PRODUCT INFORMATION

Features:

• Cupholder
• Self-Bailing Scupper Holes
• Made in the USA
• Keepers Foot Brace System
• Gear Storage Pockets
• 8-inch Orbix Midship Hatch
• SlideTrax Accessory System
• Phase 3 SOT Seating System
• Side Carry Handles with Paddle Holder
• Comfort Carry Handles
• Tankwell w/ Bungee
• 8-inch Orbix Bow Hatch

The Tarpon 100 from Wilderness Systems has always been one of my favorite recreational kayaks for several reasons. I love to camp and fish the Buffalo River, the Tarpon is usually the go to kayak.

First, the size of the boat is ideal for Ozark lakes and rivers. The kayak boasts a 325 lb capacity. Whether you are trying to pack cast iron, extra fishing supplies, a little more beer, or maybe just taking your dog out with you, the Tarpon 100 has you covered. It has a width of just over 30 inches wide, which makes it an incredible platform to fish from. It also has a Slide-Trax rail that accommodates accessories from rod holders to fish finders.

The Tarpon is also a very well engineered kayak. With its Phase 3 seat, 2 8" Orbix hatches, and roomy tankwell, the Tarpon is the most user friendly sit on top kayak that I have seen. A well placed cup holder, side carry handles with paddle holders, and the self bailing scupper holes makes this a great boat.

If you just want to relax out on the river for a day, if you need an agile fishing kayak, if you want to go ultralight camping for several days, or simply get some exercise out on the lake, this would be a great choice without breaking the bank.

For more info, call 417-877-8855 in Springfield and 913-851-2244 in Kansas City.

PRODUCT INFORMATION

First Impressions:

This tent certainly falls into the ultralight class, with a fly and main body that could be measured in grams. When fully packed in the original Big Agnes stuff sack, it is roughly half the size of a standard 3-man tent. The asymmetric design makes a night-time pitch non-idiot-proof. The corners of the main body and fly are color-coded, but the poles are not. It is possible to have the poles backwards and not know it until you fail at attaching the body.

Beware: Attaching the brow pole to the fly may become problematic, if not impossible, after a year or two of use. The attachment is a pocket inside the fly on both ends. This is the same attachment as seen in the original Big Agnes 3-Wire Bivy, which prompted a design change to an external pole, clip-on system. As an owner of the original 3-Wire, it made me cringe to see this on the Copper Spur. First time putting it together required some stretching of the fly, which is not a good sign. As I have experienced with my 3-Wire, over time, the material will shrink, and this will require more and more stretch, until the material breaks, or you give up before you break the material. Fortunately, this is where the similarities end between the 3-Wire and the Copper Spur. The design philosophies and construction are very different. Unlike the 3-Wire, if you are unable to attach the brow pole due to material shrink, this will not affect the performance of the fly, as it is still attached at 4 other points. Subsequently, it will not affect the overall performance of the tent, either. Also unlike the 3-Wire, this (potential) problem cannot be solved by a design change to an external pole, clip-on system.

Field Testing:

The tent took a nice 6-day field trip to the Medicine Bow Mountains, Colorado. Being a 2-man tent, it was deployed with 2 people. The parts breakdown is simple enough to divide among the two of us. One person carried the fly and poles, while the other carried the body and stakes. A standard US poncho was used as a footprint. We carried 35-liter packs, and still managed to weigh in around 25 pounds. The tent was packed up for the 7-mile hike in at altitudes ranging from 9040’ to 12,300’. Mid-September temperatures were between 30°F and 60°F. The tent was exposed to one full day of slushy Colorado snow, and two humans remaining within for around 20 consecutive hours.

Review:

The ultralight construction makes the tent virtually unnoticeable while stowed in your pack. Split between two people, your share will roughly match the size and weight of your shell jacket. Stash the poles inside or outside your pack, either way, it won’t break your back (sorry for the rhyme). This is a true 2-man tent, with little room for anything else. Fortunately, the vestibule area is large enough to protect your pack and whatever else may not fit inside the tent.

