[pct-l] How important is it to have a freestanding tent?

[Christopher Swope]

So what I'm taking away from all this is that it's not at all necessary to
have a freestanding shelter, but it's conceivable that it could be desirable
in a some situations.

I just ordered the TarpTent Moment. I was thinking of just going with a tarp
for while, but I've decided that having a nice sized refuge from mosquitoes
can make or break the trip in terms of preserving my sanity.


Thanks!

Swope

On Tue, Dec 22, 2009 at 11:20 AM, Ken Powers <ken at gottawalk.com> wrote:

> I have to differ with Steve's opinion here. We have use a free standing
> tent
> on all of our long hikes since 2002. We find that free standing tents
> allows
> us to set up in places where you cannot drive a stake. We have used
> driveways, bridges, concrete pads, and large flat rocks to camp on.
>
> The problem Steve notes isn't a problem for us because when we stop we
> erect
> the tent and climb into it. We're there for the night. If you are going to
> leave your tent, stake it down. By the way I saw lots of "staked down"
> tents
> rolling through a windy meadow at Philmont Scout Camp. ;)
>
> Ken
> www GottaWalk com
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Steve McAllister" <brooklynkayak at gmail.com>
> To: "Pacific Crest Trail List" <pct-l at backcountry.net>
> Sent: Tuesday, December 22, 2009 7:58 AM
> Subject: Re: [pct-l] How important is it to have a freestanding tent?
>
>
> I consider free standing a mostly useless feature. How often do you
> think your going to use it? Maybe indoors or in a shelter.
>
> One experience I had was when most of our group didn't stake out their
> freestanding tents, but instead assumed that the gear inside would be
> enough to hold it down if a wind should come up.
>
> Well the wind came up when everyone was away and they came back to
> find their tents with gear blown hundreds of yards away, most in the
> nearby river.
>
> Only two shelters left standing were the ones that were staked down.
>
> On Tue, Dec 22, 2009 at 9:59 AM, Christopher Swope <sswwooppee at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > Hi everyone!
> >
> > I'm looking at buying a new lightweight tent for my big hike next year.
> > I've
> > managed to narrow it down to 2 tents for various reasons. The TarpTent
> > Moment, and the SMD Lunar Solo Enhanced.
> >
> > They both look like good designs that would serve me well. The Moment can
> > be
> > set up as a freestanding shelter, which seems like a nice feature, but
> how
> > important is that on the PCT? How often have you more experienced PCT
> > types
> > come across the situation where it was really hard to stake out a tent,
> > for
> > whatever reason?
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Swope
> > _______________________________________________
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> >
>
>
>
> --
> ... when your feeling blue, and you've lost all your dreams, there's
> nothing like a campfire and a can of beans!
>   -- Tom Waits
>
> http://kayakbrooklyn.blogspot.com
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