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A small wall tent like Robin's

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The other day while guiding my Swedish guests around Fairbanks, I took them to the Morris Thompson Visitors Center. One of the exhibits was of a fall hunting/fishing camp. It looked very real, so real in fact that I could almost smell the scent of High Bush Cranberries. One of the main parts of the exhibit was a small wall tent with a Yukon stove, along with other camp life equipment. I leaned over the railing to check the manufactures tag on the tent, it was a 6X8, made by Alaska Tent & Tarp. My Swedish friends wanted to look at the Tent & Tarp stoves, so I drove them over to check out their store. I found out that the small wall tent was not on their web site, but could be special made for $255 for another $50 +/- you can get the 4 foot wall which would make the peak taller for those of us that would like to stand upright. I am waiting for my next retirement check to arrive so that I can order one. Anyhow if anyone is looking for a real small wall tent, give them a call with your wants and needs, they seemed to be open to my suggestions on what I would like.
BB
 
Hey, Thanks, it's nice to know someone reads my posts.;) I love those exhibits, all the gear laid out by someone who knows her/his stuff. When I used to go to the Wooden Canoe Assembly all you saw where pristine canoes with perfect paint, mirror finish varnish and old school umbrellas and picnic baskets. Nothing wrong with that, but I enjoy old school, well used or authentic hunting fishing exhibits, especially if it involves canoes. I have seen some nice exhibits put on by various state game wardens.

I'm pretty interested in the tent though. I could have left my walls 4 feet but I thought the longer poles would have been a problem. I think that was an error on my part, an extra foot on 4 poles wouldn't have matter much in hind sight.

The big question for me is, what will you use for a frame. I guess in Alaska you just cut some standing spruce or other similar trees. We can't do that here in the east, and what with the days so short in the fall, my interior frame goes up in minutes so that helps get set up quickly. Hunting for poles can be time consuming.

Finally I think that price is excellent. Thanks for the link.
 
Robin..........
I think everyone here reads your posts, or we wouldn't be here to begin with.
I will pitch the tent with shear poles, I will have tie tapes installed on the ridge, for a external ridge pole, so the poles can be arrow straight or crooked as a dogs hind leg. Lots of what, old loggers called "pecker poles" up here for poles. I also have a 9X12 wall tent, with 4 foot walls, that I pack into Week In The Woods (see link) that tent weights in at least 40 lbs. I cut and peeled seven 15 foot, arrow straight black spruce poles for it. It takes me three round trips to just get my tent, rain fly, and poles into the camp area. Thank goodness it is only a few hundred yards from the truck. Another three round trips to get my cot, camp chair, bed roll, cooking gear, and food packed in. It seems to me like a lot of work, but once set up, I am as comfortable as I would be at a 5 star lodge, and I sleep like a baby. One morning the camp director had to wake me up for the days classes, I slept so soundly. I'm thinking the smaller tent will make for a lighter camp.
Most of the summers in my early years of working for Alaska Dept. of Fish & Game were spent sleeping in wall tents. At the salmon counting tower camps we had a sleep tent at one end of a sand bar and a cook tent at the other, the tower in the middle. The most cold, wet coastal summers in NW Alaska were wonderful when you could fire up a Yukon stove, hang up your wet clothes and sleep warm and dry, then in the morning have dry clothes to put on. The tents we had were 10X12 or 12X14 supported by a 2x4 wood frames and plywood floors and some even had plywood walls. A couple of years ago I visited a Commercial Fisheries Sonar Camp on the Tanana River, below the town of Manley Hot Springs, Alaska. All high tech with maybe 14X20 computer tent with a generator tent back in the woods and a even bigger wall tent for a kitchen/dinning area. Each of the employees had a 10X12 wall tent of their own for sleeping and personal space. All tents were on platforms with plywood floors. My old mentor Bob Carlson was with me, the young ladies at the camp took him in as if he was their grandfather, they gave him a wonderful tour of the camp, showed him how the sonar counted salmon, how the fishwheel caught fish and fixed us a wonderful lunch, with great coffee (fresh ground coffee beans). After that we went fishing for northern pike and sheefish in some nearby streams.
Nothing better for a permanent or semi-permanent camp tent camp, than the wall tent!
.............BB
 
a friend of mine just got a Panther primitives mini wall tent---sweet!
Turtle
 
Turtle...........
I checked out Panther Primitives web page, pretty nice stuff. Shipping to Alaska would add to the cost for me. For those living where shipping is more reasonable Panther Primitives could well be a good bet. Alaska Tent and Tarp does have lighter canvas and canvas that does not have all the treatments that I find ruin the good smell of being under canvas. I look forward to getting a one man wall tent for four season use. For tripping I will use the Whelen tent that Bothwell Voyageur is making or my Hilleberg Nallo 4, that is light, roomy and has served me wonderfully for a long, long, time. I do prefer to walk in and out upright of a wall tent, rather than crawling in on all fours.
As a kid growing up on a farm in Minnesota, I dreaded the those hot humid mid-west summer nights, in a upstairs bedroom. The summer between 5 grade and 6th I got a Sears green wall tent. I pitched it with shear poles, in the grove of big white spruce trees that protected the farmstead from cold winter winds. Thus began my love of wall tents, I slept out in that tent every night from early May until well into October the rest of my school years. Even on the most humid and hot nights I slept cool in that tent on my pole bed with a straw tick mattress.
...........BB
 
I appreciate your shipping and smell concerns. I too miss the old canvas smell missing in my Panther tents. But I have 4, one 15 years old and never leaked a drop and you can touch the sides during a rain storm I use only Sunforger without fire proofing which is stinky, heavy, and temporary.
Turtle
 
My tent was never waterproofed or fireproofed. I need to use a tarp to prevent drips at the seams, it would be nice to have a white tarp to help prevent the darkshadow inside the tent but I'm the type that makes do with what I have and my old green Campmore tarp works well. I too cheap to buy a gallon of Canvak.

I never sleep with the stove going so I just couldn't see spending the money for the fireproofing. I agree with Turtle about the stinky/weight and didn't know that it's temporary. I always have a sharp folding knife on my belt and it would be pretty easy to slice an escape route in the tent if needed.

I like the look of spruce poles holding up a wall tent, but I'm happy with my pine closet pole interior frame. Fast to set up, easy 10 minutes for a solo traveler to having the tent over the top of the frame, fits nicely into the bottom of my canoe and not too heavy with the galvanized 6 piece angle kit

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