As with most tents, the fly is waterproof, non-breathable. The material did its job keeping the rain, sleet, and full day of snow out, but the amount of moisture on the outside was easily matched by the moisture on the inside from 2 people spending the day and night inside. A few drips here and there (but nothing to panic about), and when it was time to break it down and pack it up, you can’t decide which side needs to dry out first. Under the testing conditions, the efficacy of the head-side vent was negligible, although it may be better suited for drier, breezier climes.

Bottom Line:

I’ll give it two thumbs up, and this comes from someone who normally looks down on tents. If you and a buddy are going into the field and need a place to stay, take this tent with you.

For more info, call 417-877-8855 in Springfield and 913-851-2244 in Kansas City.

PRODUCT INFORMATION

All of the above information is taken directly from the Big Agnes specification chart on the BA website (Big Agnes Lost Ranger) and is for the version tested:  long.  These dimensions and weight will vary from the regular size sleeping bag

During my test of the Big Agnes Copper Spur UL2 tent, I also had the chance to try out the Big Agnes Lost Ranger sleeping bag.  When Tom from the Springfield shop handed me the sleeping bag, I’ll have to admit I was skeptical of the whole concept of a bag with no bottom insulation.  I’m a traditionalist.  I like my fluffy underneath me and the thought of just using a pad as my ground insulation with the fluffy on top just doesn’t seem right.  I wasn’t quite sure what to make of the Lost Ranger sleeping bag.  I had perused the Big Agnes manufacturer’s catalogue and website before, and was intrigued by the concept of just having a slip in compartment for my sleeping pad vice traditional insulation underneath me, but more on that later.

Scenario:

• Test Area - Prairie State Park
• Date - September 9th-10th
• Average Temperature - 73º day and 54º night
• Type of Outing - car camping at established campsite with Boy Scout Troop in order to learn about the last remainin, unspoiled prairie ecosystem in Western Missouri.

PRODUCT REVIEW

The bag comes with both a breathable cotton storage sack and a compression bag, which is pictured next to my Camelbak 1 liter bottle for a size comparison.  I really like the way this sleeping bag compresses.  My other down bag, an Alps Mountaineering 0 degree bag, has a stuff sack with compression straps that makes it compress like a cantaloupe and, while small, can make it more of an inconvenience to pack things around in the bottom of a backpack due to its round shape.  This compression shape, cylindrical, already lends itself to an easier packing plan in a backpack.

This bag is rated for 15 degrees.  While the night time temperature of mid to low 50’s was not optimal for a bag of this rating, it did give me an opportunity to use the foot zipper to try out the ventilation.  The sleeping pad I used for my test is an older Thermarest trail comfort pad.  I’ve had it for years, it weighs a ton, but its durability is unquestioned as I used it in the Marine Corps. 

The first part, getting the pad in the sleeve in the bottom of the bag was a little tricky but, with practice and a modern pad, such as a Thermarest Neo Air or a Big Agnes pad, this task could be a lot easier.  The top opening is closed with a little Velcro tab and it’s just a matter of getting the pad in the opening.

Then you just slide the pad the rest of the way in and to the bottom.

Simple enough...

While I didn’t get any pictures of them, there are little corner slots at the ends of the pad sleeve for the air valve of your sleeping pad which makes it very convenient for you to adjust the inflation level of your pad while it’s inside your sleeping bag.

This bag is a bit more than semi-rectangular in shape, as seen in the photo above.  For those that prefer the skin tight snugness of a traditional down mummy bag, then this isn’t the bag for you.  For those that are “floppers”, then this bag is the way to go.  I have a tendency to try and flop around in my mummy bag at night, trying to get comfortable, and this generally leaves me a tangled up mess.  In the Big Agnes Lost Ranger, I had plenty of room to move around, stretch out, wiggle my shoulders, bend my knees, etc., and still have no cold spots.  While the night time temperature never got below 50 degrees, I had the top zipper down a little less than half way and the bottom zipper pull open about five inches.  I’m the type that prefers to sleep in boxers and a t-shirt, no matter the temp, so I started out warm and got chilly later in the night.  I never bothered to zip up; I just burrowed deeper into the bag and stayed warm.  One truly stand out feature of the bag is the built in pillow sleeve inside the hood.  You can stuff in whatever you want:  a fleece, down sweater, pants, whatever… into the sleeve and you’ve actually got a pillow you can wrap your arms under, that doesn’t interfere with hood snugness and doesn’t slide down to your back like a stand-alone pillow would.  Brilliant! 

