bgood360

So, about two this afternoon the dog wanted to go out. What do I find on the front porch but three packages:

one from the ATC;
one from Amazon.com; and,
one from LightHeart Gear.

More later about the first two items; let's get into the third. The tent had arrived and had arrived a day early.

As requested, it was brick red with a black floor. I had really considered something obnoxious like a bright yellow floor -- not to stand out from the crowd or to annoy fellow hikers, but rather so I could find small but critical items in dim lighting. If a bear is rooting around your campsite at oh-dark-thirty, you do not want to be filching around for your glasses somewhere on the tent floor. (And for the record, for years I've usually stuck my glasses and other essentials into my shoe, but I can see where a mud-caked boot might not be the best thing to have inside your tent.)

Anyway, the tent arrived as ordered -- brick red, black floor, seam sealed, right-hand zipper, et al. -- and with a nice handwritten Thank You on the packing slip, a free LightHeart Hear sticker (now affixed to my computer, amongst the "Krankies Coffee," "Chelsee's Coffee," "Transylvanie County [NC} Bites," "Expect Resistance," and "Humpty Dumpty Was Pushed" stickers), and red carabiner.

The tent took all of 5 minutes to set up, and that time frame included looking for my trekking poles and pretending to read the instructions for all of 20 seconds.

There's a handful of useful videos on YouTube about the tent, which I had watched a few days before:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZsbeJsibRo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PATi6wZujs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_d3g93itIw

So, I was pretty well acquainted with the process of setting up the tent. If you like printed instructions, you'll find those on the website (specifically, the Other Stuff page), plus a print out was included. Anyway, the tent went up pretty quickly and precisely as described in the videos and on the website.

I thought I could snag some Tyvek from the new home construction down the road, but I waited too late and they've hauled off the leftovers and debris. Most likely, I will spend the $15 and buy a pre-measured, pre-cut footprint directly from LightHeart Gear and just be done with it (and at the same time support a small business).

Over the weekend, we're supposed to get some cold weather, so I look forward to setting up the tent again and trying it (and my new Mont-Bell sleeping bag) in the sub-freezing temperatures.

As always, the trip gets closer an closer.

-- Hat, 2012 NOBO AT