So after months of meticulous planning and numerous shakedown trips, my son's troop and I arrived at Philmont Scout Ranch all ready for twelve days of fabulous backpacking.
So once we arrived at that first campsite (and much to my dismay), I opened up my Rainshadow II to discover I had left the one and only rear pole back in Maryland. So for the past several weeks leading up to the trip, I had sensed that the tent seemed rather light, but I had somehow overlooked that the tent was missing its one and only pole.
Fortunately, with a little bit of ingenuity & some extra trekking poles, the other adviser and I survived quite comfortably:
Obviously, the "mistake" also knocked another several ounces off the tent's total weight. The only issue we had was when we had to pitch the tent on a rather steep slope one night. The other adviser decided to go bowling while he was asleep, and slid right into the poles.
