We’re always on the hunt for a large and lightweight tent. When you are a family of 6, it’s hard to find a tent you will all fit in, let alone one that can be carried 15 miles into the woods. We may have found a solution with the purchase of 2 of Big Agnes Salt Creek SL3s, but the longevity is yet to be determined. This is what we know thus far.

The SL3 is a total weight of 5 pounds and 2 ounces. This is a little more than a 2 liter bottle of Coke and more than three pounds less than a gallon of milk. I don’t know how else to explain the weight. I’m sorry, we drink stuff here and I think of it that way. The floor pan itself is 42 ft squared and the head height is 47 inches. I am five foot two inches, which means I am 62 inches tall. I can easily sit up and take my shirt off, get changed, do basic white woman yoga, and exist. I also am fully aware that I am not big, so think carefully about your height and wingspan before moving forward.

This tent has a whole lot of polyester ripstop and mesh. There are pockets galore for all of us Type A Queens that need everything to have a place and a purpose. The pockets just make sense.

Now, we’ve set this tent up before, as explained in previous posts. It is easiest with two people because you are using tent poles instead of trekking poles. Trekking poles are useful if you want a tent awning though and my friend, you want the awning. It is massive and gives you a whole mini room to dismiss kids to or set up a card game (we are playing the hell out of some taboo lately). But as this was our first time using it as a family, we felt that we learned quite a bit. The multiple doors is a game changer. Less chance to wake a toddler? Count me IN. The simple fact that with two people, it is up in under 10 minutes? Hell yeah brother. The confidence it has given me to take this and my River Country Products 2 person on our first real backcountry family trip? LET’S GO. We slept in our field in these tents and because of my paranoia with wildlife and kids wandering, we brought the two babies into the SL3. The big two could obviously and comfortably have enough room to crash out in my RCP tent and store some of our gear. We had plenty of room with the babies and their 8,472 stuffed animals in the SL3. We are hoping to go out on our first family backcountry trip this summer, ideally, next month, but we will keep you all updated!

Until then, enjoy these photos of the brand new tent covered in grass, blankies, and nonsense. I would like to say that we are doing our best, but we all know that we are just doing enough to be well. It’s hard out here and we are 14 miles away from completing our second ultra (100 mile) marathon! We have 7 days left and are grinding! Anyway, once we put this thing into real (not our back field) action, I’ll put out an update, We’ll see you all out there!

Tent Review: Salt Creek SL3

Trail Shoe Review- ASICS edition