Another Tent
A couple of years ago I got a tent. It had its problems and I needed another one. There were some problems:
- It’s not as easy to setup as I thought.
- It’s not freestanding.
- It doesn’t cope well with wind.
- It sometimes doesn’t cope well with humid climates, like this one.
- Using hiking poles for the tent poles isn’t as good as an idea as I thought.
The wind can be a problem, in wind and rain it could be really bad. In windy places, I found the tent is like a big wind sock especially when it hits the side of the tent. This is due to having a pole at each end and no rigidity in-between.
Being held up by hiking poles wasn’t the weight or space saving I thought it would be. Long thin poles are easy to put anywhere. They don’t weigh much (200g). Being able to use poles for a day hike and leave your tent up is quite useful. Also, losing or breaking a pole hiking now has bad consequences.
The deal breaker is not being freestanding. The tent requires well anchored tent pegs at the front and back to provide tension for the poles to stay up. This makes it hard to put up and won’t stay up well in: sand (beaches on the West Coast Trail), places with wooden pads (Garibaldi, Manning), mountain tops with no soil (Seymour, Golden Ears). Places I wanted to go.
So time for another tent. Enter the Big Agnes Fly Creek HV UL1 tent.
This tent is great for three seasons, easier to put up, light weight and more rigid and able to cope with the wind and semi freestanding.
It’s semi freestanding because the fly requires pegs to hold away from the main, but that’s pretty common.
Yes it is 200g or so heavier than my Tarp Tent, which sucks, but being able to go to toilet without it falling down is a huge win for me. This happened to me on the West Coast Trail.
So far I’m extremely happy with this tent, in Garibaldi with some strong gusts of wind, it was nice and solid. In wet weather at Elsay Lake it was fine. It’s well designed and thought out. Really can’t spot any problems with yet.
It’s actually smaller than the Tarp Tent and that’s good, it’s easier to pitch. It fits me and my sleeping pad and gear just fine.
Big 👍 from me, so far.