Well, a little explanation is in order. My little Black Diamond, single-wall tent is my nice, rainy Northwest, backpacking tent that packs up to the size of a small loaf of bread. What's cool about it is that you put the tent together from the inside. That's handy when it's raining. See, you grab your poles and drape the tent over you and put the poles in place and viola, you're done! Well that's fine and dandy in Oregon, but as I would discover, it is not the ideal tent for Canada and Alaska!
See, here's the problem, as soon as you get off the bike, you are swarmed by little mosquito bastards (and they have telepathy to their bastard family and friends about the upcoming mealtime). So, as you're inside the tent, putting it together, all of your new mosquito buddies are in the tent with you! All that your netting is worth now is that they can't escape, not that they'd want to!
So... my nightly ritual was to wait until it got dark, then I'd turn on my LED headlamp and squish them, one by one between my fingers (I'm going to crush you) until I'd get them all and could lay down in peace and get some sleep. (I don't think skeeters can see with LED light, because they don't run from you like they do when you try to squeeze their heads in the daylight).
So anyway, Wyatt was complaining about his tent and that he hated it so bad that he got another one, therefore he's carrying an extra one. "Really? I'll take it!" The only problem was that it needed stakes to be set up; it wasn't self-supporting. That kinda sucked because Alaska is just one giant blob of granite and stakes just didn't go in wherever I tried to drive them, but... I had skeeter-free innards! When I got to North Pole, I sent the little yellow tent home.
That was a mistake.
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