The Tent

Again outdoorgearlab.com was a huge help in providing great, relevant information on the strengths and weaknesses of the top-performing tents available today. This decision was a lot more difficult to make than the sleeping bag, because no tent really had every component we were looking for. Each seemed to have a few tremendous strengths and a few big weaknesses.

I was looking at two ultralight tents that looked really good, until I realized they would never work with the double sleeping bag we got because the poles have to go in the middle of the tent. I also figured out that one reason that these tents were so light in because almost all of them don't come with tent poles and require one to bring along hiking poles and use them as tent poles during the night. So I read three articles on pros and cons of hiking with hiking poles including this good one that lists ten reasons how they can be helpful. However, since we are hiking the well-defined Appalachian Trail we decided to skip the cost of buying hiking poles and go without.

Of course that decision was also helpful in eliminating a lot of the lightweight tent options. It wasn't really the easiest decision though, because all other tents were considerably heavier. Just for kicks, if we  did have two individual sleeping bags and if we were taking trekking poles this is the beauty I really had my eye one. It was durable, weather resistant, easy to set up, less than two pounds, and pretty inexpensive.

However, since that was inexpensive, we decided to go for the Hilleberg Anjan 2 which is durable, weather resistant, and easy to set up, but heavy and expensive. Okay, at 3 lb. 14.5 oz., maybe it isn't as heavy as most tents, but when I was looking at all the ultralight tents that weighed less than 2 lb. I was getting hopeful. I am happy with how great the tent is and have to remember that although two extra pounds is a lot when hiking with it on your back for hours every day for six months, it is just two pounds and two pounds won't make or break me.

Ultimately, we wanted a tent that would be durable enough to last the entire length of the trail and weather resistant enough to keep the rain, snow, wind, and cold out. It was important to have a tent that was well ventilated and kept out condensation since we really want to keep our down sleeping bags from getting wet. The tent we chose basically has an outer tent and an inner tent which will really help keep out wetness and keep the inner tent dry. Also, if we use this tent after the Trail, we can ditch the inner tent in warm weather and not have to pack that weight. It is quite versatile and the folks who tested the tent out said they liked it so much, because it was a good tent for all kinds of weather, environments, and conditions.

Additionally, it is quite spacious, has a clothesline for drying clothes while we sleep, is easy to set up, and the inside is yellow which makes it feel homier than most tents with their darkened interior. This should get to us sooner than our sleeping bag, but we will really get to test it out in the second and third week of July when we will go camping/backpacking in northern Michigan after a friend's wedding.