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On the trail to lighter, more enjoyable trekking
Hunched over trekking poles, head down, shoulder and neck muscles burning, and thinking about what could make life any less miserable is part of the backpacking learning curve.
I’m still on that curve and working toward coming around the bend out into the open, unencumbered ease of ultralight backpacking. I know this is not a mirage, as I’ve chatted with plenty of through-hikers out on the trail and I’ve sought them out on YouTube for advice.
They move with such ease up grinding ascents while I slog away with 30 to 40 pounds on my back. That lightness and ease comes at a cost, not the least of which is the high price of gear and trying out new gear to see what works for any given adventure or as a staple for all adventures.
It’s not in my budget to shell out the cash needed for a complete kit all at once, but for an early September section-hiking trip on the Colorado Trail, I decided to take a step toward slimming down my kit with an ultralight tent. In this case, I wanted to find a tent that would have some weight savings by utilizing the trekking poles that I’m already carrying in my hands.
A quick online search led me to a website that offered up several choices at three different price points — around $100, around $300, and over $500. The less expensive options didn’t look like they would provide the protection that I require from rain and mosquitos. I opted for the middle price range and Gossamer Gear’s The Two (which retails for $320 on gossamergear.com) to shelter myself and my partner.
The Two is a single-wall, one-piece tent with entries and vestibules on both sides, and is supported by two trekking poles. The zippers on the vestibules and inner mesh doors seem sturdy and operate with ease. The contact patches for the trekking pole handles, which provide support, are reinforced adequately to handle tensioning from the guy lines. All seams are taped to help make the tent waterproof. It weighs in at a claimed 28 ounces — 2.5 pounds lighter than my two-person North Face tent — and rolls up to a stowed size of a little larger than a 1.5 liter Nalgene water bottle.
After it arrived, I rolled it out to set it up for the first time in my dirt driveway. Looking it over, I thought setting it up might be a two-person job because of the dependence on trekking poles for support. I was pleasantly surprised that, by staking out the guy lines at the foot of the tent first and working my way around, adding a pole and staking one side at a time, I was able to erect it by myself.
Out on the Colorado Trail, it was put to the test on the first night. Rain threatened throughout the afternoon and started coming down steadily around 4 p.m., forcing us to seek a good camping spot much earlier than we had intended.
We put the tent up in a hurry and crawled inside. The temperature dropped into the mid-30s and the rain continued into the night. Throughout the night and in the morning, we noticed the inside of the tent had become wet to the touch. “Surely, this thing is waterproof,” I thought. In fact, it was holding its own against the rain outside, but the cold water on the outside surface of the tent was exacerbating the problem of condensation from our respiration on the inside. This is a well-known issue with single-wall tents and one of the tradeoffs on using them.
On a rain-free second night, we slept with both vestibules zipped closed and experienced minimal condensation. And on a rain-free third night, I pinned my vestibule open and we had no condensation.
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Living in The Two is about what you would expect from a two-person tent. I’m 6-feet tall and find the length (84 inches) of the tent adequate for my frame and essentials I like to keep within reach overnight. The width (48 inches at head, 42 inches at foot) seemed a bit narrow, but that may be attributed, in part, to my partner’s extra large, inflatable NEMO sleeping mat — a non-negotiable item for her. I stretched out on a minimalist NEMO Switchback foam mat, feeling slightly encroached upon.
One minor gripe is that it would be nice to have a net for items like eyeglasses and headlamps at the ceiling or at least loops to attach a net, but we made do without that.
The vestibules are adequate to cover backpacks and gear while still allowing space for slipping on a pair of boots or sandals before venturing out to get coffee and breakfast. Even with the trekking poles supporting the tent right next to the zippered mesh openings, I didn’t find them to get in the way of egress.
A benefit I found with The Two, and trekking pole tents in general, is that the one-piece construction makes it very quick to take down and store. After getting everything loaded into my pack before stepping off for the day, I would take down the tent, roll it up and stash it in a side pocket on my pack along with a light-weight tent footprint. This “last in” packing approach makes it quick to deploy in case inclement weather rolls in.
Does shedding 2.5 pounds solve my backpack weight problems? Not quite, but it’s a step in the right direction. Next steps may include more pricey acquisitions, but surely nothing beats arming yourself with knowledge from the vast through-hiking community that exists on the trails and on social media. There are so many freely-available tips and tricks to explore in the quest to lighten the load and make the journey more enjoyable.
