Bowfin 2 Report
- This topic has 4 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 6 years, 3 months ago by
.
-
The gear review section is closed, so I hope that this post is allowed here. I have no affiliation with Tarptents. I (and the fiancee and small dog at times) spent about 32 nights in the Bowfin 2 over the past few weeks in a variety of conditions.
tldr: really like this tent, but fabric around zipper is fraying already. very versatile in setting up.
Background:
Lots of years car camping, big day hikes, urban backpacking, endurance sports. Fiancee, dog, and I have been getting more into backpacking and so we needed a new tent for our summer trip which took us from southern AZ to the Olympic Peninsula hitting a few 2, 3, 4 day backpacking trips along the way. I researched endlessly to find the perfect tent only to realize that each is a compromise, for us at least. The runners up were from Big Agnes and Nemo. But wanting something that was solid in rain, I found the specs for the Bowfin 2 to look better for this need. I knew that if we were in a downpour, I wanted a shelter that I did not have to worry about and would make us all feel protected. After a few initial questions that Tarptent answered very quickly, I placed an order and had a tent in a week or so.
We gave it a shakedown in the Catalina Mtns. which are our stomping grounds. Easy to set up, but a bit unusual footprint (truncated diamond) that took some time for us to get used to. The shape will be much better for us when my other half gets a smaller sleep pad, she has a full length nemo, so that makes the sleep pad about 1 foot too long for her now. I use a big agnes full length as well, but likely looking into a 3/4 length for the future.
First real outing: Jenny Lake Wilderness.
First time I got to play around with “porching” the tent. This configuration allowed for airflow and some extra shade. Weather was perfect during this trip other than a little hot midday. When we arrived at jenny lake, we pitched the tent and then the other half decided that she found a better spot for us, but we already had everything setup inside the tent. Well, we decided to try to move the tent with our sleep systems already deployed inside. No problem! Really we just picked it up by the two ends and it was a piece of cake to move. This would be used over and over again…
And a pic of Diamond lake:
Next stop was the Trinity Alps. First night out, we started late at the trail head and by 7 pm we were hangry and could not find a level spot on the trail except for one small grassy/brushy area. We set up on the brush, stomping down anything we could, but spirits were not high this night (I get cranky after driving too much.). Waking up the next morning, we thought we camped right in poison oak. Turns out we and the tent were perfectly fine. I was happy to have a solid bathtub floor and not worry about putting down a footprint.
The last day of that trip put us slightly off trail at Lake Anna were we experienced rain, sleet, and finally snow. Inside the tent, we were dry and comfy. It was here that I added a bunch of guylines to the tieout points as it was quite windy. Back at the car, I swapped out the string I used, which was found on the trail, with Kelty triptease. I tied on using bowlines and have mastered the Skurka method of guylines.
Onto the Rogue River trail. This trail tore us up. We did it in 49 hours which included a 22 mile day. Did I mention that our dog is a Chihuahua/Yorky mix. She was dead at the end of this day, and had ticks all over her, me as well. Nothing really to report on this trip pother than I noticed two small holes in the inner mesh. It looked like burn marks. We used some gear tape to patch it up, which held through the rest of the trip. The mosquitoes are nasty in Oregon this time of the year!
Onto the Olympic Pen: Buckhorn Wilderness:
You can see the new guylines here, though my pitching skills were still being developed. At this point, I noticed on the trail mostly tents from REI: BA, Nemo, MSR, etc. But you know what, the Bowfin 2 was the best looking tent out there. Most of those tents were not pitched taut (inherent to the design?) and the colors were a blight on the landscape.I really was liking this tent more and more. It is very versatile in how it is setup and easy to change.
Let’s get off the trip report and more into the tent for a moment. The inner has two hooks at the top which are likely meant to hang a line across. I found that my wide brim hat cinch ties fit quite well in here and the hat hangs upside down making a nice little pocket. I like multi-use gear. Now, the tent comes with pockets near the doors, but I find these basically useless.
See how that pocket above looks. Yup, pretty much anything just falls out. I found if I put my phone in a sock and the pitch is just so, the added friction will hold the phone. But I ended up just not using these pockets after a while as they sag too much. Also, around this time, I noticed that the fabric just below the zipper (leftside of this picture) started to fray. Now, I do not at all remember having zipped the door closed and have the zipper get stuck. If it did, I certainly am not one to force it closed. So I am not sure why the fabric is already fraying. It does not interfere with the zipping at all. I can still do it one handed, most of the time. And the fraying is on the same spot on both doors. I never took a picture of this, though I might get it out later today to do just that. Should I be concerned enough about this to get it repaired now before our next big outing?
