To:      Backpackgeartest

Subject:      third report on the Walrus Zoid 2-0

We hiked in the Frank Church, River of No Return Wilderness - along the Middle Fork of the Salmon river in Idaho for 5 days and 4 nights.

Elevations - 5,000 to 6,500 feet.

 

Weather - Sunny and warm with thunder clouds in the late afternoon. We had one evening when it rained very lightly on us.  The humidity was very high each day except for our 5th day. The ticks were out in full force.

 

Performance of the Zoid 2-0.

a. it is a simple tent to set up in approximately 5 minutes including the fly.

b. the stakes worked very well, in soft or hard ground.

c. all zippers and clips worked very well.

d. the tent poles were not hard to put into their grommet holes.

e. waterproof of the taped seams.  We were unable to test this due to lack of rain, so we will

   take the manufacturers reccommendation on these.

 

We did put out two short guys from the bottom tent poles, in order to have a taut tent roof.

this worked well for us.  After attaching the fly and staking it out we found excellent space between the tent and the fly.  Each morning our fly was sopping wet on both sides, but no moisture ever came onto the tent or netting. (We felt the moisture was due to the humidity).

 

We guyed each big side of the fly to a high postion ie. tree or log or big rock, this made a bigger vestibule and also allowed better entry into the tent. The head side of the fly was just rolled up and we used one of the loops to keep it back out of the way and to allow lots of ventilation. I must admit that guyed out in this configeration the tent looked like a big bat mobile.

 

We were two in the tent one person 5'8" and the other 5'6". We were able to sit upright one at a time.  Other than our sleeping pads and sleeping bags we were able to put our boots in at the foot end.  Our clothes bags were used for pillows. Misc. items were put into the side pockets and overhead pocket. We also had a clothes line running the length of the tent.  The remainder was put back into our packs, a G4 and a Kelty Flight with the wide hip belt. These were then put under the fly-vestibules each side. (we hung our food).

 

The G4 still fit nicely under the vestibule, the Kelty flight due to the wide hip belt had a awkward fit, it would not lay down and be under the fly all the way.  Next we decided to zip up the fly and batten it all down as in a downpour. In this configeration we found it hard to get into the tent and the Kelty Flight and the G4 would not fit into the alloted space without being directly in front of the opening to get in the tent.

 

The designer of this tent should be commended, there are so many great appointments and for the weight of 2lbs 2oz. per persons it is one of the finer little tents.   However in our humble opinion if the designer could now look at the fly, and without adding any more weight, perhaps a lighter weight material, make the fly configuration larger so as to add a "tarp like" vestibule to add the necessary space each side.

 

This tent will be used again for two people August 7th - 13th while hiking the final section of the PTC in Washington State, Rainey Pass to Manning Park.  I will give another report on it when this section is finished.

 

Cheers,

 

Marge Prothman  (the old gal)