While a regular size bag might have “fit” me a bit better, I think I would find the long version, as tested, my preferred size, especially in colder weather.  I hate waking up in the morning and putting on cold clothes, so I stuff all of my clothes inside the foot of my bag.  With a regular sized bag, my feet get jammed into my clothes and I have no toe room, far less wiggle room (if any) inside a traditional mummy bag.  In the Lost Ranger, I was able to stuff the foot of the bag with my clothes, extend my legs, and flop. 

The other concern I had, being a user of a traditional mummy bag, was the lack of fluffy on the bottom of the bag.  I am very pleased to say that my concern is unfounded.  The sleeping pad in the sleeve on the bottom of the Lost Ranger and the 650 down fill on top was more than adequate to keep me nice and toasty.  The other huge plus was not sliding off of my pad in the middle of the night. 

Again, while a 15 degree bag was a little overkill for the temperature encountered that night, with the zippers open for proper ventilation, the flop room, and the built in pillow sleeve, I slept better on the ground than I have in quite a long time.  If you have to invest in only one three season bag (Fall, Winter, Spring), then the Big Agnes Lost Ranger should more than fill the bill.

For more info, call 417-877-8855 in Springfield and 913-851-2244 in Kansas City.

PRODUCT INFORMATION

All of the above information was taken directly off of the manufacturer’s specification card attached to the tent carry bag.  So, what does it all mean?   The above specs just give you a good idea of what you’re dealing with if you’re going to haul it around on your back and set it up after a long day on the trail or, if you’re car camping, the tent really doesn’t take up very much space at all.

I was afforded the opportunity to test out the Big Agnes Copper Spur UL2 Tent recently and, having owned the Big Agnes Seedhouse 2 tent for a while, looked forward to the chance to spread out a bit from the cramped quarters of the BA Seedhouse. 

Scenario:

• Test Area - Prairie State Park
• Date - September 9th-10th
• Average Temperature - 73º day and 54º night
• Type of Outing - car camping at established campsite with Boy Scout Troop in order to learn about the last remainin, unspoiled prairie ecosystem in Western Missouri.

PRODUCT REVIEW

What do you get with this tent?  The fabric of the tent body is silnylon and mesh, the floor is rip-stop silnylon.  The tent fly is rip-stop silnylon as well.  The tent comes with the main carry bag, pole bag, stake bag, piece of cord for pulling stakes, tent body, and fly.  The footprint is sold separately as is an accessory gear loft which clips into little hangers inside the tent body.

I wanted to see just how easy/complicated setting this tent up was so, abandoning my standard practice of setting up a new tent at least twice before heading out, I kept the Copper Spur in its factory packaging and tossed it into my gear bag along with some other stuff for an outing with my Scout Troop to Prairie State Park.  I would never advise doing so if I was heading into Ponca Wilderness or up into Desolation Wilderness in the Sierras.  The wilderness is the wrong place to learn how to put up a new tent for the first time because it will always be in the dark, raining, cold, and you forgot your headlamp.

On arriving at the campsite it was a simple matter of opening up the tent bag, dumping everything out and seeing what I had to work with.

I unwrapped everything, took the poles out of the factory plastic wrappers but was careful to leave the rubber bands keeping the compression on, got everything organized, and figured out my assembly sequence.  I’m picky as hell about my tent site selection, I check all micro-terrain that may affect my “tent comfort”:  drainage routes, low ground where water may pool, possible foot traffic routes, “sharps” (branches, sticks, sticker bushes) that might spear me during my 2:00 A. M. call of nature, back jabbers, toe stubbers,  widow makers, and so forth.  Attention to detail in tent site selection always pays off in the end. 

