valh32•1mo ago

Hit 50 nights in my tent last year and it sorta snuck up on me

I was going through my gear log from last season and noticed I'd camped 50 nights total. That number hit me weird because I didn't plan for it, it just happened from all those weekend trips to the Sierras and a couple longer stints at Big Sur. I remember thinking 50 felt like a milestone but also a reminder of how much gas money I burned through last year. My old tent finally gave out around night 40 with a busted zipper, so I patched it with a safety pin for the rest. It made me realize I should track this stuff more seriously to plan for gear wear and tear. Anyone else ever hit a random number like that and feel like you should've been paying better attention to maintenance?

3 comments

3 Comments

gray61mo ago

Wait, you busted a zipper and just used a safety pin for TEN MORE NIGHTS? That is some DEDICATION. I would've rage-bought a new tent after the second night of fighting with that thing.

cameron5381mo ago

Depends how much you spent on the tent. A safety pin is an upgrade on some of the gear I've seen hold up in a storm.

amy1541mo ago

cameron538, I gotta push back on the "upgrade" thing a little. That safety pin was a last resort, not an upgrade. The zipper pull came off completely on night 40, so I threaded a pin through the slider hole to get it to move. It worked okay for calm nights but the second a gust of wind hit, I was basically sleeping in a wind tunnel until I fixed it with a real safety pin on night 43.