Tent Set up

I got up early this morning and I decided to take my pooch for a stroll through the woods so that I could try setting up my tent. Though, once I got outside I thought I’d set it up in front of the kitchen window so that my parents could be apart of the experience. This proved to be a terrible idea because I royally embarrassed myself. First I thought I’d set it up from memory, but the improper setup and the front door facing the wind made the nylon hut look sloppy. I was using sticks to stake the corners and they kept snapping.

If this was a preview of the upcoming 6 months…I am doomed I thought. My cheeks were starting to get red and I hoped that my parents weren’t sipping their coffees watching my clumsy escapade through the kitchen window.

Was it the height of the hiking pole, improper placement of stakes or was I just incapable of following directions?

Though it was windy this setup was not a breeze. I decided I needed to relocate. Ah, “make sure the height of the canopy is 4-5 inches off the ground,” minor detail I did not pick up on during my initial scan of the directions. Yes it got to a point were I needed to grab the directions.

The final product came an hour later and still the canopy was not completely taught. I decided to put my perfectionism aside and crawl in. I took off my boots and crawled into my bag. If this is going to be my home for 6 months I better get this set up right, I thought as I pulled out my phone and texted section-hiker, Red. He used the same tent.

Our text conversation was as follows:

Me: Ok so right now I’m lying down in my 6moons tent after an hour of trying to set it up properly and I can’t seem to get the tension right. Do you think you could give me a tutorial? I could come over and you could show me how to do it?

Red: Yea I could do that. It’s tricky it took me several tries before I figured out a good system.

Me: Ok now I don’t feel so bad