regardingjohn

Bringing classic back to FML.

My first summer, in 1993, at Flying Moose Lodge, Harrie 4 gave me the dubious job of “taking care of tents” which I thought was something of a ridiculous task. But throughout the summer, I inspected, fixed, assigned, checked-in, and maintained all the Eureka tents that the camp used on trips. It *was* a ridiculous task, but at the end of the summer he gave me a bonus and said that “the tents have never been so organized!” Yes, that could simply be a nod to my OCD, but it also was a nod to simply caring about tasks assigned — as ridiculous as they might be.

Consequently, in the 15 summers that I’ve worked there, I’ve always had *some* hand in taking care of the tents — whether as the guy who takes care of them or as the guy who orders them and shows someone else how I took care of them (to get them started — most deviate according to their own personality and style). Given the age of the old Eureka Timberline 2 and 4 person tents that we had, we ordered new ones, and tried out other brands that were simpler to assemble, free-standing domes, lighter weight, etc.

This year, given the input of the guy who “took care of the tents” we decided to go back to the Eureka Timberline Outfitters. But we’re going to try to get smarter about it and get the 6 person versions. Our average trip size is 1-2 counselors and 3-5 campers. In 2 and 4 person tent terms, that meant that we sent 2-2 person tents (counselors get their own tent), and some combination of 2 and 4 person tents for the campers. We find that the younger campers prefer to be in a tent with others, and in crappy weather the 4-person tents are piled into for a game of cards, or just to talk and joke around. Add to this, that a few of the places we stay will limit the number of tents, and the argument for 6-person tents increases. Also:

• larger tents means fewer needed for trips
• fewer tents means less time to set up
• fewer tents to take up space on the drying lines
• fewer parts to lose or get mixed up with other tents
• better quality for less cost

The downsides are that the Eureka is heavy.  Over 18lbs. In a world of ultralight tents, that sounds like a lot, but if you think of it as only 3 lbs per rated person, it sounds much more reasonable — especially if you factor in the extra durability (the zippers and screens on even the high-end lightweight tents we’ve used don’t stand up well to young campers).

So we’ll get a few of these to use on a few of the trips, and keep the lightweight (more delicate) tents for the older campers to use on their backpacking trips, where weight matters more and the kids are old enough to care about taking care of the their tents. We’ll see how it goes…