Some can pitch a tent in minutes, for some it takes hours. Many have tried it blindfolded. There is some that love pitching tents and a few that hate it. I happen to be one of the few that love pitching tents but could take hours to pitch depending who I am paired up with.
Finding the right ground that isn't to rocky and is high enough that we wont be getting soaked anytime soon is the first decision. Then the tough decision of pegging it down first or last becomes next. Most of the time pegging first is the best depending on the weather and the wind.
The last camp I went to with Girl Guides 49, we ran into all 3 of these issues. The ground we picked was pretty rocky, pegging it down first was an option we shouldn't have taken and the ground was literally on a hill. (Imagine sleeping on that)
Of course the tent my group that I was with go put in charge with the tent with the fly that covered your gear and went was twice the size of the tent itself. It almost took us an hour to get just the tent up and another half hour to figure out this darn fly. When we finally go it, leaders made the decision that we were moving the tent because of the wind and the rocks. We collapsed the tent and played this game over again with leader assistance. Little did we know that this tent was going to Mosaic with us- I'd say it is a pain in the butt, but keeps things dry.
My past experiences with putting tents up hasn't been good. To add to these tales, LIT 2009 I was putting tents up with the Girl Guides. For just a regular tent, oh boy was it a disaster. Not a single tent peg wanted to stay in the ground so every time we would peg one of us would have a tent flying in our face. we figured out the problem: We didn't put the pegs in the right way. So leaders in case you have realized yet or noticed, I am not the best Ranger to allow to pitch tents with Girl Guides or else you will be there all day watching and laughing hysterically.
Taking them down isn't much better until you know how to fold it. Sometimes this takes me 3 to 4 tries to get the folding right. At the past camp, taking the tent down wasn't my luck either. Half way through of folding it, it decided that it should start to rain. So here we are running down the path with a tent nicely folded, pegs, poles and the instructions. (Those would have been helpful)
Who Knows what the tents will us to Mosaic. We are close to finding out in less than 3 months.
dont forget the LIT Tent we tryed to put up our second week.... the one that we need to get the leaders to help and it slanted and smelled funny. Not to mention the fabric was sticky and we had to throw it in the garbage...do you remember that?
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