New Tent – Tarptent Dipole Li1

As I mentioned last time, one of the challenges of the OCT is finding a place to camp since large swaths of the path run through no-dispersed-camping zones. In addition some camping will be high on a sandy beach or in state park campgrounds. As a hammock camper I can usually find somewhere to hang if there are trees, but the beach and dunes…nada. Campgrounds often remove trees to make room for more tents. All this to say, I am once again going to try a tent.

Back in 2019 on a section of the Continental Divide Trail, I dug out an old tent and an unreliable sleeping pad and had a terrible experience. The tent leaked, so I was soaking wet when it rained and the sleeping pad keep deflating. I was miserable.

Once I decided to go with a tent for the OCT, I got a new one. Tarptent is a cottage business making ultralight tents for the last 24 years and I’ve owned several. So I picked up their newest single person tent (Dipole Li1) made from DCF (formerly known as Cuben). This cutting edge fabric was designed for Americas Cup class sailboat sails and is extraordinarily strong, non stretchy, waterproof, and unbelievably light. It is also unbelievably expensive. But it makes an amazing tent. The Dipole was developed using CAD/CAM software to get the strongest, lightest, roomiest tent they could manage, and I think they succeeded. For its weight it is incredibly roomy with high ceiling and vertical sidewalls. It has good ventilation, but can be battened down for storm conditions. I comes in at 1 lb. and 6 oz.

When it came in the mail, I set it up in the basement so that if I didn’t like it I could send it back in pristine condition. Actually, I bought the 2 person version first, figuring I could use the extra room, but it was so roomy that it was ridiculous. I swapped it for the 1 person version which has more than enough room for me. Now it was time to move from my basement test site to the great outdoors.

Tahkenitch Dunes is about an hour and a half drive from Eugene, is along the Oregon coast, allows dispersed camping, and contains a segment of the OCT. So it’s a perfect test site. I loaded up my backpack and headed off to the coast. It was bright and sunny and in the upper 40s when I arrived. I had a nice hike through the dunes and along the beach down to Three Mile Lake where I knew of a scenic campsite. Sure, there were plenty of hammock trees there, but there were several flat spots suitable for a tent. The setup was quite easy, as you only need a stake at each corner of the rectangular tent. For heavy weather there are 4 other guy out points you can add

My tent was perched on a sandy ridge 130 feet up and about 1/2 mile from the ocean. I enjoyed the rest of the blue sky day, got treated to a wonderful sunset, and later a clear sky astronomy extravaganza. The tent did well with the light winds and occasional gusts. Next morning there was a lot of condensation on the ceiling of the tent as one would expect in a humid location with an outside temperature in the mid 30s. But the water tends to bead up and flow along the ceiling into the mesh net drains along the side of the tent. Also the ends of the tent are high enough that I did not bump into them when sitting up. So I didn’t knock water down. There was no rain that night, so the tent needs further testing in higher winds and rain, but this first mild overnight was a success.

Since then, I was able to test in rainy conditions, pitching it in our side yard for a rainy night. Steady rain with some very brief heavier rains. The tent was sound, no leaks, and no splash-in from the hard rain. It wasn’t windy so I still need to get out and test wind and rain in combination. But so far so good.

See you in about 2 weeks with info on my new sleeping Pad.

Stay Safe and Happy Trails!