Date: 2004-01-28
To: Tents, Packs, and Clothing
Miles today: 0.0

TentI used a Six Moon Designs Europa 1 tent. I saw several other Six Moon Designs Europa 1 silnylon, two-person, single wall tents on my thru-hike. It is not a free-standing tent and will cause you to slide to the lowest point in the tent if you pitch it on a slope (silnylon is very slippery). So you can¢t use wooden tent platforms very easily and really have to have a pretty flat area to set it up. It does have varying degrees of condensation depending on what the dew point (water saturation) of the air is where you are tenting. Some nights I had very little to no condensation; other nights the inside of the tent was completely wet. However, I did notice condensation on the inside of tarps on similar evenings. So the Europa is a compromise like any other tent. I learned to live with the condensation by wiping down the inside of the tent with my backpacking towel before I moved around in the morning. Then I would pack up my tent and place it in the large mesh pocket on my pack. During mid-morning or other sunny part of the day, I would open it up and air it out. After 5-10 minutes the tent was completely dry and ready for another rainy night. What I liked about the Europa was the weight (2 12 pounds with stakes and poles), the simplicity of setup (only 3 to 4 stakes most of the time), and the fact that it was totally water and bug-proof. I could also get in and out of it in a pouring rain and not get the inside wet as well as sit up in it to change clothes and make dinner. The vestibule was large enough for me to keep my boots dry and cook dinner while lying in my sleeping bag. I could hang my Platypus water reservoir on the front pole of the tent at night to filter water or have it handy to drink. The newer model (Europa 2) is larger, lighter, and has more ventilation. During a normal summer on the Appalachian Trail, you wouldn¢t need to use a tent that much. Roomier, free standing tents are available. I have a Sierra Designs Clip Flashlight which is about the same size and shape as the Europa but weighs about 412 pounds with stakes and poles. I¢d rather have less weight to carry the entire distance of the trail. It¢s hard to find any other 2-person tent that weighs in less than 4-5 pounds.The ground cloth I used was a 312¢x7' piece of industrial grade Tyvek material used to wrap buildings during construction to create a vapor barrier. It was very tough, completely waterproof, and didn¢t get dirty even when placed over muddy areas. I could pull it up in the morning and it was clean and dry. I even used it in shelters to define my space and keep everything clean and dry. I did not have to place my sleeping bag on a dirty floor. My tent has a very tough floor, so I probably did not need it, but I would definitely use it in the future. It is the best ground cloth material I have ever used. Other hikers, who had not seen it before, wanted it after they saw how good it worked for me. It sells for about $10, but if you know a contractor, you may be able to get a small piece from a construction site for free like I did.PackMy wife sewed a pack I designed from the sketches by Ray Jardine in his book, ¢Beyond Backpacking¢. Basically, it is just a sack with two shoulder straps and no hip belt that weighs only 12 oz. The materials were bought at ¢The Rain Shed¢ in Corvallis, OR for less than $30. Their address and phone # is: 707 N 11th St., Corvallis, OR 97330, 541-753-8900. If you write or call them, they can send you a price list or catalog. They will also mail materials to you. The pack I made was about 3800 cu in for the main compartment with a total capacity of 5500 cu in including all the pockets. It is made of 1 oz silnylon with light weight Cordura nylon for the bottom, back, and straps. Large mesh pockets are on both sides and the back and the top has a map pocket. I organized the main compartment by using three main silnylon stuff sacks: the smallest contained my cooking kit, stove, and lighter; the medium sack was for clothing, and the largest for food. I had three small 1 quart Zip Lock plastic bags containing first-aid/repair supplies, toiletries, and electronics (PDA, keyboard, modem). Another Zip Lock bag held my backpack towel. The tent was also placed in the main compartment and the tyvek ground cloth was placed on top of it all to form a waterproof barrier beneath the draw string closure. In the outside pockets I carried my alcohol fuel bottle, hat, sandals for shelters and towns (I did several hundred miles in the middle of the thru-hike with no sandals, but went back to them because I liked them), 2 liter Platypus, sunglasses and sun block lotion which I never used during this rainy summer, utensils, old toothbrush to clean my water filter, extra food, etc. The top pocket contained a gallon Zip Lock bag containing my thru-hiker handbook, receipts, maps, other printed info, journal notes, film, waterproof wallet, etc.ClothingI started out with the Go Lite Coal Jacket which weighs about 1 pound and takes up space the size of a small basketball. I also had duo-fold long underware, a top and a bottom and fleece gloves. I got rid of them at mile 522 and never got them back. The rest of the way I had 2 each nylon hiking shorts, nylon or duo-fold T-shirts, Patagonia capilene briefs, Walmart nylon dress socks, and Polyproplene Thermo hiking socks. Along with my Frogg Togg rain suit, my mosquito head net, and my REI Elements 1 nylon hat, that¢s all the clothing I used for the rest of the trail. My total clothing weight was about 114 pounds including the mosquito net and hat. One pair of shorts had zip-on pant legs which I only wore in town a few times on the entire trek. I could have left them at home. I did wear them on the flights traveling to and from home. I only had to use the mosquito net a half dozen times but I really needed it those times and was glad I had it. Mosquitoes really like me. The Maine wilderness was not bad. Where it was a survival item was in New Jersey through the wildlife refuge.