Besides bac0n and I, there just might be a few more of you out there that have been known to camp. This is a thread for random camping tales, gear recommendations, and what not.

I'll start with the tale of my tent; the MSR Wind 2.



Over fifteen years ago, I decided I needed a tent. In typical Scar fashion, I started researching, and I discovered this beast. This baby isn't for family camping, its a Four Season Expedition Grade two man mountaineering tent. I dubbed it 'Overkill'.

Overkill's first use was up on the North Shore, on a nice calm summer day.



Seems like a normal campsite until you look at it from a distance.



'Twas a great evening hanging and drinking with my little brother, and Overkill laughed at the conditions.
Overkill sat on the shelf for several years while I worked for Tetrapak due to copious amounts of traveling and work.

Years later, I started going out to South Dakota for prairie dog shooting. The first year, we stayed back at a casino. The second year, we decided to camp. There were four of us, and said I could bring a tent for two of us. Crazy Eddy said, 'Nah, don't bother. I've got an awesome six person beast we can use.' So I left Overkill at home.... Oooops.

Say hello to what we coined the Coleman Breeze:



So.... There's no trees out there to break up the wind, and it gets windy out there. We set that bitch up on a trailer and ratchet strapped it into place. First night, it stormed all night, 60+ mph winds, (did I mention Overkill is rated to over 100mph winds?). We stayed up most the night holding onto the tent poles, bracing the tent poles, etc, hoping that they wouldn't snap. When we finally got a couple hours of sleep, we woke up to half the poles missing, but thanks to the ratchet straps, the tent was still somewhat up. All night, all I could think of was Overkill sitting on the shelf at home, laughing at us.

The following year, the Coleman Breeze stayed home, and out came Overkill. Another member of the party also had a four season tent. We set camp, and then a monster of a storm blew in, including some cloud rotation. Overkill laughed, the other four season snapped a pole.



This years trip, we stayed at a cabin because 8" of rain fell as we drove out there, and there was no way we were getting to our camp site.

Just this past weekend, a friend had a party in Barnum, MN, and I set up old Overkill.


It was hot as fuck when I got up there (97F, 110 Heat Index), and I was thinking I was going to roast in Overkill. Well, then the temp dropped twenty degrees. We hung out, went to the bar, had some drinks, came back, and everyone went to there tents and campers. Well...... About 0300, I awoke to a peel of thunder. I sat up, zipped up the vestibules, and then listened to one helluva thunderstorm roll through, and slept through most of it. Woke up nice and dry. The other two tents had standing water in them, the camper was drenched, and there were snapped trees, uprooted trees, and standing water.

I love you Overkill.