Okay, it is a friends b-day today. So I have to go ride bikes with him for a minute. Back later to continue the review…
Okay onward:
At this point, the fiancee and dog were taken to the airport and I went back to Olympic National. First stop was Enchanted Valley:
This configuration is turning out to be my favorite. Though it requires a bit of thought if you are going to zip everything tight at night. The bathtub floor has a nylon strap that can be connected to a stake, you can just make it out next to the water bottle in the pic. The stake does not work well though when you want to close everything up at night, so I often set the tent up with it all closed up and then added two stakes to allow me to porch the two doors. At the Enchanted Valley, I saw the only other Tarptent: a stratospire 2 which was used by one of the forest rangers there. It immediately stuck out with its distinct shape and very taught pitch. Again, lots of other tents that ended up with very saggy pitches by morning as it was quite moist in this area. Which brings me to a concern a friend had: condensation. I had a few nights where the temp went below the dew point and there was condensation but the fly is far enough away from the inner mesh that it was not an issue at all. I also played more around with the vestibule area as there are all sorts of hooks/loops, some I still don;’t know what for as in the following pic:See that loop along the seam. I thought that was to bring the floor up very high in wet conditions and maybe it is?? But I did creatively take that nylon strap at the lower left and connect it to one of the hooks at the top of the fly which created a huge vestibule, with the floor coming up well over a foot off the ground. I used that once when it was raining outside and I needed to cook in the vestibule area with the fly down (lots of bugs). Did I mention how many ways this tent can be configured?I spent about ten more days in Olympic and had wet, cold conditions at times. One of the toughest was at Lake Angeles:
The area is a cloud making machine, so wet cold conditions. When I first arrived, I didn’t know where to pitch. The main areas on the NW side of the lake did not have a view. I saw some locals make there way to the other side and when they left I followed their trail, which included crossing some floating logs, to pitch near where this pick was taken. Now, I had already pitched at the main site. So I just stuffed the tent into my backpack with everything else to save some time. On the other side, there is a little saddle away form the water that has been used as a site. I pitched there. As the clouds came in, it turned out that a more protected area was up on this rock that the pic is taken from, very counterintuitive. So, I once again decided to move, this time it was only about 15 ft but through some brush/trees. I left my sleeping system ion the tent and carried it through the brush. No problem.After Olympic, I stopped at Ranier, then on to meet some friends through hiking the PCT, they were near Trukee. One friend commented that his tent, a BA, is such that you are basically committed to the rain fly or not once pitched for the night. I hadn’t realized this about the Bowfin 2. More versatility.
Last stop was Yosemite were I got a walk up permit for Sunrise Lakes when I arrived on July 4 in the afternoon. Score!
So overall, I am very happy with the purchase. I have concerns about the fabric near the zipper being frayed already, though it is not causing any use issues. The two small holes in the mesh, from burning or??, are still holding up with gear tape. Oh yeah, wind performance is good as far as I can tell, though it definitely helps to have the broad sides of the tent at 90 degrees to the wind.
Hope this review helps someone. I have learned a lot on this site. Cheers.
Last, weighed my pack at the REI in Seattle and my base weight was at 15 pounds even. That is with this 3 pound tent!
This configuration is turning out to be my favorite. Though it requires a bit of thought if you are going to zip everything tight at night. The bathtub floor has a nylon strap that can be connected to a stake, you can just make it out next to the water bottle in the pic. The stake does not work well though when you want to close everything up at night, so I often set the tent up with it all closed up and then added two stakes to allow me to porch the two doors. At the Enchanted Valley, I saw the only other Tarptent: a stratospire 2 which was used by one of the forest rangers there. It immediately stuck out with its distinct shape and very taught pitch. Again, lots of other tents that ended up with very saggy pitches by morning as it was quite moist in this area. Which brings me to a concern a friend had: condensation. I had a few nights where the temp went below the dew point and there was condensation but the fly is far enough away from the inner mesh that it was not an issue at all. I also played more around with the vestibule area as there are all sorts of hooks/loops, some I still don;’t know what for as in the following pic:
See that loop along the seam. I thought that was to bring the floor up very high in wet conditions and maybe it is?? But I did creatively take that nylon strap at the lower left and connect it to one of the hooks at the top of the fly which created a huge vestibule, with the floor coming up well over a foot off the ground. I used that once when it was raining outside and I needed to cook in the vestibule area with the fly down (lots of bugs). Did I mention how many ways this tent can be configured?
The area is a cloud making machine, so wet cold conditions. When I first arrived, I didn’t know where to pitch. The main areas on the NW side of the lake did not have a view. I saw some locals make there way to the other side and when they left I followed their trail, which included crossing some floating logs, to pitch near where this pick was taken. Now, I had already pitched at the main site. So I just stuffed the tent into my backpack with everything else to save some time. On the other side, there is a little saddle away form the water that has been used as a site. I pitched there. As the clouds came in, it turned out that a more protected area was up on this rock that the pic is taken from, very counterintuitive. So, I once again decided to move, this time it was only about 15 ft but through some brush/trees. I left my sleeping system ion the tent and carried it through the brush. No problem.- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
