I do not think I have researched something as much as I researched finding the perfect tent for my annual trip to the Chili Cook-off in Terlingua, Texas.
It was important to me to be able to find a tent that was sturdy, held up to gale force winds, have room for me to stand up in but most importantly that I would be able to set it up by myself as I pride myself in being a self-sufficient person.
My research took me to the Burningman website http://burningman.org/. If you are not familiar Burningman, it is an event that takes place annually in the Nevada desert during the Labor Day weekend. They have to deal with hurricane force winds, white-outs and extreme heat and/or cold conditions.
It is here that I found how highly regarded Kodiak Canvas tents were. I have back issues and can not carry heavy loads or the initial weight of the tent would have probably kept me from ordering one. However, if you separate the tent from the tent poles and heavy stakes, it was a doable weight for me and fit very nicely in my car since I no longer had Terlita (my camping van).
My tent is 8 ft x 9 ft the smallest they carried at the time. I would have loved to have ordered the 10 ft x 10 ft tent but did not know how a few more feet would have affected its set-up.
This tent has steel poles both on the top as well as on the two sides poles. It does not require guy lines but there are like 15 tent stakes to pound into the ground. While that would not be a problem in the beach or your backyard, you need to take that into account if you plan to camp in a rocky location like in Terlingua, Texas. The first time it took me almost five hours to set-up camp by myself.
This tent is rain proof and you need to set it up in your back yard and spray it with a lot of water to season it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fP7FFOIKgYU
I bought mine from Competitive Edge Products whom at the time had the best price and at last check continue to have it http://www.competitiveedgeproducts.com/Kodiak-Canvas-Tents-6098-9-x-8-ft-Flex-bow_p_17.html
If you have any other questions please leave a comment or you can e-mail me at terlinguadreams@outlook.com
Good night. May you all have Terlingua Dreams.
