#38
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I use an eagles nest hammock. About 2lbs with bug netting.
#40
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I have been using the Eureka Backcountry 2. Packs small, less than 6lbs complete, roomy and free standing. More than 10 yrs old. Never leaked. I do seam-seal every yr.
#41
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#44
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A hammock can be set up as a ground bivey very simply.
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Depends on the hammock. I slept in hammocks every day for two months last year and about once a week since. I'm becoming a bit of an expert. If I were touring in the southwest or midwest, I wouldn't bring a hammock. I would bring a tent.
Currently, I'm using a Grand Trunk Nano 7 hammock with a 4oz tarp from Mountain Laurel Designs. Total weight is less than 1lb. Not bad!
When I'm not using that, I use this, a Big Agnes Fly Creek Platinum UL1:
Currently, I'm using a Grand Trunk Nano 7 hammock with a 4oz tarp from Mountain Laurel Designs. Total weight is less than 1lb. Not bad!
When I'm not using that, I use this, a Big Agnes Fly Creek Platinum UL1:
#47
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Doug, that made me chuckle out loud (col, chol?) and it made me think of Bob Newhart.
oh, and about tents in cooler temps, this is the one thing I wonder about my new tent and the others with nearly all mesh, it seems to reason that they will be chillier in cool weather, especially windy cold weather--I figure for me realistically, I tend to tent in the warm months, and appreciate the extra air flow when its muggy.
oh, and about tents in cooler temps, this is the one thing I wonder about my new tent and the others with nearly all mesh, it seems to reason that they will be chillier in cool weather, especially windy cold weather--I figure for me realistically, I tend to tent in the warm months, and appreciate the extra air flow when its muggy.
#48
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Hilleberg Keron 4 GT: Featherlite at a mere 13.5 lbs w/ footprint. Upon seeing for the first time my daughter asked if it came with a butler.
#49
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Another Big Agnes Fly Creek UL1. I think I saw someone say theirs weighs 1.5 pounds; afaik, the listed weight is just under 2 pounds and with stakes, I round it up to 2. I haven't weighed it though.
What I like about it:
-Quite light for a freestanding tent.
-Freestanding. I was tempted by a Tarptent model that would have weighed a good deal less, but didn't relish the idea of trying to set up a non-freestanding tent when hard desert ground prevented me putting stakes in. Since I bought the tent for places I can't use a hammock, this seems like it could be a common occurrence. On a backpacking trip a few days ago in the Judean Desert (forgot to take a campsite photo, unfortunately), I was glad of this - the ground was much too hard for stakes. I've seen similar turf at all the night camps in the Negev, at which I anticipate spending a lot of time.
-And most of all...I got it used for an astounding 100 bucks, grimy but in great shape, and with an almost-new rainfly. Awesome.
What I don't like:
-Not roomy at all. I can't even really sit up in it.
-The whole tent has to go up before the rainfly can go on. If it were raining while setting up camp, I don't see how it would be possible to avoid getting the inside of the tent wet.
The former I can deal with; the latter should hopefully be alright because I got the tent to use when I can't use a hammock; places without trees often tend to be arid and not have prolonged rain, so hopefully I won't encounter that situation.
Here's my preferred mode of camping: