The ranger at Big Bend who made me set up my tent in the dark

He asked me at 7 PM if I'd ever pitched my tent before without a headlamp, so I tried it and now I always practice new gear in the yard before a trip, but do you folks actually read the manual before you hit the trail?

1 comments

1 Comment

daniel4749d ago

Skip the manual. Throw the tent on the ground in your backyard once, maybe twice, and you're good. The ranger was actually doing you a favor. You learn way more by messing up in the dark than by reading some boring booklet with tiny diagrams. If you can't figure out a tent by feel, then it's not a tent you should own. Plus, manuals are written by people who assume you're an engineer. Real experience beats reading every single time, even if you have to redo it the next morning.