I bought a new tent (Salewa Litetrek II) a week ago and I’ve been desperately wanting to go try it out. But it is the common problem with lack of time. However, since there was no “good” time in sight I just decided to go for a quick overnighter close to my home. I set off at 9.15 pm but with Finnish white nights that is no problem – the sun was still shining as I parked my car. It was a quick 15 minute walk to the top of the hill; my new tent is a freestanding model so it can also be set up to the top of a rocky hill.
I got my tent up and then I just sat down and relaxed watching the sun slowly setting. Because I was fairly close to houses and roads, there were some occasional “human” sounds or a dog barking, put otherwise it was just birds chirping and wind mildly whispering.
The sun went down at 22.20 pm but in Finland it doesn’t become pitch black right away. Instead the sky is coloured in lovely pastel shades of pink and purple. The evening air was so fresh and clean but it started to get little chilly so I took a short walk on the rocky hills just to get my blood circulating before heading to my sleeping bag.
I slept fairly ok – I woke up couple times to the noises of birds. There was this one bird especially, it just kept making noises for what seemed like hours upon hours. And its’ sound was weird croaking, not normal kind of chirping. At first i thought it might be some kind of an owl, but I managed to see the same bird fly next morning and it was definitely not an owl. The mystery of that bird remains unsolved – I really need to look into that in more detail.
The tent functioned really well. It is a 2 person tent, so I had plenty of room sleeping in it alone. In my previous tents I have had some trouble with condensation but in this tent the ventilation seemed to work well (though it wasn’t humid weather). Overall I am very pleased with the tent: it is easy to pitch, it held up really well without any pegs, and it is quite high from the middle so I can sit upright comfortably, it packs up small and is quite light (with 2,3 kilos it is by no means ultralight, but it is ok for the price I was willing to pay for a tent).
I am looking forward to many great adventures with this tent!