While Allison was away at BlogHer at the Swiffer SocialLuxe Lounge Party,my brother came up from California with his family and his family’s family. We have not had a trip together in quite some time so we decided that once he got here, we would go camping in nearby mountains. Together with our two children, my brother, his wife, their two children 3 and 1.5) and his mother-in-law we headed up into the bush.
Mother-in-law you ask? Well, she is the States for the summer visiting from Taiwan (ROC). Being that Taiwan has the world’s second largest population density and that she is from one of the main cities there, we figured that bivy sacks should stay in the garage, and that the wild should be tamed a bit. As far as my brother’s two small children are concerned; yeah its probably would be good if none of them were dragged off into the wild by wild dingos.
We decided to live it up, stay at a campground (vs. the typical campsite off the side of some back fire road), bring folding camp chairs, and bring a decent size tent. Here is where Kelty stepped in saved our hides: As it turns out, Kelty makes a tent that is not only huge, but very functional and easy to set up as well. The Kelty Shiro 6 not only held us all, but it also held us all very comfortably. Having over 90 square feet of total floor space it was very easy to stretch out and even let the kids run around a bit, tall enough for us to stand in the Kelty Shiro 6 managed to keep us dry when it rained and warm overnight even at close to 8000′ ASL. Those two features typically are not standard in a tent of this size. Somehow, Kelty managed to make it happen.
For a tent of this magnitude it sets up quite easily with two people and we were dumping sleeping bags, chairs, and pillows into it within 15 minutes of tossing it out of the back of the car. Not bad. When we first rolled it out, we were quite taken back by the fact that the thing just kept rolling and rolling. We joked that between a Computer Scientist turned a Utilities Electrician, a Chemical Engineer turned Computer Scientist, a Ph.D. Physicist, a Nurse, and four kids under 10 we should be able to figure this thing out. Somehow we did.
Here are a few action photos. You will note that little C chose not to wear a shirt pretty much the entire time that we were out. Not even when it was raining did he want to wear a shirt, it was only when the rain fell and the wind began to blow that he thought that some kind of shirt might be a good idea. This kids totally goes primal when we venture outdoors. No shoes, no shirts, fires, knives, rocks, sticks, I’m starting to think that he’s one of those kids that would just move in with a pack of wild dingos and be just fine instead of being eaten by one. P just reads books.
Michal
This is Michal's profile description. This is were Michal tells you how awesome and wonderful he is. He's just one cool cat.
