New New Tent
Due to the fiasco in South Dakota, when I finally made it to Boise, I immediately bought a tent. Though it was like $180 which felt outrageous it was one of the cheapest ones at REI, was a great brand (Big Agnes), and was in the bargain bin. I debated over it for hours, setting it up in the store, and laying down in it, staring at the ceiling. The tent’s rainfly was bright yellow, with the tent itself various strips of yellow and orange. It stood out, but it was pretty. And on top of all this it’s name was sunnyside, a happy image for one to crawl into after working in the rain. Then, just before the 4th of July break, tragedy struck. The notch in the tent poles that lets you take them apart and put them back together again lost it’s glue holding and slid in. It was annoying to say the least to have to use pliers to fish this thing out every time you wanted to put up your tent. I almost wanted to duck tape the thing but that would have made carrying it pretty bulky. Over the break then I went back to REI in Seattle to see if I could just get it fixed. There are no replacement tent poles and no way to just send it in the back to be fixed (though looking back, I could have glued the thing myself) and the guy said all I could do was trade it in for something else. Panicked that I had to be back in the field the next day, I got a new tent within a five minute period. When I arrived at Skylar’s in Tacoma, the realization that I hadn’t even opened the bag to make sure everything was in it dawned on me, so I set the thing up in the living room. It’s not as pretty, and is a little heavier (a tragedy in backpacking terms), and REI half dome doesn’t have the same ring as BA sunnyside, but it’s grown on me. It is a little more roomy, a little easier to both assemble and pack up, and it has dutifully protected me from the rain.