A quick bit of feedback about my contrail since someone is interested.


I used it for 2300 miles of the PCT (shared a zoid 2 with another hiker for a while).


I want to say I met around 20 hikers using the contrail on the PCT last year. With my frustrations with my own, I would always ask them how they liked it as soon as I saw one. The majority of responses started with cursing. I kid you not.

So I shouldn't really speak for all the hikers I met, but I can tell you all but one were not happy with their contrail.

This thing fell down more than it stayed up. On the calm nights at best it would be sagging by morning. I haven't thought out a good review post for this, just bits of info coming to mind. On a windy night....forget it. One night I slept under a bridge in a sand storm. Me and my buddy both had them, and we simply used them like blankets to keep the sand off and the large rats out. Neither tent would hold in the sandy soil. But, I found even in what I would call good holding, the tent had issues.

The biggest problem is that the design is so it needs a LOT of pressure to be taught. If you don't keep the guy lines under pressure you end up with a very saggy tent. This holds water and only allows further sagging/pooling.

What I found is with most of the terrain on the PCT I could never pull the tent tight enough without pulling out the stakes. I tried different stakes. I had ones I burried sideways etc. I think I tried 5 types total, of various lengths.

Henry Shires made an adjustment to it at the kick off that I couldn't understand, but I am guessing it was due to feedback from others. It didn't seem to do much, but I had only hiked 150 miles at that point.

Anyway, this shelter was there for when I "needed" it. No AT shelters to count on etc. And to me after having so many problems with it staying up in any kind of wind I was not very comfortable relying on it. In fact I said to several other hikers I thought "we" deserved a refund it was so bad. I have heard lots of good things about Henry and I have to admit I didnt even contact him or try to return it. I slept out under the stars more nights than not and just carried it hoping it would do its job if I needed it. (the first 750 miles I set it up every night and I bet 3/4 of those mornings it was laying on me when I woke up- I stopped getting up at 1am to fix it)


If you set this thing up in an area that takes a sledge hammer to drive stakes in I bet it will do great. Of course put rocks on all the little poles because the down pressure will drive the poles in the ground and cause the tent to sag by 2am.

I tried putting large rocks over my stakes and tying off to trees when I could.

I would have no problem saying I suck and couldn't set it up right...it was my thoughts at first. Until I met so many hikers who hated the contrail and all had the same problems.

The guy lines are set up so they put too much down force too close to the tent. The angle just doesnt seem right. I'm not a tent designer, but my man...I'd recommend you buy any product but this. I heard great things about the rainbow.

The mosquito netting (I had a floor) can allow rain to trickle in.