Freestanding tent necessary?

[FiveHead]

Hey Friends,

I have a TT Moment with the extra pole to make the tent freestanding. I've read that there are places where you are required to stay on platforms. How prevalent are these situations? (And where?)

I'm trying to figure out if it is necessary to bring the extra pole or can I save the weight and leave it at home?

Thanks for the help!

[Blissful]

Most are located from MA north. I liked having it freestanding for that reason, along with high winds that kept knocking down my tarptent. You can ship it to yourself by CT if you want.

[Cookerhiker]

The places I recall are all in New England:

Stratton Pond area in VT
Little Rock Pond area in VT
Kinsman Pond in NH
Ethan Pond campsite in NH (Whites)
Mizpah Hut area in NH (Whites)
Imp Campsite in NH (Whites)
Safford Notch in ME

This is by no means a complete list.

You can probably manage around these areas although the 2 ponds in VT are nice places to camp. Maybe you can arrange your pace to arrive at them for swims and then move on and camp in the woods.

The White Mountains are the most problematic area because camping is forbidden except in designated sites and of course you have the AMC huts. So unless you're willing to pay the big $$$ in the huts and/or stay in some shelters, you'll have to rig up your tent somehow. The question of whether it's worthwhile to bring your pole on a thruhike for the sake of a 100 mile stretch is up to you. Personally, I would not; I'd devise a way using ropes to get mine up.

[Big Dawg]

I'm not a thru hiker,, but from what I've seen so far, and heard,,, you won't run across many situations where a free standing tent is necessary. The times you do, you can just stack a few rocks at each end to hold the guy lines. I've done that w/ my Moment, and it worked just fine. I'd leave the 1/2 pound pole at home.

[Blissful]

The White Mountains are the most problematic area because camping is forbidden except in designated sites and of course you have the AMC huts. So unless you're willing to pay the big $$$ in the huts and/or stay in some shelters, you'll have to rig up your tent somehow.


There is the work for stay at the huts. And some huts, even if they didn't need you, only charged around $10 to sleep on the floor. But it depends on the croo.

There are tent platform in Mass as well. I mean you can find places in the woods. I also liked platforms because I was on a flat plane and I slept better on flat areas. And they shed water good in rain

[Blissful]

I've done that w/ my Moment, and it worked just fine. I'd leave the 1/2 pound pole at home.


Its half a lb? Ugh.
Yeah better leave it. :)

[FiveHead]

Thanks everyone for the quick replies.

Now that I know the platforms are in the New England area I feel good about leaving the other pole at home until then.

Are there any other places, not platforms, that I would need it before I make it to that section?

[aaronthebugbuffet]

You can avoid staying anywhere that has platforms if you so desire. I didn't stay in any huts or sleep on any platforms.

I followed the rules for the most part too, but looking back I think there was one place I camped that wasn't kosher with the rules.
It's been a while and I didn't keep a journal so the details of where I stayed are fuzzy.

[Pony]

I used a tarp, and tyvek ground cloth, definitely not freestanding, and had no problem. I had to be creative at times, and weather permitting I cowboy camped a lot. Not worth carrying the pole, you will figure ways around needing it.

[Cookerhiker]

FWIW when I reached Safford Notch Campsite in Maine after a tough hike from Stratton over the Bigalows, I was so beat that I slept right on the platform w/o the tent. I didn't want to waste any of my sapped energy trying to jury-rig my tent. Being Sept. 1, there were no bugs and it was a dry night.

[Red Beard]

I would not call it necessary, but nice to have. Once when I was in the Smokies during a winter hike, I would have given anything to have had a freestanding tent. The ground was so hard my tent stakes wouldn't go in. I wound up tying guy-lines to big rocks instead.

[D-wreck]

I'm not familiar with the TT Moment, but I was able to set my SMD Lunar Solo up on several platforms. Most of the platforms I saw had steel eyelets on the sides that I could tie off to, and I was able to put at least one stake into the ground by extending the guy rope to it's max.

[Tagless]

No need to carry the extra (freestanding) pole weight anywhere on the trail.

To secure your Moment to a platform, just pack a couple of small eye hook screws. They hardly weigh anything. Secure your Moment's ends with those and you're good to go.

[broccoligreen]

i thru hiked with a non-freestanding tent. i did use platforms sometimes but secured the tent with either rocks or my smaller stakes that fit in the cracks

[Tinker]

Tying a line to each of the end stake loops and to trees on either side of tent platforms should work for the Moment. I had a non-freestanding tent (made by Cannondale - got it back from a friend who I sold it to long ago) that I used often in the White Mts. back in the 1980s. I actually liked that I could pitch it tied to trees, leaving the vestibule (in the front of the tent) hanging over the end of the platform, allowing me to sit up in it during rainstorms with my legs hanging over the edge of the platform.

[mweinstone]

all platforms can be choked,looped or staked.use the gaps luke, use the gaps. with extra string a tent can just be pitched on a platform and staked to the ground with exstentions on the guy lines by looping over the edges of the boards or placing a stake or object in a crack as a chock. gaps thin enough can just hold a stake. sticks can be used for wide cracks without leaving marks.even a crackless cement pad with no purchace can simply have a single string tied around the entire base to fix guys to. freestanding tents are suseptable to blowing away when your not home. tents with guy lines are by design more secure.

[LIhikers]

My wife and I hike with a Tarptent Rainshadow II which is not freestanding.
We've used platforms and there's no problem. First position your tent near a corner of the platform. Tie off the side and end of the tent,nearest the edges of the platform, to the rings or hooks that are in the side of the platform for just that purpose. Then using rocks, sticks, near-by trees, or anything else that's handy, tie the other end and side. It might not be the neatest pitch you've ever done but it will work. Just one CAUTION, don't position the door so that when you come out of the tent you fall off the edge of the platform :eek: