View Full Version : great tent for 2 dogs and me?
I have been searching for a light-weight tent suitable for me 150lbs, and my two dogs 40lbs & 50lbs for hiking. REI has choices but I don't know how durable a typical tent is through dogs, weather, use and abuse on the trail. Would anyone have suggestions on this? Thanks!
Dances with Mice
03-13-2004, 09:56
I have been searching for a light-weight tent suitable for me 150lbs, and my two dogs 40lbs & 50lbs for hiking. REI has choices but I don't know how durable a typical tent is through dogs, weather, use and abuse on the trail. Would anyone have suggestions on this? Thanks!
Make a "Need" list and a "Want" list. The "Need" list are the deal-breakers, the features that your tent must have. The "Wants" would be things nice to have but you could live without them. That would narrow the field.
So far on your Need list are lightweight and roomy. Are floors and mosquito netting a need or a want? How about self supporting? Would you consider a hammock for yourself and a tarp for the pups, or is that too far outside the box?
My solution was the Black Diamond MegaLight. It's a shaped tarp, I guess, rather than a tent. It weighs less than 2 pounds, has about 81 square feet of room, not self supporting, no mosquito netting, and no floor. I have a 70 pound mutt and she and I share it. I have a groundcloth and she has a piece of blue foam that I also use to line her doghouse at home so she's used to sleeping on it. I sewed a strip of mosquito netting along the bottom edge of the tarp, nothing fancy but it didn't take long and it works. Google "tarp tents" to find other choices.
And I've said this before: It's not much fun sharing a tent with a dog. The smell of wet hair and bad breath, the whining, farting, legs kicking while sleeping, and getting up at all hours of the night to go out and pee, all that. My dog didn't like it and started sleeping outside.
Awesome suggestions. I would like to sleep in a hammock (I have one already) but I'm worried about rain and snow getting into me, them, and my "stuff". but for nice days a tarp sounds perfect. How did you deal with nasty wet weather and the open tarp (run off seems very aggravating) and getting splattered while trying to sleep in an unprotected hammock seems kinda uninviting? Do you just get used to this and learn to deal with it? And did you do alot of searching to find the right length between two trees through-out your hikes? Did other dogs try to invite themselves over for a nap often or not at all? My canine crew is quite protective.
I How did you deal with nasty wet weather and the open tarp (run off seems very aggravating) and getting splattered while trying to sleep in an unprotected hammock seems kinda uninviting?
With tarp camping you need to be able to scope the lay of the land and figure out where the runoff will be. Avoiding pitching in a runoff is very important to sleeping w/o a bathtub floor. You can buy a bathtub floor for the Mega Lite / Mega Mid to help with the runoff.
YOu might also want to consider a large tarp and hammock like the Hennessey. The Tarp will give you plenty of room to keep dry when not in the hammock and the hammock of course for luxury sleeping on the trail. Just hang your hammock, and then pitch your tarp over the hammock to keep you dry (or pitch your tarp then hang your hammock). It's usually easier to find two trees to hang a hammock then it is to find a nice flat spot suitable for a tent, at least on the portions of the AT I've section hiked. With dogs I'd try to go with a shelter that's floorless, any floor will not last long with dogs constantly moving about. My suggestion would be the new 3 Person TarpTent Rainshadow when it comes out. 33oz w/o floor, get a replaceable tyvek groundcloth to use as the floor. Henry Shires is second to none in customer service from my experience. His shelters literally take less then two minutes to set up. I can get my Tarptent Cloudbust set up faster then my hiking partner in his Hennessey Hammock. The Catenery ridgeline does very well in the wind, and mine has been very storm worthy.
http://www.tarptent.com/tt3.html
My Cloudbust on top of blood mountain.
http://www.mindspring.com/~deoredx/AT2004/slaughter_tent.jpg
Dances with Mice
03-13-2004, 12:12
Awesome suggestions. I would like to sleep in a hammock (I have one already) but I'm worried about rain and snow getting into me, them, and my "stuff". but for nice days a tarp sounds perfect. How did you deal with nasty wet weather and the open tarp (run off seems very aggravating) and getting splattered while trying to sleep in an unprotected hammock seems kinda uninviting? Do you just get used to this and learn to deal with it? And did you do alot of searching to find the right length between two trees through-out your hikes? Did other dogs try to invite themselves over for a nap often or not at all? My canine crew is quite protective.
There are two different concepts being discussed, you seem to be combining them. There are tarp tents. And then there are camping hammocks with tarps. In a tarp tent you sleep on the ground. With a camping hammock you'd be off the ground, under a tarp, and the pups would sleep under you sheltered by the same tarp.
The Black Diamond MegaLight is not an open tarp, it's closed and resembles a tipi. Other tarp tents are also closed - they look just like tents but without floors. You wouldn't be able to use them with a hammock. The MegaLight and other tipi style tarps have lots of headroom - you can hang wet clothes out of the way of the dogs. Runoff has never been a problem - just don't set up a depression. With a little training, the dogs will stay off your groundcloth. Training them to stay off your sleeping bag is harder - it's like teaching them to stay off your couch.
Are you familiar with the new camping hammocks? They're not just made out of string mesh anymore. I don't use one, but this website has some of the world's leading experts in their use.
I like these options; Black Diamond, Hennessy, Tarptent...I think I like Henry's Tarptent for 2 the most, though I know sleeping in a hammock is a wonderful experience. This makes taking a long hike 2x as exciting, knowing my dogs are safe inside where I can watch over them, and they me. I guess I am a homebody who wants to watch over her area of stuff even when under the beautiful sky and a canopy of trees. Hearing it from experienced hikers who've used these products is way more convincing than reading it off a website or hearing it from a sales person. Thanks!