andrewclaus

Ditto, many times over. I'm on my second one, having worn one out over 7,000 hiking miles and 6,000 bike touring miles in six seasons. Best $200 I've ever spent, in the dimes per night range. The new Protrail looks even better, if that's possible. Many of those tours and trips were in the arid US West, but plenty of North Cascades and Appalachian storms, and even a few late blizzards, proved the shelter's worthiness.

bmike

It's an excellent little tent. I have a Moment as well (the new DW version). I like that one a bit better for ease of setup (just 2 stakes) - especially here in the NE. But both are great. The Contrail packs a bit smaller and is a bit lighter.

djb

I'll mention this again, reading good reports of these from a number of you who have used them a lot and in all kinds of conditions is a real plus.
Also, given that over a long period of time, you guys have posted here a lot and don't come across as guys talking through your hats and have a lot of real experience bike touring and camping--this goes a long way towards taking your praise of these tents with a fair amount of confidence.

I really don't have a need for one of these right now, but will always keep them in mind if ever I wanted to play with reducing the size and weight of my packed tent.

bmike

34oz... Tarptent Moment. Love it. I carried the additional crossing pole on my last ADK trip because there was a chance of snow on the last night.

Tent, Lights, Night by Mike, on Flickr

Campsite by Mike, on Flickr

Contrail (now improved and called the Protrail on the TT website):
Mine is about 30oz with my homemade pole.

fargo, contrail by Mike, on Flickr

Here's a collection of lite shelters from an overland trip on fat bikes:

my contrail and wil's moment by Mike, on Flickr

arctos

I happily used the Tarptent Virga on the Divide Ride a decade ago. It was the 20 oz predecessor of the Contrail and the Pro Trail. I ordered it floorless with perimeter netting. Kept me warm, dry and bug free. I see the Pro Trail as a return to the A-frame form of Henry Shires original design created for his PCT thru hike in 2000(?).

nun

My standard set up. Contrail waiting for me while I cook some food and brew some tea.

rekmeyata

The Indians raided other Indians camps and got whatever they needed included their women and even their children.

Squeezebox

Are the tents you mentioned single or double walled? I really like the extra interior space of my Copper spur 2. Yea I know it weighs close to 2x as much as yours. But it feels like a motel room.

bmike

The Moment is double wall. 34oz.
The Contrail is single.

Buffalo Buff

You guys think it'd be worth upgrading to the protrail from my eureka solitaire?

Squeezebox

What are the wts.? It's your decision. My guess is yes.

BigAura

Some did. Others did carry stuff in a travois, which is kind-of-a trailer without wheels:

psy

+1 very relevant to the discussion at hand. the suitability and durabilty of some UL gear to long distance touring matters. When I am shopping for gear, I generally look at three criteria.

Comfort: I like longer trips, 2-3 months( would go longer if I could afford it heh)

Durability/suitability: broken gear such as rips in your tent or a tent that sags and leaks in persistent rain would be a bummer.

Weight: Of course nobody wants to carry more than they have to to be comfortable.

Pretty much in that order, aesthetics do occasionally come into play, I like a green tent, for example.
Sometimes I think a lot of UL proponents make most of their decisions based primarily on weight, with the other factors being almost non factors.

what factors do you take into consideration when shopping for gear? And what matters most to you guys?

staehpj1

I think so, the Soitaire isn't a very good design in my opinion. It has some cool features, but also some shortcomings. It has way too many stakes, cheap fiberglass poles that are prone to failure, and it is pretty heavy for what it is. If I remember correctly they once made one just like it but with titanium poles, but I have never actually seen one

If you had said Eureka Spitfire 1, rather than Solitaire, I'd have said to keep it. Once you get rid of the heavy stakes and just use 4 MSR needle stakes the weight gets down to an acceptable 2lb 8 oz. The only other shortcoming that I find for my use is that the poles should fold smaller. Given that you can find them for around $100 or just a bit more it hits a sweet spot for me for trips where I want a tent. When the weather isn't too likely to be horrible too much of the time I actually am more likely to take my 5.3 ounce bug bivy or my 7 ounce bivy and a 7 ounce tarp though.

Squeezebox

In my not so humble opinion, comfort needs to be split in 2 pieces. Day time comfort means carrying as little as possible, Can I get by without rain gear, a stove, a bivy instead of a tent? etc. Camp comfort means bring as much car camping stuff as you can handle. The super sized tent. BBQ grill? laptop? etc. So your job is to find the sweet spot somewhere in the middle.

nun

Comfort and function are default criteria....the stuff must work and maintain my level of comfort over long trips (2-3 months). Next criteria is weight. I try to get the lightest stuff that won't result in any loss of comfort. Hence, I take a tent rather than a tarp as I don't want to be bothered by bugs.

Buffalo Buff

Thanks for sharing those photos, they're beautiful. Could you post what photography equipment you were using?

Buffalo Buff

41oz vs 26oz. I don't know what it would be after buying a pole, since I don't own any hiking poles. 200$ to save a pound. Might be a christmas present to myself

Buffalo Buff

I agree.

For me, when I camp, all I do is setup my tent, change my clothes and sleep. Having cooking supplies or a laptop wouldn't make my night any better, so this gives me the freedom to focus on the daytime category in a more extreme way than most people would care to.

Buffalo Buff

Thanks for the info, I'm going to look up the spitfire.

I've had good luck with my Solitaire. Got it around 2004-2005 and I'm still on the stock poles. Only carry 4 stakes though, I found that's the least I can get by with. I can always carve more out of sticks if I got caught in some freak winds or something.

I have a grand trunk ultralight I use when I want the lightest shelter I own. I like the idea of a bivy though. I could see using one + a sleeping pad and being comfortable.

Squeezebox

I just can't do a bivy, if you can, more power to ya!

staehpj1

That is a reasonable way to look at it. I consider comfort on the bike and comfort while sleeping to be the important things. The good news is that bigger tents and other stuff don't make me sleep better so I can be pretty comfy with a very light load.

I do like to have the ability to fix a hot meal and given that I can do that with only a few ounces of gear and a few ounces of fuel I have not been tempted to do without.

bmike

That Contrail or Protrail will weigh about the same or less than most bivies. (Without getting super crazy with Cuben and such). And if you aren't giant sized you can sit up at the end of the Contrail.

staehpj1

Yeah, probably true for a lot of people. It works well for me for most trips, but I can see where folks wouldn't like it. The way I look at it is that I like to cowboy camp when I can and for me being in a bivy isn't that much different since I am already in a mummy bag if it is cool. The times that I like the bivy the least are when it is hot and the bugs are biting. That can be kind of miserable, so if I think it will be like that much, I take the bug bivy and a tarp. A good portion of the time I sleep on top of the bivy if it isn't pretty cool and the bugs aren't biting.

I haven't done it in a while, but I still might take a tent for some locales in some seasons.

staehpj1

It depends on what kind of bivies you are looking at. My Titanium Goat Bug bivy weighs 5.3 ounces and my Borah Side Zip weighs 7 ounces and I don't think I opted for the very lightest material choices. So even with a 7 ounce tarp and some cord and stakes the bivy is still a fair bit lighter. Not knocking the tarp tents, I just think that since we are talking UL shelters, you should compare with UL bivys and not heavier ones.

Obviously, if you value interior sprawling room the tarp tents are luxurious compared to a bivy.

Both have their pluses and minuses and one or the other may suit any given individual on any given trip better.

I like my bivy but concede that most folks will be happier with something like the contrail or protrail.