Since the last time I wrote about my new tent, I’ve spent two nights in it; both car-camping excursions.
On one of the two trips, it rained. It poured. Like Apocalyptic, build-an-ark rain. Everything inside was dry as a bone. The ventilation is awesome. I had no condensation problems sleeping inside during the monsoon.
I think I need to retract, or least, modify my earlier statement about its roominess, though. I don’t think it’s really big enough to share with another dude without it feeling gay. Maybe if you laid head to feet, it might be ok. If there was a blizzard outside, or you were something appropriately manly, like climbing Everest or hunting Grizzly Bears, then it might not be gay.
It’s probably the ideal size to share with a lady, however. Though I’ve not as yet had any volunteers to test this theory.
Now that I’ve set it up a few times, I can get it pitched in about 5 minutes. The poles are a little bit confusing at first, because there are funny hubs holding them together, and it’s easy to try to put them in backwards.
I think I’m going to order the footprint for it next payday. You are supposedly able to set the thing up with just the footprint and the fly. Then you can crawl inside and set the actual tent part up without getting it wet. This sounds like one of those things that works in theory, but won’t work in practice. We’ll see.
At any rate, this tent rocks. Throw a Therm-a-Rest NeoAir in it, and it’s as comfortable as my bed at home. The NeoAir, btw, ranks right up there with indoor plumbing as one of the greatest inventions in the history of the world, but that’s a story for another day.
The Thermarest NeoAir truly is an awesome mattress. I’ve been using the long size all summer and it’s held up great, super comfortable. I just wish for the price you got the stuff sack. I’d like to check out the tent you’re using but the name isn’t mentioned in your post. I’ll go check out some of your older posts to see if I can find it. Thanks for the read!
@Mark,
It’s an REI quarterdome T2 Plus.
“I don’t think it’s really big enough to share with another dude without it feeling gay. ”
I was enjoying reading your blog until I read this statement. Now I just think you are ignorant.
Sorry Max, it was an attempt at humor. Evidently, not a very good one. This is the set-up for the punchline about my not being able to convince a lady to join me in my tent.
It’s also true. There is less personal space in this tent than I’d prefer to share with anyone with whom I’m not romantically involved. Is that a more elegant phrasing?