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Re: [pct-l] Tents



>I finally narrowed down my tent choice to the Eureka Gossamer. 

Tom,

My hiking partner Jim and I both used the Eureka Gossamer tent on our thru
hike last year. The aluminum poles are worth the extra $$. Someone else had
the fiberglass pole model that failed within a month. The tent is quite
long. I am 6'1" tall and use a long sleeping bag and have plenty of room to
spare lengthwise. I can tell you from experience that this tent will feel a
bit cramped at first, but after a while it will feel like a palace. I
usually slept with the rain fly rolled up unless it was raining or I was
certain it would rain. Last year it didn't rain once during the night in
the whole of California, that was almost 3 months. We had a bit of rain in
Oregon and a bunch in Washington along with some good snow storms. The
Gossamer did quite well under all circumstances. The tent is still in great
shape even after having put it through as much use as a tent should get in
a lifetime. AND its less than $100 !!!

I do have a bit of a problem with the tent design as far as how the poles
attach to the tent with that clumsy metal ring and pin. This is an old
Eureka design that could have been changed to reduce tent weight even
further. I wish the fly was separate. If it were you could pack it
separately from the tent body when wet. I plan to cut the fly off the tent,
then sew the two pieces back together having a separate fly. You might
consider doing this yourself. The other problem with this tent is with the
stake loops. For some reason they are twisted and it is almost impossible
to get your tent stake through them. I ended up solving the problem by
tying a small loop of paracord to each of the four loops and staking
through these instead. If you do this you'll save yourself some frustration
while trying to set up your tent in the dark.

Any other questions about this tent let me know.

Mark Dixon

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