I'm looking for tent suggestions.
We used to have a 4 person Timberline SQ 4 Outfitter tent.
It didn't pack too small, and was a bit heavy, but I loved the simplicity, and strength. It was perfect for canoeing. Wouldn't take it backpacking tho. Zippers never failed, even with little boys beating on them, stayed dry in some surprising extreme weather a few times, and never had any rips or tears or pole breaks.
But ours was recently stolen from our vehicle. (was visiting Duluth for a night before heading up to the BWCA. Had it in a locked tote that was cable locked to a hitch luggage rack. Someone cut open the locked plastic case. Lost a good tent and a good sleeping bag.)
Went to go replace it and found the tent's been DISCONTINUED!!?!?!?!
So, what 4 person tents do you recommend for canoe camping in the BWCA?
ETA: Going to mostly be used for 1 adult and 2 kids. Sometimes 2 adults if my wife joins. Eventually i'll move to a second tent for the boys. I'd prefer strength over lightness, since I have young boys, and I'm not trying to do 20 mile days with them. Yet.
I'm sleeping 1 or 2 adults and 2 kids (2 and 5 at the moment). Depending on if my wife joins our trip.
Eventually I'll probably move to a second tent for them once they're both grown some.
The Timberline 4 is perfect for 2 adults with room enough for gear and small children or pets. But you are right, it's definitely too tight for 4 adults.
You might be right about that with kids. My experience in storms was from a microburst I experienced while canoeing the Hayes river in Manitoba with just my dad and I. Most extreme winds i've ever been in. We were lucky the winds were coming off the lake instead of behind us, or we might have caught some trees that were downed. But that damn tent took it like a champ!
Eureka Timberline 4 . External aluminum frame. Roll out your tent, put the frame together, , clip to frame, stake it, rain-fly . About a 5 to 10 minute process .
Second on this. I have a Eureka tent I absolutely love. Bought a North Face that was bigger, but always kept the Eureka.
Recently sold the North Face and went back to the original Eureka.
One of the best things my troop does is completely ditch the footprint in favor of a ground cloth on the inside for this very reason. We've had this policy for at least the last 30 years. Can't begin to say how many times the ground cloth has kept me bone dry while a footprint would have pooled water and left me soaked. Plus it's nice for keeping the inside of the tents nice when scouts inevitably wear their shoes inside. It's much easier to clean a plastic sheet than a tent floor. I also recommend the Timberline with the caveat that it's going to be difficult to find replacement parts in the future.
It does but I'd rather patch a small hole than be wet for a trip. My troop just replaced our old timberlines (for the above mentioned parts reason) and most of the tents had some sort of patch in them and were still perfectly usable. It still seems like a silly trade off to me.
Top Camping Tents on Reddit
1
The North Face
Wawona 6
86% positive of 132 users
Spacious vestibule, strong in storms, but rainfly tricky solo.
jacobius86
