Kelty Acadia 2 Person Tent, a 3 Season tent

Good Morning,

OK...we're down to the final entry in this series on tents. Besides the Kelty Gunnison tent for an extra tent or as I use it here, a storage tent, I want to talk about the Kelty Acadia 2 tent. This particular series of tents by Kelty (the Acadia line) come in 2 , 4 and 6 person tents. For today however, we are going to focus on the two person tent only. 

Now, both tents (the Gunnison 1.1 and the Acadia 2)  are considered to be 3 season tents, but that does not mean you cannot use them year round. Once again, let me say: "most any tent can be used all year round, if properly supported and water proofed, externally or internally." With that thought in mind, plan for any eventuality. If you know you are going to be in an area you expect snow or rain, just brace and cover your tent accordingly. Simple preparation for a great trip is all it takes.

Kelty Acadia 2 Person Tent Cover

In the case of this Kelty Acadia tent, the 32 square feet of interior storage space is enormous. It even has interior wall pockets to maximize floor space. Set up of this free standing tent, is a simple three pole, snap design. (clips that attach to the poles.) Once set up, the double door design (both of them very large) allow for quick access to your stored items. How many times have you stored something in a tent and find yourself crawling all over to locate it? Well, with the double door design, you simply go around to the other side and access the rear without crawling all around.  In harsh, wet, or icy weather, take a tube tent to use as ground cover under your tent, always. The floor and tent seams are taped. Walls are non see through mesh, and there are numerous guy out points for staking and support.

 

One advantage of the double vestibule, is that it not only helps keep the interior dry, I find, that they offer a great place to store your firewood to keep it out of the weather. With the double vestibules, you have twice the storage space (23 additional square feet to be exact). The fiberglass tent support poles utilize "wrapped construction" for extra strength, but the brow pole (which holds the rain fly) is made from DAC Hybrid Aluminum. The letters DAC are an abbreviation for "Dongah Aluminum Corporation", a dedicated tent pole manufacturer whose entire purpose is to build stronger, safer and lighter poles for the camping community. 

This line of Kelty tents, although I speak of them as storage tents, also come in handy as lightweight hiking/camping/kayaking tents through the rest of the year.. I am sure that you will find even more uses for these two great tents, yourself.

Thanks for reading, hike safe and I'll see you on the trail-- Campingman

Kelty Gunnison 1.1 Tent - The perfect "extra tent" for gear and more.

Good Morning,

We've spent the last few days on harsh weather tents and their use. One thing I did not cover, is taking along, an extra tent for gear storage when hunting, or camping. As an example, when I take off to go hunting, it's usually for a bout a week at a time. I carry enough food for that week, as well as the ancillary gear necessary to maintain myself when out there. This fact necessitates getting my truck as close to the area as possible, without creating an intrusion on the environment. It also entails, generally making two trips from my truck to my campsite, in order to get everything up there. So, besides a tent for me to sleep in, I carry a small lightweight tent to store, extra dry clothing, canned goods, waterproof materials if needed, etc. I take a tent along, that I also use when kayaking or just hiking for a few days. It serves double duty that way and is used nearly year round.

With that in mind, I like the Kelty Gunnison 1.1 tent. It's light weight (just over 3 lbs.), inexpensive and super easy to set up. It has adequate ventilation for storing things w/o drawing a lot of extra condensation. Why the extra weight and effort of taking a second tent? Simple. Taking a spare tent, allows for maximum room in the sleeping tent, or, even better yet, a place to get out of the weather to cook in and eat. It has a single door and stay dry vestibule. I cannot speak enough about having a small lightweight, extra tent to store your extra gear and firewood. It just makes your sleeping tent so much more comfortable. Besides, when you're kayaking, this makes an excellent overnight tent for those weekend getaways. By no means, do you have to just consider this a single use tent.

This tent is waterproof from the factory and I took it out for the first time without sealing the seams (something you do on most tents). Just a quick weekend trip to do some fishjing in a local lake of ours. You guessed it... ...I was caught in a Texas sized downpour for well over 40 minutes. If you've ever been in a rain storm in the south, you know what I mean. Plus, the wind was blowing to beat all, but this little tent stood up to everything nature threw at me that day and I stayed warm and dry. I am sure it's bathtub floor design, had a little something to do with that. Plus, the seams are all sonically welded at the factory. So, there you have it, a dual purpose tent, (extra storage at base camp or Kayaking/camping/hiking overnighter). You have it all with this little Kelty tent.

That's it again for today, hike safe and I will see you on the trail-- Campingman