StoneTrees
FNG
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2022
- Messages
- 3
Thought I add a bit of my experience to this thread as I just came back from a 6-day solo trip for general deer season here in WA using the Rincon (no insert). I figure this'll simplify things for the search engine and future readers.
I spent the first 3 nights in the front country with the stove installed, but it was really too warm to run it. I did run it once just for the thrill of it, but quickly let the fire burn out as I was too warm w/my 15 deg quilt; the temps were in the upper 30s overnight. It was nice to have the reduced condensation though.
I transitioned to the backcountry and left the stove in the truck for my final couple nights. The temps were gradually dropping, but the hoped-for snow dump wasn't going to come until after the season closed. I didn't miss the stove even though overnight temps were definitely below freezing; my other gear kept me plenty comfortable.
As far as space goes, I had room to spare even when I had the stove and a little woodpile. When I didn't have the stove, there was ridiculous amounts of space. I never rigged up anything to hang gear, but I was dry the whole time so it didn't matter. I'm 5' 8" and while I did have plenty of ground distance between my feet and head, I did occasionally touch my head to the tent when sitting up from a lying down position. It wasn't a deal breaker by any means, but it's simply an artifact of the sloped walls; you always need to reduce the footprint dimensions a bit when comparing shelters and depending on the angle of each shelter's wall. Got to dust off that high school geometry.
I was never exposed to truly berating wind, as I pitched the tent in reasonably sheltered areas both times, but I did do a hybrid of the no-draft mode on the second pitching. On the upwind side, I staked the shelter down in no-draft mode and left the downwind side staked through the tensioner loops with a couple inches of clearance between the ground and the bottom of the shelter. The intent here was to reduce cold drafts understanding that I was going to get increased condensation. It was true to expectations as the condensation was definitely increased from what I experienced earlier in the trip. Of course, I was dealing with lower temps so it's not a perfect apples-to-apples comparison.
I'm planning on taking this out for a west (wet) side elk in a few weeks where I'll definitely use the stove the whole trip and, barring an unusual dry streak, will have to deal with drying out wet gear. I'm going to try to rig "rafters" with my trekking poles as is done with the Peax tipi and see how that goes.
Overall, I'm really happy with the tent so far. I was using a Kuiu Summit Star 1P before this and while that is also a very good shelter once setup (no stove option), the setup process was super annoying, often involving repositioning stakes after setup due to its asymmetrical geometry. I think my only concern with this going forward is finding adequate, reasonably flat ground space in the areas I usually hunt. Coming back to tent camping over the past year or so from a hammocking background, I'm still relearning to find good ground.
I spent the first 3 nights in the front country with the stove installed, but it was really too warm to run it. I did run it once just for the thrill of it, but quickly let the fire burn out as I was too warm w/my 15 deg quilt; the temps were in the upper 30s overnight. It was nice to have the reduced condensation though.
I transitioned to the backcountry and left the stove in the truck for my final couple nights. The temps were gradually dropping, but the hoped-for snow dump wasn't going to come until after the season closed. I didn't miss the stove even though overnight temps were definitely below freezing; my other gear kept me plenty comfortable.
As far as space goes, I had room to spare even when I had the stove and a little woodpile. When I didn't have the stove, there was ridiculous amounts of space. I never rigged up anything to hang gear, but I was dry the whole time so it didn't matter. I'm 5' 8" and while I did have plenty of ground distance between my feet and head, I did occasionally touch my head to the tent when sitting up from a lying down position. It wasn't a deal breaker by any means, but it's simply an artifact of the sloped walls; you always need to reduce the footprint dimensions a bit when comparing shelters and depending on the angle of each shelter's wall. Got to dust off that high school geometry.
I was never exposed to truly berating wind, as I pitched the tent in reasonably sheltered areas both times, but I did do a hybrid of the no-draft mode on the second pitching. On the upwind side, I staked the shelter down in no-draft mode and left the downwind side staked through the tensioner loops with a couple inches of clearance between the ground and the bottom of the shelter. The intent here was to reduce cold drafts understanding that I was going to get increased condensation. It was true to expectations as the condensation was definitely increased from what I experienced earlier in the trip. Of course, I was dealing with lower temps so it's not a perfect apples-to-apples comparison.
I'm planning on taking this out for a west (wet) side elk in a few weeks where I'll definitely use the stove the whole trip and, barring an unusual dry streak, will have to deal with drying out wet gear. I'm going to try to rig "rafters" with my trekking poles as is done with the Peax tipi and see how that goes.
Overall, I'm really happy with the tent so far. I was using a Kuiu Summit Star 1P before this and while that is also a very good shelter once setup (no stove option), the setup process was super annoying, often involving repositioning stakes after setup due to its asymmetrical geometry. I think my only concern with this going forward is finding adequate, reasonably flat ground space in the areas I usually hunt. Coming back to tent camping over the past year or so from a hammocking background, I'm still relearning to find good ground.
