Whelen Lean

[tump_lion]

[No message]

 

[rpg51]

Nice videos. They take me away from my living room and transport me to where I really want to be. Was that cigar smoke I saw?

 

[latremorej]

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.

nice setup!
Site #12?... or 10, I get confused sometimes

Jason

 

[latremorej]

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.

Very nice! You will not be disappointed. Nice pooch!

 

[southcove]

+1 on the Whelan. We have one from Beckel in canvas, the off green color which really blends nicely into the woods when looking in from lake side. My son is great w a natural eye for optimum setup. His old dad, not so much! Very useful, have used it more as a weather fly. Next up is a full zip wedge tent (or Baker Tent style) with a full velcro mosquito net add on... enough shelters for one man!

 

[Timberking]

No Title

I have only been able to get out with my Whelen a couple of times since I got it but. I did a weekend camp with it at a group event but didn't get to light a fire in front of it (which in my opinion is optimal) for the Whelen. We were at a friends property for a black powder shoot and he has a designated "fire pit" so even though I loved camping in it but I didn't get to test my "heater" out... Thanks for the compliments on my pooch and my camp latremorj!

 

[Timberking]

+1 on the Whelan. We have one from Beckel in canvas, the off green color which really blends nicely into the woods when looking in from lake side. My son is great w a natural eye for optimum setup. His old dad, not so much! Very useful, have used it more as a weather fly. Next up is a full zip wedge tent (or Baker Tent style) with a full velcro mosquito net add on... enough shelters for one man!

I would love to see some pics of your Bekel Whelen Southcove. I almost ordered mine from them as Bekel has a great price.

 

[Boreal Birch]

I am getting ready to buy a Whelen Lean-to this spring. Over the last few years I had hoped that Tentsmiths would get some good light weight cotton canvas, but seems they haven't found any in a long time. That said, I am thinking I will go with Beckel, down in Portland, OR. Mainly because I really like the wall tent and bedroll that they made for me. They don't use treated canvas, which I also like. Before I send off my order, I wondered if anyone here had any leads on a more light weight Whelen, but still being made of cotton. Those of you with the nylon ones, how does it hold up to campfires, I know not to use Tamarack (larch), pine, fir, or spruce because of sparks, I use mainly aspen, cottonwood, willow, alder, and birch, when worried about sparks setting the woods on fire.
Before I got out of the military back in the day, I had a Whelen made for me at a tent & tarp place in South Carolina. It was made out of some 7 oz per sq. yard material, It was somewhat heavy, but 3 oz to the sq. yard lighter than the 10 oz that the big canvas tent makers use. I have some great memories of nights spent in that tent. I really liked it for fall trips, when the nights grew frosty, with the right fire out front it was just like sleeping in a reflector oven. Just before I left Minnesota for Alaska I gave that tent to a couple of young boys that had their father walk out of their lives. They used the heck out of it until age and dry rot killed it off.

 

[Guest]

Check out Panther Primitives. They are good people and will do custom modifications too.
Turtle

 

[rpg51]

No Title

Partly inspired by the content of this thread - I just ordered an CCS "Lean 3 Plus" from Dan Cooke for an upcoming trip. Like you all, cotton would be my preference but it is not a practical option on the type of trips this tent will be used on. This Lean will serve as a tarp and as a bug free zone for up to four people in the arctic summer. Might see some use in Maine etc. during the shoulder seasons. It will also serve as a back up tent in case a tent goes south or is lost. Basically, it will be our dining room and our living room. It is light, under 4 Lbs., and it packs small, (smaller than a volley ball). I realize the fire spark issue. Need to be careful. But the fires in the areas we travel are generally very small anyway. The other thing about the Lean is that it is a quick and easy set up and it does well in high winds. The pic below is the same tent I ordered from Dan shown on his Kazan River trip. Beautiful country not unlike the Thelon River that I did paddle about 12 years ago. Also, see link below showing the same tent on the Kazan during a breezy day and then during a buggy evening on the tundra.

I know this is a whole different thing than the old canvas whelan tent that we all know and love. But, I thought some of you might enjoy it anyway.

https://www.facebook.com/dan.cooke.3...9/?pnref=story

 

[Bothwell Voyageur]

I am getting ready to buy a Whelen Lean-to this spring. Over the last few years I had hoped that Tentsmiths would get some good light weight cotton canvas, but seems they haven't found any in a long time. That said, I am thinking I will go with Beckel, down in Portland, OR. Mainly because I really like the wall tent and bedroll that they made for me. They don't use treated canvas, which I also like. Before I send off my order, I wondered if anyone here had any leads on a more light weight Whelen, but still being made of cotton.

see my post about cotton tarps made to order.

http://www.canoetripping.net/forums/forum/classifieds/classifieds-aa/37250-canvas-tarps-any-interest

I have a roll of tight weave 5oz cotton that needs using.

 

[Boreal Birch]

Bothwell Voyageur............
I am interested!! Do you have access the book ON YOUR OWN IN THE WILDERNESS by Whelen & Bradford? It has the pattern for the Whelen Lean-to. I would need a rough estimate of the cost of a finished tent of course. Thank you for your interest in my "need to have" project.
.........BB

 

[Bothwell Voyageur]

Will send you a PM to discuss and make sure I have the correct dimensions.

 

[Seeker]

Plans are here.
http://www.backpacking.net/makegear/huntersleanto/

 

[Boreal Birch]

Thank you Seeker!! Bothwell Voyageur and I have been in contact, those are the plans he sent me, which are way better than the ones Whelen had in his book. The measurements are the same however. I am waiting for Bothwell Voyageur to send me his address, so I can send him some $$ for my very own new Whelen. As I don't know how to turn on a digital camera much less how to get pictures out of it and into a computer, maybe BV will once he gets it made will set it up and post you'all a picture.

15-20 degrees F. above freezing in Fairbanks today, with 13 hours and 14 minutes of sunshine (which is 9 hours and 32 minuets more than the short dark days of December), Spring is really here!!
Here is a link to a good story about the Whelen Tent. Be sure to click on another story at the bottom of Steve Watts story for another story by Thomas Ray about the Origins of the Whelen Lean-to.
BB

 

[Canotrouge]

Yeah spring is here indeed(I'm in Whitehorse Yukon) so about the same for day light and the temp have been quite warm. Next sunny calm day I will hit the river down the road from me, the Yukon that is for some padding and poling fun!!

 

[forest runes]

Steve Watts recently passed away. A loss to traditional outdoorsman everywhere.

 

[southcove]

Boreal - you might think about having BV sew in some extra ties or velcro so you can add a nice mosquito bar during the worst of it...Paxson, Dry Creek, Thompson Pass...been chased out of there/made miserable by those varmints almost each time.

 

[Bothwell Voyageur]

He already thought of that! I'll be adding loops to tie in some netting or for adding a drying line.

 

[southcove]

While I am busy giving advice and helpful tidbits, I am at the same time trying mighily to take my wife's advice and not buy a new tarp from you...

Once I unroll the SnowTrekker to clean it and store it for the soft water season, it may be a done deed!