Although I have been entertaining the thought of tarp camping...I still don't know if I could handle bugs. Specifically spiders and other creepy crawlies. Mosquitos are no worry - they don't 'bug' me.
I looked at the MSR Hubba Hubba as well as some others. I just couldn't spend $300-$400 for a tent that I would use for camping with boy scouts. I saw the REI Passage 2 tent and started to read the reviews. It was getting mostly good reviews but not enough for me to pop for the current price of $150. As I kept looking back to see if there were any new reviews on the Passage 2, I saw that it was on sale at REI! With the holidays coming up, I gave my mom the hint that her son and grandson would love a new backpacking tent.
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| Near Dollar Lake in Utah's High Uintas. This was Base Camp for our King's Peak Summit. |
For years I used a small 1 man tent that was barely tall enough to sit up in. It was actually big enough to fit me and my young son. As he grew, so did our need for a larger backpacking tent.
Not only did we get a new REI Passage 2 tent but we also got the footprint! And we got it early!! Didn't take long to put it up in the yard and check it out.
REI says this tent has a trail weight of 4 pounds 14 ounces. Setting up the minimalist configuration with only the Fly and Footprint, the weight is 3-1/2 pounds. You can set up the fly/footprint in the rain then climb inside to attach the body - and stay dry doing it.
With 2 doors and vestibules, this tent keeps your partner from having to climb over you to enter/exit. There is also quite a bit of room to store your boots and pack in the vestibules.
My first camp out in this tent was a winter overnighter. I scraped out an area in the snow to pitch the tent. I used some of the scraped snow to build a little bit of a wind break outside the windward side of the fly. The nighttime low was about 22 degrees as I recall and I failed to open the upper vents before going to sleep. Although I slept well and was not cold in the tent, I woke up to some frost inside the fly.
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Winter camping on Antelope Island.
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I was able to use my stove in the vestibule to boil some water and down some hot oatmeal and coffee before emerging into the morning fog.
The tent had several more sets that spring and summer preparing for a week in the Yellowstone Backcountry.
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| Middle Fork, Ogden River |
You never know about the weather in Yellowstone. It can get down to freezing overnight even in July. We were traveling to the Bechler Canyon area in the southwest corner of the park. Also referred to as Cascade Corner, it is notorious for the mosquitos most of the year. My son and I were splitting the weight of the tent (He the fly and footprint, me the poles, stakes and body) so we only carried a little over 2 pounds each. I am so glad that we decided to bring the body because the mosquitoes were huge and fierce. Using deet did the trick with the pesky critters.
The last night of this trip we walked into camp just as a large thunderstorm was coming in. We all decided that tents were to go up first before the rain came. No sooner did we have our tent up and everything inside then the rain came.
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| REI Passage 2 tent on the right on the last morning of the Bechler Canyon trek. 4 sets, 36.2 miles in 5 days. |
This tent is currently available as:
https://www.rei.com/product/110837/rei-co-op-passage-2-tent
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