Tent Shopping

My friend and I went shopping for camping gear on Saturday. We're planning a trip out west during the summer.

We checked out a number of stores around town starting with Atmosphere at the Shops at Don Mills. From there we went to Tent City at Steeles and Dufferin; SAIL near 400 and 7 in Vaughan; and back to Atmosphere at Vaughn Mills mall.

At first I was looking for a 4-man tent (which we would actually sleep three people in). But the majority of 4-man tents we looked at at Atmosphere were in the 11-12 pound range. Not bad for car camping, but too heavy for back country.

The 3-man tents were in the 6 pound range. Much better for toting around long distances. So I resigned myself to getting one of those instead.

Atmosphere had The North Face - Talus 3 on sale for $199.99 (reg. $299.99). The floor size is 63" x 89" and it's 46" tall inside. It has 2-doors and 2-vestibules and comes with an all important footprint (to help keep the bottom of the tent dry). It's fly/floor waterproofness is 1200/3000 mm. It comes in at 6 pounds 1 ounce.

We checked out the Eureka! - Taron 3 at Tent City and SAIL. It's also a very good tent of similar dimensions - 66" x 88" and 46" tall inside. It also has 2-doors and 2-vestibules and comes in at 6 pounds 4 ounces, but doesn't come with a footprint. It's fly/floor waterproofness is 1800/3000 mm.

The front vestibule on the Taron 3 is great. It's extra-large to hold your packs and shoes. But it doesn't come with a footprint. With the 15% off sale at SAIL it came in at $195.50.

With both sales finishing in the next 1-2 days I couldn't decide on which one to get. So I bought both. I'll take a closer look at home and pick one and return the other.