Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
gether on a common goal, it creates a certain intimacy. By the end of the week of working,
living, and cooking meals together, we've created a sort of family.”
HOW TO BUY THE PERFECT TENT
•
The fewer stakes the better. Stakes are heavy and easy to lose.
•
Make sure the fly closes completely and has a vestibule for storing packs
and boots out of the rain.
•
A three-season tent is plenty. Unless you plan on extreme mountaineering
(and you wouldn't be reading this sidebar if you were), you only need a
three-season tent, which is much lighter.
•
Find a big stuff sack for the tent so that you don't have to kill yourself cram-
ming it into the bag, which could cause damage to the tent.
•
Buy the lightest tent that meets your needs and budget.
•
Take the sales reps' pitches with a grain of salt.
•
The fewer seams on the tent bottom the better.
•
Practice setting up your tent in the backyard
before
you're at your campsite.
Wilderness Volunteers organizes about 50 trips a year to such beautiful and exotic places
as Utah's Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (where you'll eradicate Russian olive trees
along the Escalante River), Idaho's Seven Devils Mountains (where you'll clear deadfall
from three high-country trails) and Hawaii's Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge (where
you'll plant native saplings). You'll get access to lots of places you'd never see otherwise.
Plus, one or two of the seven days are spent exploring natural wonders. On the Denali Na-
tional Park trip, for example, you'll clear brush from the 8-mile Triple Lakes Trail for five
days and then get a free bus pass to view wildlife in the park's interior.
The group's website posts four trip ratings: easy, active, strenuous, and challenging. Take
the rankings to heart. In fact, the joke is that the easy trip rating, described on the website as
short walks on level terrain with minimal bending and lifting, are like the Easter Bunny and
the tooth fairy—they don't exist.
