Rant: My new tent's rain fly took me two hours to figure out

I bought a new two-person backpacking tent for a trip to the White Mountains, and I was so sure I could set it up fast. I've been camping for years, right? The main tent went up in five minutes, no problem. Then I got to the rain fly. The clips were in weird spots and the guy lines had these little plastic adjusters I'd never seen before. I kept trying to hook it one way, but it was always too tight on one side and loose on the other. I must have taken it off and put it back on four times. What I thought would be a ten-minute job turned into a full two hours of fiddling in my backyard. I finally saw a tiny diagram sewn into the stuff sack that showed the right order. It was so simple once I saw it, but I felt pretty silly. Has anyone else had a simple piece of gear stump them for way too long?

3 comments

3 Comments

cameronb521mo ago

Two hours over a rain fly? Come on, was it really that bad? You got it set up in your own backyard with no weather and no pressure. It's not like you were in a downpour on the trail. Sometimes you just have to laugh at yourself for missing the obvious diagram and move on. Is a little frustration in a controlled setting worth a whole rant?

benk261mo ago

Saw a buddy try to set up a new tent in his living room once. Took him an hour to realize the poles were inside the bag the whole time.

jordanl8214d ago

Hold up tho, has anyone checked if the rain fly was actually meant for that tent? I grabbed a random bag from my gear closet once and spent forever trying to make it fit before realizing it was from a different brand entirely. Could be the diagram was right and he just had the wrong fly altogether. Would explain the whole two hour struggle way better than just missing an arrow.