Gear Review: ALPS Hex-2 Backpacking Tent & Solo Bonfire Smokeless Stove
Gear Review: ALPS Hex-2 Backpacking Tent & Solo Bonfire Smokeless Stove
Volume #1 Issue #2 May 2024
Greetings Scouting lovers!!
I have been very busy scouting with my units and finishing up their rank requirements for the year. My two units are less than a year old, so we’re still trying to find our hiking legs. My units are Scouting America units (formerly Boy Scouts of America) & we do have our very first Arrow of Light Rank recipient. I have been working on a program and presentation for the awarding of the rank.
Abraham Lincoln Pilgrimage Weekend-Gear Review w/ links to the products!
Our units had a great Saturday. We arrived at New Salem State Park to set up camp around 10:30 am, set up tents, and our kitchen and washing area.
The first tent I tried to set up was the ALPS Mountaineering Hex-2 backpacking tent. (I will be starting a ranking system for gear in honor of the campfire, Example: 5/5 Campfires). The tent is A-style tent that is lightweight due to the fact it has no poles! The lightweight makes it ideal for your backpack. There are two ways to setup your tent: 1. Trekking Poles 2. Paracord/Rope ties at the top of the tent. The tent, compared to others on the market, does take a bit more skill and time to set up—but if you’re looking to make you backpack as light as possible, you’ll want to like this tent.
The tent’s fabric is bit lightweight too, so it does prove difficult to set up in the wind because your fly gets lifted off the ground easily, so if it’s just you then you’ll have some difficulty setting it up in the wind. The trekking pole option of setting up the tent in the wind proves difficult too because it relies on tension from the poles and stakes to keep the tent raised up.
Personally, I would have rated the tent lower after trying to put it up during Pilgrimage weekend & the tension broke a trekking pole. However, I contacted ALPS Mountaineering & apparently, I needed a different style of pole—they sent me two new trekking poles at no cost, that’s service! BUT due to the lightweight, I really wanted to give this tent another shot & the tie method is the method I suggest to set this tent up.
I had BALOO training this weekend at Camp Illinek off Lake Springfield. During the afternoon. The wind gusts reached 24 mph, so after my initial review you’d think the Hex-2 would blow away, but the tie off method kept my tent up during these high winds. I used paracord to attach to the top of what would be the back side of my tent using a clove hitch and tied the paracord off on a smaller tree using a taut line hitch, so I could adjust the tension & raise the tent off the ground. The entrance of my tent, I used a trekking pole because I didn’t have another tree near the tent. The tent held up during the wind gusts, I slept through the night in it. I will continue using the tie method moving forward with this tent.
Tent Ranking: 4/5 Campfires: The lightweight (under 4 lbs.) & dimensions of packed tent makes the tent desirable for backpackers; however, the tent needs scoutcraft skills to use it.
New Salem State Park requires raised fire pits, so we broke out a brand-new Bonfire Solo Smokeless Stove. The Bonfire was a big hit with the leaders.
The Saturday was extremely windy, I had worried it would be difficult to start a fire in such a high fire ring—BUT the Solo stove proved the opposite. In fact, it was so windy that if we tried to start a normal ground fire, It would have been next to impossible!
Depending on the situation how the Solo Stove distributes heat could be a pro or con, the heat doesn’t dissipate but leave straight above the stove. The stove does get a lot of center heat, so it makes cooking over the fire very efficient. If the goal is getting warmed by the fire, you may need to buy that extra attachment that pushes the heat back down.
The stove gets extremely hot to the touch. Adults and kids need to be careful around it, so they do not get burnt by it. The stove has a bigger surface area than traditional fire pits allowing it to have its smokeless feature. I watched a few reviews online about the stove & because it’s made of stainless steel you cannot pour water into the unit without warping the metal, so you need it to burn out overnight. The con being one cannot have an early morning fire & expect to pack up camp quickly.
The Bonfire Solo Smokeless Stove gets 4.5-5.0.
The Lincoln Pilgrimage Sunday march from Lincoln’s Tomb to the Old Illinois state capitol was a success. My new units were impressed to see all the scouts from 8 different states take part in the event. The day was extremely windy & our unit is using large flags from an old defunct scouting unit, so the flags had to be passed off to leaders to carry at times due to the force of the wind, but overall, a good time.
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Being Conversation Minded & Duty to Others—Building Solitary Bee houses for our community!