My Favorite Thing About Burning Man 2009 – My Tent

There are lots of things to love about Burning Man, of course. This was my third year going, and there’s always a lot to wrap my mind around. This year, there was a gigantic slide that created a huge influx of patients to the medical center, an enormous Rubik’s Cube that you could try your hand at solving, a nearly-all-day dust storm on Saturday, and, of course, the thousands of awesome people to interact with.

However, I think my favorite thing about Burning Man this year was my tent. OK, so I’m boring! It is was it is. Joshua and I bought this tent just a few weeks ago from some friends of ours who used it and loved it for years in the SCA but are now ready to move on to something else. I am completely smitten with my new tent!

It’s made of hardcore canvas, with four corner poles and a big center pole. The space between the poles themselves is 10×10, but there’s extra space created by the outward slant of the walls. It’s the roomiest tent we’ve ever had, by far. Plus, you can stand up in all of it, which increases the feeling of space. With the front and back flaps, and the overall height, our tent stayed reasonably cool in the Black Rock Desert. It also stood up just fine to the high winds.

This is not a backpacking tent, to be sure. You’ve got five poles to cart around, plus all the stakes and guy lines. The canvas weighs about 75 pounds! Joshua and I hardly ever camp when our car isn’t right there, though, so it works fine for us.

Alchemy is coming up in a couple of weeks, and I’m looking forward to using it again!