John Pasmore's Occassional Blog

Not Light At All…camping by John Pasmore

I considered a bunch of tents when my wife opted in for a quick camping trip. One of my favorite sites is Hiking in Finland which extols the virtues of Ultra-Light (UL) backpacking. I went in the opposite direction with a Kodiak canvas tent.

While I love the site Hiking in Finland, am equally focused on one of my favorite magazines Overland Journal which is not so fixated on weight. In fact, generally the opposite. The vehicles featured in Overland are very -nearly tank-like and comfort is usually pretty high on the list in the edit.

As this was a car camping trip, with my wife, the primary decision was the tent. I have a Marmot 2 person tent that works okay for my son and I and is a good 3 season backpacking option. But we were driving in. Inspired by Overland Journal I decided to go with canvas as opposed to the plastic/nylon diaspora. The Kodiak 10 x 14 is roughly 100 lbs so this isn’t getting far from the vehicle.

Will come back to this post to expound a bit, but bottom line is definitely happy with the purchase. Bought it from Cabela’s after a conversation with customer service at Kodiak. We talked about the 10 x 10 versus the 10 x 14 — he had the larger one, and by the end of the conversation I agreed that if you’re going in for a “family” tent may as well go big. No regrets and great advice.

The tent went up in about 1/2 hour. There are something like 14 stakes, and securing those properly alone takes a moment. I watched a few YouTube videos which are helpful, but don’t really make perfect sense until you set this up for yourself. It’s not complicated in any way. Would still take 20 minutes at least if you’re not rushing, and you shouldn’t, as getting the stakes in properly should take some focused attention, and getting the attached awning on the 10 x 14 takes just a couple of minutes as well.

Will come back to all of this but tent is great. On the table in the picture is a Snow Peak Baja Burner stove. Give this a high recommendation as well. Drawbacks being that it is not light, doesn’t have an integrated wind shield and only one burner. Pluses are that you can add this to a Snow Peak table, the stove is stainless unlike most stoves in the Primus, Coleman vein, and stainless just cleans up better and is more durable. Snow Peak is bombproof and as long as you’re not hiking with it is great.

That’s it. Impressed with the Kodiak from zippers to floor — and even the price for what you get. Very few products built like this nowadays. Just don’t try and carry it too far.

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