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I finally get why my dad's old canvas tent weighed a ton, and it took a rainy trip outside Bend to teach me
Three summers ago I bought this ultralight tent that packs down to the size of a loaf of bread, and I thought I was so smart hauling it out to a spot near Bend, Oregon. Then it rained sideways for two days straight and the thing leaked right at the seams and the floor turned into a little puddle under my sleeping bag. My dad had given me his old canvas wall tent from the 80s and I used to make fun of it for being heavy as a dead body. But after that wet weekend I dragged the canvas tent back out of the garage and used it on a trip to the Three Sisters wilderness in July. It weighed probably 30 pounds and took me 40 minutes to pitch alone, but that thing didn't leak a drop and the canvas breathed instead of trapping all my sweat inside. Now I judge tents way less on the spec sheet numbers and way more on whether I'd trust them in real weather. Has anyone else gone backward from ultralight gear and actually been happier for it?
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leeknight28d ago
Whoa, you pitched a 30 pound tent solo in 40 minutes and still went back for more? That's real commitment right there. The part that got me was the floor turning into a puddle under your sleeping bag, that sounds like a straight up nightmare of a weekend. I've had a cheap tent soak through on the second night before and I woke up basically spooning a puddle, swore I'd never do that again. It's wild that your dad's old canvas beast from the 80s just shrugged off the same weather that wrecked your fancy loaf-of-bread setup. Kind of makes you wonder what else we traded away just to shave a few pounds.
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