[Paddlewise] Rick's Continued Search for the Perfect Tent

Rick wrote:


> In general, I "hope" to do a week of camping once, possibly twice each year, and several weekend trips as well.  Lets call it 10-15 nights per year.  The bulk of the time, I'll be in the tent solo, but hope to eventually convince my wife to join me on these trips at least occassionally, and more likely she'd agree to a weekender and not a week.
> 
> If we're both in the tent, a 2 person shouldn't be too tight.  I'm 5'9" and 170, she's 5'4" and somewhere between 105-110.


The two of you will do fine in virtually any of the smaller 2-person tents 
available, especially if you use yours mainly as a sleep-outa-the-rain shelter 
and bug-free dress/undress zone.

Almost no one I paddle with stays in their tent much, rain or shine.  Shine or 
rain, we are all congregated around the kitchen ... which **always** has a 
substantial tarp over it.  In fact, the tarp is the first piece of gear out of 
the hatch, and the first piece of campery to be erected.  Gear goes under it as 
it comes out of the yaks, when raining (always rains in Oregon, unlike Texas).

Here's my last piece suggestion:  get a 10x12 tarp (about 30-40 bucks) and 1/8 
diameter nylon line (50-75 feet is enough) for pitching.  A little ingenuity 
and some savvy make almost any place a good hangout zone.  Tents are 
claustrophobic for more than an hour or two of nonsleep, for me. (Sayeth the 
guy who was pinned down for 3 full days in the Cascades one summer in an 
Omnipotent with two other smelly guys.)

With the daughters and all, that tent will get lots of use.

--
Dave Kruger
Astoria, OR

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