New Gear: Similar, Not the Same / High-Wire Act

For my husband's birthday last year, among other things, I bought him a brand new tent. He tends to end up with rather small tents, as they are lighter to carry, and less weight is everything to a certain kind of backpacker. When we saw the same tent that I have and love - the Alps Mountaineering Zenith three-man tent - on sale online at a very reasonable price last year, we snapped it right up. He'd been meaning to set it up in the yard but never got around to it. (Photo above: my tent and gear to the left; my husband's tent and gear to the right.)

On this day, he finally brought the new tent along and set it up for the very first time at our campsite that we call Pine Glen, in Sproul State Forest. Now, let me refresh our memories by including a few photos of the tents that he and I typically bring along camping: here and here. I first used my own three-man Alps Mountaineering Zenith back in November of 2013; read a story about that (but no pics of the tent, sorry) here.

He didn't tell me he brought the new tent. But when he whipped it out and started setting it up, I thought - hmm, that looks kinda familiar. But then I noticed his poles were bent in a way that my tent poles were not, and I quietly thought to myself - Uh-oh, Houston, we have a problem here! I was sorry to think he might have passed the return window, as those were most definitely NOT the right poles for this tent! But as we learned later, they WERE!

Then he put it all together and we realized as it emerged that his tent is the updated version of mine. It is quite similar, but not identical. His is a bit wider at both front and back, and a bit shorter in height. His poles are more orange, while mine are sort of copper. My tent is sort of slanty in the back, while his is more rounded, like a geodesic dome.

His new tent's zippers have some niceties that render them quieter to open and close. The sleeves on top of the tent that the tent poles go through are brown on his; green on mine. His tent bag has actual handles/attachy things to help strap them onto your pack. He loves it already; I can just tell. And I love it too, though I feel strange when I look at it, like when I would look at our cat Dexter and then visit one of his brothers: so similar, but not the same!

We had a real peach of a couple of days for backpacking. It was cool but not too cold. It was a bit breezy. It was mostly sunny. There were few bugs. Where we live, further south, the buds are coming along nicely on the trees. Up in Sproul, there are hardly ANY buds on the trees yet; spring is still a ways away. It was good we camped in a pine forest in Sproul, as the significant amount of sun we got would probably have burned us without that; the trees have no leaves yet to shade you!

We had brought our little menagerie along: Alex the Alligator, Little Bear, the Moose, Tiny Tiger, the Anteater. At home during the past week, T. Tiger and the Moose have been considering new professions. I gave T. Tiger a twig, and he decided he wanted to develop a high-wire act, maybe become a pro. For his part, the Moose began wrapping himself in blaze orange; he wanted to become a RESCUE moose, and perhaps save people or creatures. You know, like those Swiss avalanche rescue dogs; but . . . a moose!

It was rather windy when we got there, but T. Tiger wanted to go up. And so we sort of strapped him fast to a branch and gave him a twig to balance himself. Far below, the Moose watched and waited. Even FURTHER below, the Anteater prowled around, ready to catch anybody who fell. You may see a photo of Tiny Tiger performing his high-wire act, with the loyal Moose watching from below, in the extras. In the shot above, you can sort of see them up to the top right of the photo, above my husband's new tent, among the pines.

I am happy to report that the new high-wire act went over extremely well. They practiced for hours and hours and had a marvelous time. And we took lots of photos and plan to give further consideration to this idea they had. Somehow, everyone had a grand adventure. And then as dusk fell, the owls began to hoot. First one, down below us. Then it was answered by one above us. Owls, in stereo! Why, yes, it was a VERY good day!

I have two photos so here are two songs. For the tents that are so similar, yet not the same, I just had to have a song from Dan Fobelberg and Tim Weisberg's 1985 album, Twin Sons from Different Mothers; so here is Power of Gold. And for the high-wire act in the extras, I've got Men at Work, with High Wire.

In tomorrow's tale: one wild creature and one huge pink caterpillar!