Old Tent – New Tent

Today – tent decision day – was a sad day. We found holes in our old tent. We’ll have to take the new tent on the GDA. The old tent is a North Face VE 24 obtained a lifetime ago in 1981 when Gloria and I were married. We were married in February, but we were already planning our summer as rock climbing instructors at Navajo Trails Ranch (NTR) for youth. We asked my parents that their wedding present be that tent. It was the only wedding present I liked. Unfortunately, you couldn’t register at REI back then.

That tent has many great memories for us. NTR put us high in the Henry Mountains with a group of rich kids from around the world. We taught them camping, rock climbing and living skills. Many years later in a rock climbing magazine I read an article about a secret climbing spot (The Horn). That was where we had been teaching the kids to climb. Our campsite was at Airplane Springs on the side of Mount Ellen. The view was down over hundreds of square miles of Capital Reef National Monument. The campers slept in crummy little plastic tube tents. When it rained, our tent was so nice, they all wanted to join us in the dry comfort. But knowing their parents had paid over $800/week for their kids to have a real camping experience, we let them stay in their own tents as water ran from end to end. At the end of the week, we would use one of those tube tents – sealed at each end – to have an Indian sweat lodge and clean up prior to returning to NTR.

After returning to civilization, we tried one experiment camping with a family. Leaving our apartment at BYU we drove a few miles up behind Squaw Peak. Baby Jessica blessed us with her screaming the entire night.  We then decided camping was for pioneers and we almost decided not to have any more kids. Jon and Ann Smith were with us and surprisingly remained our friends and had children. That wonderous night basically put the tent in a category of family heirloom to be moved but not used except on rare occasions.

We needed a tent for the GDA and the old yellow tent came to mind, but so did weight considerations. Knowing it is far easier to buy a light weight tent than trying to lose my own weight, I decided on the former and bought a Half Dome Plus 2 (no, the “plus” is not because I’m fat – just a little more room for my bigger boned body). Even with the Plus, we were shoulder to shoulder as we laid down in it for a test. Then I started feeling guilty about our old friend our first tent left alone in storage. Was it truly too heavy?

First, I put myself on the scale with the old and new tents. Wow, my bones were getting bigger, but the old tent was only about 4 pounds heavier than the new.

We set up old faithful in the living room and even threw the rain fly over it for full “testing”. That’s when we found the holes, multiple holes, worn through the 37-year-old rain fly. I almost cried, but tears would have leaked into the tent. A decision to protect the old people with the new tent on the GDA was made for us.

The new tent wasn’t as bomb proof as old faithful, but it did offer extensive ventilation. Something we might really appreciate in New Mexico or after days without a shower. It didn’t have as much floor space, but it had doors on either side. A very important consideration for two people with old bladders and one big prostate. We took an afternoon nap in the new tent as part of our “training” regime. As far as we can tell, from sleeping in it on the carpet, under our roof, without weather or wild animals, it will work just fine in the wilderness.