Set up time.  Lay the footprint out, making sure to clear out any sharps or other pokey objects from underneath first.

Then it’s a matter of matching up the green stake webbing on one corner of the footprint with the green stake webbing on the corner of the tent body for a match-up.  Purple Dinosaur style or KISS principle, whichever you want to call it.  Nice and easy.

The poles are shock corded together and most of the sections snap together with only a couple having to be clipped in to their mates.  Most reading this will more likely than not have set up a tent before, so I won’t bore you with the details, but these poles have some serious spring to them and, as I discovered, a one-man set up with the Big Agnes Copper Spur UL2, while doable, is much more manageable with two people.  Trying to clip the last pole end into the webbing by myself was a chore and I lost it, which caused tension release and sent the works flying like a slingshot.

Getting everything back under control, and with a little assistance, I got all of the poles attached to the tent body and footprint.  It was then just a matter of clipping the body to the poles, a very simple and straightforward process.

Something completely new to me is the crossbar on the pole system for the rain fly.  Having never worked with an attachment system like this, I was pleasantly surprised to find that, with very little head scratching, it all came together quite easily.   The crossbar attaches to the main center pole via a special nut (for lack of a better term) which in turn is held in place by, and supports, the tent body by attachment points on either side of the center pole.  The photo shows far better than I can explain it.

This cross bar system minimizes additional pole lengths, lends to the stability of the overall tent system, and definitely increases the amount of head and shoulder room inside the tent itself.  Just this one pole tightens up all of the mesh screening and silnylon panels all over the tent body as well.  An excellent example of engineering, I think.

The rain fly has reinforced pockets to accommodate the ends of the crossbar pole, so there’s no danger of rub through, provided one gets the pole ends into the pockets, which isn’t overly difficult.  When attaching the fly, placement on the crossbar and fitting the pole ends first is essential.  Without doing this first, the fly simply won’t attach properly.  Not a huge drawback, just something to be aware of, especially if you’re doing a night time set-up. 

The rest of the rain fly set up is straight forward:  pull it down over the tent body, stake it down, stake down both vestibules, move on in.  Tension is applied to the fly through the use of quick release buckles and pull straps. 

Having two doors and two vestibules of the same size is quite convenient and far superior to my Seedhouse 2, but there is the weight tradeoff.  I’ll take the little bit of extra weight of the Copper Spur for the convenience of not crawling over my girlfriend to get out of the tent such as occurs in our Seedhouse 2.

The rain fly was put to the test with a minor rain squall and, while not a huge test of the fly’s capabilities, the rain was enough to instill confidence that it could shed rain and would not direct water flow onto the footprint with proper tension and tent placement.  Everything stayed dry and there were no leaks at any of the seams that I could see.  Again, tensioning of the fly is critical when buttoned up, there was little condensation of any significance after a night’s sleep due to the mesh walls and roof vent panel.

Overall, the Big Agnes Copper Spur UL2 is definitely a keeper.  I really couldn’t find anything not to like about this tent.  From ease of set up right out of the package to the friendly, snag-free zippers, to the roominess, this tent definitely goes upscale for an ultra light two-person backpacking tent.   I’m sure there are those that would grouse about the price, but as the saying goes, “You get what you pay for.”  Quality costs.  I’d much rather pay up front for a tent that will last me years than pay the same amount for several cheap tents that I’ll only get a couple of seasons out of (each) and generally be unhappy with.  The true test of this tent will come this fall and winter when my girlfriend and I try to squeeze the both of us and our 100 pound Bernese Mountain Dog, Liberty, inside the tent with us.  Liberty’s something of a priss and does not like to sleep on the ground.  Plus, when it’s cold, she makes a great woobie!

Sam’s Throne 2010

For more info, call 417-877-8855 in Springfield and 913-851-2244 in Kansas City.