Whelen Lean

[ppine]

It is very traditional to use canvas wall tents for big game hunting in the West in the fall with wood stoves. They change everything and make bad weather much more tolerable. I have lived in a wall tent for a month at 7,500 feet running a tree planting crew. Every time it snowed The Flagstaff Hilton was a very popular place to be. Most hunting trips are a week or ten days. In the Rockies they are popular even in summer.

A traditional tipi is even more amazing to camp in but not so portable. Nothing like watching the moon rise through the smokehole. A fire lights up the inside really well and they are warm and roomy.

 

[Seeker]

I found some plans to make one out of a poly tarp... I've since made two, one kept in NY, the other here in LA, as well as a poly version of Whelen's "Shelter Cloth", which looks like a USGI shelter half (though its rectangular portion is a foot or two bigger in each direction), to which I added a canopy, like his Lean-to design. Used it this past weekend.



Here's a picture from the trip with my wife. As it rained all 4 days, I hung another tarp in front to protect the fire. My wife commented that it was much warmer in the Whelen with a fire going than standing outside... she referred to the area as "the living room".


I have kept one of these shelters in/around my deer hunting leases (land you pay timber companies to hunt on, vs dealing with the general public on state/federal lands), and created a semi-permanent camp on each one. Great piece of gear, and SO easy to set up in the same place a second time if you leave an overhead pole and stakes in place.

 

[Canoedog]

couldn't get the link to work but plans to make a Whelen - http://www.backpacking.net/makegear/huntersleanto/

 

[Guest]

No Title

Toboggan/snowshoe trekking with my 10'diamond at -18 this winter.Lots of wool blankets,and dressed in silk and wool. used fire only for cooking.
Turtle

 

[ppine]

Robin is really on to something with the pared down wall tent. It can be heated with the dinkiest of stoves and is much easier to travel with. It is a wonderful and innovative tent. One of the best things I have seen on any forum.

 

[Robin]

Thanks ppine. I sometimes think if I moved the stove jack to the back window with the stove setting right under the window along the back wall, I could put two cots in the tent, one on each side of the stove. along the side walls for sleeping, knock them down for floor space in between sleeping.
But I usually almost always go solo, so until the Grandkids get a little older, I stick with what I have now.

 

[Guest]

Check out Panther primitives midget and dwarf wall tents.
Turtle

 

[redoleary]

Seeker, that is a really cool set up!

I've already shared this with Timberking but it seams at least tangentially relevant so I'll share it here too.
When I was in need of a new hammock tarp I was inspired the by the Whelen design but wanted a bit more coverage, so I drew up something on sketchup that would work with the typical width of silnylon and hopefully give me the coverage I wanted plus the Whelen-esque look.
I made my prototype out of blue poly tarps as a sort of proof of concept, before I wrecked $80 worth of sil, and found it to be to my liking.
When compared to an actual Whelen it doesn't really give that nostalgic vibe but I still find it to provide excellent coverage from all kinds of weather.
I can't use mine in front of a fire either.... to much stuff to melt, but the Whelen was the inspiration for my tarp, the wife and I each have one and always feel very safe from the weather in them.

 

[ppine]

It takes a lot of wading through the internet to get to a thread as good as this one. There are some great set-ups shown here by people that obviously know what they are doing in the outdoors. I believe most people camp in tents because they feel safer all closed in. It is like their closed in bedroom at home. Being able to see out, build a fire, etc. are all very liberating. The general public has been sold a bill of goods and doesn't get it.

 

[Guest]

I tried doing a summer canoe trip with my diamond fly once,but the bugs did me in. Laying in my Clark hammock with bug netting and an almost 360 deg view is almost as good.
Turtle

 

[Timberking]

Nice set up Seeker... I know that Whelen swore by his as this famous quote says I know of no better tent for one or two men, doing their own camp work, except for bad mosquito country, or at temperatures lower than 20 below. – Townsend Whelen. On another note I was able to find a copy of "on your own in the wilderness" the other day on ebay for $5.75 wooot wooooooooooooooooot

 

[ppine]

"On Your Own in the Wilderness" is one of the great outdoor books of all time.

People that live in canvas tents learn to adapt them to the weather. In hot weather I have seen people roll up the north side of their canvas tipis about 3-4 feet. That allows for some great convective air flow up and out the top of the structure. The same thing can be used for a wall tent. If you have one door in the front, raise the back a couple of feet and feel the breeze. Canvas breathes, provides shade, and holds a lot of heat. Siting a tent is important. Make sure you have some shade for hot weather in the afternoon. If there is none rig a tarp over the tent. For colder weather make sure you are in the early morning sun.

Traveling around the southwest US and visiting the old Native American sites is very eye opening. They were masters at choosing sites with early morning sun and afternoon shade especially in the alcoves of the Navajo Sandstone Formation. Absolutely wonderful attention to detail when it comes to their building architecture. I was at a Grateful Dead concert years ago in Las Vegas in hot weather with a friend. I met him working on the Navajo Res, and he grew up on the Hopi Res. He picked our seats at the concert which were way up in the top of the stadium. When the sun started to get low in the sky, our seats were the first two in the whole place to be in the shade. I will never forget that friend, that experience, or that concert. Sunshine Daydream.

 

[Seeker]

couldn't get the link to work but plans to make a Whelen - http://www.backpacking.net/makegear/huntersleanto/

This is exactly the link I used.

I was pretty surprised when I read Whelen's "On Your Own in the Wilderness". A lot of things I'd picked up by trial and error over the years were all in that book... if only I'd read it first!

 

[Timberking]

"On Your Own in the Wilderness" is one of the great outdoor books of all time.

I was lucky to find it that cheap. I have seen some of them go for over a hundred weasel skins!

 

[Timberking]

No Title

Here is my copy of "On your own in the Wilderness"

 

[Timberking]

No Title

Well, My Whelen arrived and I got to set it up quick the other night after work. He she is along with me and my bird dawg... Oh, and that IS NOT my campfire it's just the pile of wood that I picked up to be used for camp fires.

 

[redoleary]

Man that's cool!! Very nice.

 

[tump_lion]

welcome to club whelen! i joined last season, put about thirty nights in mine so-far. just about the perfect tent for canoe-tripping. i have one in nylon (beckel) and one in canvas (tentsmiths) depending on the season and mood...

 

[Timberking]

Ha, Thank you Tump-lion! Glad to be a member

 

[tump_lion]

the best thing about the whelen isn't the tent..