Bakers 4 man tent...

[chris pearson]

How the heck do you portage such a big tent? Any tricks or ideas to package it better than the big sack it comes in? Looks like it takes up allot of space in the canoe!

 

[Phil]

Will it fit in one of these?

http://ostromoutdoors.com/wabakimi-canoe-portage-pack-p-125.html

 

[Greg Nolan]

How the heck do you portage such a big tent?

Chris --

With a very strong back!

If made of cotton, as they usually are, they generally weigh 40-50 pounds, more than twice as much as a modern tent, take up a lot more room, and even usually cost more. So the real questions is not "how?" but rather "why?"

Greg

 

[chris pearson]

Cause they are so cool and pratical, minus the package size and weight! Oh wait, is that an oxymoron? Or am I just a moron? How did Bill Mason do it?

 

[chris pearson]

Anyone have one of these? Cotton one is lighter matl than the Azland tent.

 

[chris pearson]

Oooopppps

http://www.canoemapscanada.com/inde...ategory_id=38&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=57

 

[Dylan Schoelzel]

I use to trip with a woods tent (canvas tent), still do sometimes. It will fit Emily and I, the two kids, and the two dogs. There is no floor, just the ground so you don’t have to worry about dog claws poking through the bottom. The weight doesn’t bother me too much.

I carry it in a canvas duffle bag. When the tent is down it is folded up in thirds, lengthwise, to a width that is just shy of the length of the duffle bag. It is then rolled up and slid into the duffle. For portaging I carry it on top of a wannigan or the double packs.

 

[chris pearson]

Cool.........

 

[Greg Nolan]

The baker tents at your Canoe Maps Canada web site are much lighter weight than I had thought they would be -- comparable to modern designs -- and they do look like they would be comfortable (if a bit on the pricey side).

 

[robin]

I did a few trips to LaVerendrye with a guy who had a baker type tent. It was a bear to portage, he used a huge Duluth Pack to stuff it in. It did take up alot of room in a canoe, and took a while to set up. Lots of guy ropes all over the place to trip you up at night.
It was tough to set up on rocky surfaces and the fire pit wasn't always in the right spot. Way too much work for me, but fun to sit inside in the evening with a small fire under the tent flap out front.

cooking under the flap over a fire, very nice, but lots of ropes around.

I saw a small baker tent at the Maine Canoe Symposium, it looked like 2 people could lay lengthwise inside, it had a floor and bug screen and room for a small fire under the front flap, very neat little tent.

I bought a 8x10 wall tent which I planned to use for early and late season canoe trips in the ADK's, here is the outfit with an internal frame. Talk about heavy, almost too much stuff for even car camping.

Although I have never sewn, I bought an old sewing machine as my wife's is off limits, and cut that wall tent down to 7x6 with a 5'4" ridge height. I built a lite weight interior frame out of hardwood dowels and the angle kit I got with the tent.
http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/bb413/Beavertail100/Wall%20Tent/DSC05436_zps8d55dbc7.jpg[/IMG
[IMG]http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/bb413/Beavertail100/Wall%20Tent/DSC05462_zps62222f9c.jpg
The tent now fits in a #3 Duluth Pack with room to spare, the frame is bulky, but fits into a longer duffle bag I have and carries well over a portage.
The stove was cut down to 12x12x12 and that's still too big, I'm looking at 12x12x8" high as it just throws off too much heat for the smaller space.
Best of all, the tent sets up real fast, so it can be used on a traveling canoe trip, plenty of room for two with room to spare.

 

[Giiwedin]

We used a 4-man Baker tent on our first trip to Hudson's Bay many years ago. I modified the design in one of Calvin Rustrum's books and had Duluth Tent & Awning (as Duluth Pack was then known) sew it for me out of Egyptian cotton. It was heavy - probably in the 40 pound range and much more when wet. Very luxurious in a wooded campsite with tons of room for all, but wildly impractical when used on open land subject to winds. We had a number of collapses. I still have the tent, now stored in Ely, although I haven't used it in years. For today's tripping purposes a Baker could work in the right territory, particularly if made of modern lighter materials. We lugged it across portages in its own Duluth #3, along with the heavy ground cloth. Not light, to be sure, but certainly not much heavier than the food packs or the utility.

Check out this thread from several years ago. It starts with perfectly silly Old Town promo pictures, and gradually morphs on page 3 into a discussion of Baker tents.

http://forums.wcha.org/showthread.php?1099-L-L-Bean-camping-on-a-rock/page3&highlight=baker+tent

 

[SWEETWATER]

thats a sweet tent love the last pic. you ever want to get rid of it let me know