Sunday, October 17, 2010

Shelter cont.-Nate

The next logical step in this progression would be to talk about tents.  Some tents are no more than glorified ponchos with walls and others show the true evolution of technology.  Some things to think about when deciding on what style of tent to get is to look at your environment and how much weight and money you’re willing to invest in your tent.
  Let’s start with my personal environment, in the summers it’s hot and the bugs are plentiful, that means a bug net is a necessity and so is a light water proof roof for those random summer showers. Fall brings cooler temperatures but aside from that the same concerns as the summer, bugs and rain.  The winter is where you’re thrown a curve ball. There is lots of snow and lots of really cold nights.  Luckily the bugs aren’t an issue as the temps creep towards zero, but hypothermia is.  Keeping dry and keeping warm become your priorities and nothing does that like a waterproof synthetic teepee with a stove inside of it. Or if you’re not willing to shell out that kind of dough a small tent that can withstand the weight of the snow, a sleeping bag rated for at least 20*F and a sleeping pad to insulate your body from the snow will keep you alive in most situations.  When spring rolls around you will be more than glad to start slimming down your gear to a more friendly size and weight and happily accept those bugs back into your life because your lightweight bug net can easily keep them at bay.
  Now many tents will fit these requirements just fine but one thing they won’t do is protect you from the walking dead.  For protection from this menace you can employee the ever faithful hammock and tarp setup which I default to on all of my wilderness adventures.  Easy to set up, easy to take down, and you don’t even have to worry about accidentally setting up your tent in an area that may flood.  The water will just run underneath you leaving you dry and undisturbed in your hammock.  Now I have used my hammock in almost all temperatures and I hope to complete the colder spectrum of hammock camping this winter. 
Next post will probably be a pictorial review f my current setup of my sleep system so that we can start to get away from these walls of text.

6 comments:

  1. My eyes have been raped by a wall of text.

    Pretty cool info though.

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  2. This is a lot to take in about tents. I like it though. I especially love pitching tents. Oh, Life. :P

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  3. yea a bit more line breaks if you expect me to reed all that. supporting anyhow!

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