This past Friday evening around 10PM, I had a sudden thought - I hadn't really tried out the tent I'm taking on the trip yet. I've set it up in the basement, but never outside, and I certainly never slept in it.
I mentioned it to Mrs. HAL and we decided that - despite it having rained all day and threatening more - we'd put up the tent in the back yard and see how well it worked.
The ground was mushy with the water that had fallen throughout the day. Despite it being dark and a little windy, it only took about five minutes for us to put the tarp down and get the tent ready to put stuff in. We grabbed our sleeping bags, books, flashlights, pillows, drinks, and an extra blanket, just in case.
We live well within city limits, but the air was cool (about 10C) and fresh from the rain. The last tents we'd used were the old-school canvas or nylon tents that were one-piece shells with no rain fly, so we were wondering if we were going to wake up freezing or soaked in the middle of the night.
We slept like logs.
We woke up with the alarm at 8:30AM and, to our surprise, we were both very comfortable and dry. The rain fly kept the dew out of the tent, and the screen that the rain fly covered vented the inside of the tent so our breath didn't condense on the inside.
All of you who have been camping in the last 10 or 15 years are probably rolling your eyes right now, but we were both really impressed. I can remember being in Cub Scouts and waking up all damp because the tent held all the water vapour in.
Not too bad for a $25 Wal-Mart tent!
Anyway, we got up, went outside, and it was 12C. The outside of the tent (and the side of the house, and the deck) was covered in dew. It had beaded up on the rain fly. Mrs. HAL headed out to do her stuff for the day, and I went inside to do some things.
About two hours later, I went outside to take another look. By then, the outside of the tent was nice and dry so I took it down. It took me about nine minutes to take the tent down, get it back into its bag, and fold up the tarp. Not too bad.
As an aside, I'd been a little concerned about how well my little sleeping bag was going to work. It's a tiny, thin thing I got from Canadian Tire when it was on sale. It packs up really small but I was concerned about how warm it was going to be. Well, between it and my MEC air mattress, I was nice and toasty warm - no need for the extra blanket at all. I believe it got down to about 8C overnight, so I'm pretty sure the sleeping bag and mattress will also do the trick for me, even when I'm up in the mountains. I'll have an extra blanket along with me just in case.
All of my bookings for the trip are done and my main job now is to figure out exactly what I need to take along. I'll also be taking the KLR into Main next weekend so they can put on the new tires and give it a once-over so it's ready to go for the trip.
I'm very excited (and more than a little nervous, too)!
Safe riding!
Odometer reading now: 9812.1km
Distance since last fill: 250.9km
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