Re: [Paddlewise] tents

On Mon, 16 Feb 1998, BRADFORD R. CRAIN wrote:

>>
>>     Does anyone have any good tent stories to tell?
>>

oh what fun ;-)

last labor day [~1st weekend sept] i lead a trip for the RMCC through ruby
& horsethief canyons, on the colorado/utah border [loam CO to westwater
UT]. getting there was a story in itself...

it's about a 7 hour drive to the put in, so a buddy of mine and i decide
to take my old pickup truck there. we could have company on the trip, and
take turns driving. on the flats, everything was fine. uphill, no problem,
over 10,000 ft, the truck would barely run. we got about halfway there,
andbasically the truck died. we got a tow truck to get us back to the top
of the continental divide, and drop us off. we made it back to my house.

we had left at 4pm, plenty of time... NOT!! we got back to my house at
about 10pm, and put dave's boat on his car, mine on my car, and dave
looked at the time, groaned, and cancelled out [had i not had the
port-a-potty] and been the trip coordinator, i may have shagged out too...
but i went on. now it was 11pm. i got to our club president's house about
5:30am, and decided i really could sleep for 30 minutes, as it was still a
half hour to the put in. i set my alarm, and looked at all the baots in
dennis yard, attached to cars with sleeping occupants... i woke up at
6:40am to a car door closing. we were all supposed to meet at the put in
at 6:30!! i smiled, waved to everyone, and tore off, with a whole 60
minutes sleep... grabbed a fast-food breakfast, and went to the put in.

a couple people wondered if i was going to show up, and a couple others
said they saw us break down, but didn't know it was us!! dave's friends
were there... unfortunately for them, none of us had every met them...
they were guests of a friend. they said afterwards to me, that they did
have a good time.

so i unloaded the back of my car into the canoe. i was even awake enough
to remember to leave that trash bag in the back, for after ther trip. we
had a beautiful paddle, and got to the campsite pleasantly early, per
plans [it's usually VERY hot there, that's why the early put in]. i took
the opportunity to sleep. when i awoke, i unpacked [thanking the stars it
was only a single night trip!!].

ok, you've waited fore the tent part... actually, that was what was
missing. if you've ever assembled a eureka timberline, you know about
those little plasitic joiners. i had left them in my car, in the bag of
tent stakes that i had mistaken for trash!!! so i had no stakes or anyway
to join the tent poles to each other  8-(  bummer!!

luckily, everyone else pitched in, and lent me lots of stakes, and a bunch
of twine/cord. i quickly took three tent poles, and fashioned them into a
teepee shape, and inserted it into one end of the tent [a 4 man i like to
take for its room, and [mostly] free standing characteristics. with no
frame it doesn't free stand at all ;-)  soooo, using lots of cord, and
most every stake i could borrow, i made my home for the night!! i'm scared
to ask members of that trip if they got any pictures!!

the only time that tent was ever collapsed by the wind, was at a campsite
by a lake, that we drove to, so we suspended one end of the tent from the
end of the boat hanging off the end of [another] truck!! that was also the
only time we have ever decided, we loved the paddle, but the camping was
so poor, we'd drive 5 hours each way, just to make it a day trip!!

ah tents, so much fun!!

mark

ps. john, i'm surprised you didn't like the cannondale. i had a different
model before i went into the navy, and it got stolen while i was in. by
that time cannondale stopped making the tents, so i could never get it
replaced, but it was by far and above the best tent i've ever had. it took
me on a three month, 5,600 mile [9,333Km] bicycle ride around the country.
oh, a short tent story, it was starting to rain as i rode into the public
campground in florida, so the first thing i did was set up my tent. even
in a wind, i could do it in about 2 minutes, tops. the [harley] bikers in
the next campsite were so impressed, they wanted a closer look. i gave
them a "tour" and in return, i got roasted chicken for dinner that night.
free dinner, just for having a "cool" tent :-P yummy!!!!


#------canoeist[at]netbox[dot]com--------------------------------------
mark zen                      o,    o__              o_/|   o_.
po box 474                   </     [\/              [\_|   [\_\
ft. lupton, co 80621-0474 (`-/-------/----')      (`----|-------\-')
#~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_at_~~~~~~~_at_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_at_~~~~~~~~_at_~~~~~
http://www.diac.com/~zen/cpr   [Colorado Paddlers' Resource]  
http://www.diac.com/~zen/rmskc [Rocky Mtn Sea Kayak Club]  
http://www.diac.com/~zen/rmcc  [Rocky Mtn Canoe Club Trip Page] 
http://www.diac.com/~zen/mark  [personal]
--
Fortune:
Now I lay me down to sleep
I pray the double lock will keep;
May no brick through the window break,
And, no one rob me till I awake.


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