Many Years And Many Tents

Over the past five years of traveling and lots and lots of camping I have lost count of how many tents me and Rain Drop have had. I thought it would be fun to show a few pictures of some of them and share a little bit about what I can remember about where we were at the time. The first image was a neat spot on the river to river trail in southern Illinois.

Again this is the river to river trail just before I made it to the garden of the gods.

This is a two person hiking tent that I setup somewhere in the Shawnee National Forest after the river to river trail. I mostly choose to purchase the Walmart brand (Ozark Trail) tents because of the price... I live in these tents and I use them up quickly... so obviously if I pay thirty dollars versus three hundred dollars it is worth the savings to get the cheaper one each time.

The one you see here is a Eureka that is a little more expensive than the Walmart brand but it was given to me at a state park after I had a pole break in a storm on the tent that I setup the day before. It was a nice peice of equipment but it was to big and way to heavy for my needs.

Rain Drop is the best dog to hike and camp with.... it just comes natural to her. She even sleeps with me in our sleeping bag.

This is one of the larger three or four person tents from Walmart. Sometimes I have to get one like this because it is the only one that is on the shelf in the store. We were somewhere in Texas at the time this picture was taken.

Warm and dry nights with the rain fly off to look up at the sky and see the stars is always a great way to spend the night.

Here is another one of the larger ones that I have often had to carry out until I find a one or two person smaller tent. This picture is from the Katie Trail in Missouri.

Nothing could be better than cooking and warming up by the fire in the evening after a long day of hiking trails.

Ozark Trail tents seems to be redesigned in some way or another about once a year for some reason. This is a two person hiking tent that was changed last year and I am not sure why. I'm not sure but I think this is a state park in southern Alabama.

Here is the same tent as the previous photo with the rain fly on. I like this design because each side has a wide vestal and a door. It was just enough room to keep my backpack dry under the rain fly and the door zipped shut down over it perfectly. We were visiting the small town of Little Switzerland in North Carolina and is also Rain Drops home town.

I found this little one man REI tent in a hikers box in a hostel on the Appalachian Trail in Maryland. It was damaged with a couple of tiny holes that I believe came from it being setup to close to a camp fire. I didn't keep it very long before I had to get a new one that stayed dryer in the rain.

This little spot on my friends property in Arkansas is one of my favorite places to camp at when I am in that area.

I prefer to carry a small one person hiking tent and heres a good picture of the Ozark Trails most recent design in the one person tents. It is lightweight and easy to quickly setup and take down. I usually throw away all the tent stakes that are packaged with it and spend a few dollars on lightweight aluminum ones that you can buy in the same isle as the tents in Walmart. I found that doing this subtracts a significant amount of weight.

What you see here is a Eureka that is a very neat and rare thing. I wish I had put it away somewhere that I could have kept it. A pastor in West Virginia gave it to me and I ended up giving it to another hiker that needed it at the time. It was several years old and they do not make it anymore. It is truly a nice peice of gear to appreciate as part of a collection.

These photos were taken in West Virginia on the C&O Canal Path near the Potomac River.

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Thank you for reading and I hope you have enjoyed this look at just a few of the many different tents I have used.