Date: 2010-04-09
From: Winding Stair Gap US 64 (Franklin)

To: Winding Stair Gap US 64 (Franklin)
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

Day 12 ReportStart Location: FranklinEnd Location:  FranklinDay Miles:  0       Total Miles:  107.7 (+8.8)      Distance to go:  2071.4 Trip Report:I said a couple of days ago that I want to talk about tents. Let me start by describing my tent. It is a Big Agnes Seedhouse Super Light 2 person tent. Counting everything it weighs close to 3.5 pounds. Generically it is called a free standing double wall tent. Let me describe it. First there is a ground sheet that simply provides a layer of protection between the ground and the tent. The tent poles are the shape of two opposing "Y"s. You put the four corners of the opposing "Y"s into the corners of the ground sheet and the form a bow which is the frame of the tent. The poles themselves are segmented in one foot lengths with thin bungee cord running up the middle of the so that when you straighten them out they snap into place. Their is a hub at each end of the center section that forms the "Y" at each end. The tent body has a nylon floor that goes up about six inches all the way around forming a "bathtub" floor. The rest of the tent body is "no-see-em" mesh. The tent body snaps to the poles at the four ground corners and then is suspended about two inches below the bowed pole frame with little snaps. Over the whole thing is a "Rain fly" which is lightweight nylon. The fly also snaps the four corners at the ground  The result is that you have two walls, a mesh one on the inside and a solid nylon one on the outside. In theory it is free standing--you can assemble it and get in without and stakes. In practice five stakes are necessary to pull the fly out and keep it from touching the mesh. The idea behind the two walls is that moisture from your resperation and persperation vent out of the tent and doesn't collect on the tent roof and drip on you.  It works if the fly is staked out. If the fly lays against the mesh I get a little condesation.Like I mentioned above I am using a two person tent so that there is space inside for my pack and gear which I lay out on each side of me. The one person tent does not have room inside for my gear. I just ordered a Six Moon Design Lunar Solo. It is being shipped to Hot Springs where I will pick it up in ten or twelve days. I will have the same floor space as my current tent, but will save about two pounds of weight. It will use my hiking poles to hold it up, so no tent poles. It is generically called a "tarp tent." It has a bath tub floor. Then about eight inches of mesh around the bottom of the walls which attaches to the fly mid-way between top and bottom of the tent body which is solid nylon.  The whole thing drapes over a trekking pole and the stakes out at six points around the perimeter. If you can't drive in stakes, it will fall over. At the top is another bit of mesh with overlapping nylon to provide a vent for moisture to escape. The bottomline is that I will still have a fully enclosed space with enough room for my gear and I will save two very valuable pounds. By the way, since I was in town last night I called my mother to confirm that I am still alive. She asked me if the experience was what I expected. I hadn't thought about that before. When I did think about it, the honest answer is that it is much harder than I expected. But I ate breakfast with the super experienced father/son team I met about a week ago that are teaching me a lot (including about the new tent). They assurred me that the improvement in aerobic stamina I began to experience last week will continue for two or three months. The challenge will continue to become less and less physical and more and more mental.