home-on-the-trail

This is my new tent for the Coast to Coast walk next month.

Let the beauty of what we love be what we do.
– Rumi
Possibly the biggest purchase a thru-hiker will make – and the most obvious place to cut weight – is with her tent. So much goes into choosing. Will it withstand wind? Wind that carries sand?  Will it need to protect her from torrential rain? Is snow expected? What luxuries does she need? Will she be sharing or going solo? Is she willing to set up with trekking poles? How light – and thus spendy – is she willing to go?

For my last long distance hike in the Alps, I took the Nemo Hornet, but had epic condensation issues with a fly that left no air gap to the main body of the tent.

The part of the tent directly over my head.

I also found that tent to be a pain to set up and longed for my favorite in a closet stuffed with tents: a single wall, non free-stander made by a company called Tarptent. It’s massive for a single and is up in a snap. I was nervous to take it to France with so much humidity, but had a thought to take a look at what the company is up to these days.

My timing was spot on. They have just come out with a kind of hybrid tent with a cuben fiber outer over a silnylon inner. This fabric known as Dynamee is used to make sails. Strong, impenetrable and super ultra lightweight.

Of course, it’s not cheap, and I’ve been warned dynamee will get beat up. How it handles in the seemingly continuous rain showers of England’s green and pleasant land remains to be seen, but the inauguration has occurred and next steps are to sleep in it over the coming weekends when I’m safely car camping.

• what: Tarptent Notch Li with partial solid insert, inner: silnylon, outer: dynamee
• weight: 22 oz.
• packed size: 16×4 inches, it is not recommended to stuff dynamee
• includes: four stakes though I may take two more to stake out the apex
• cost: $559

My new home-on-the-trail may not be the prettiest and that might be a good thing to perhaps keep would-be thieves at bay!

Name my tent in the comments for a chance to win a prize!