I can count on one hand how many times I've been camping in my lifetime and I'm now 61 yrs old. But after moving to Oregon 3 yrs ago, we discovered so many places we wanted to visit/spend time/fish and hotels are either too far away or too spendy. So camping. After looking at several tents, I decided upon the 6-person Steel Creek tent. I noticed a lot of reviews were critical of the screen room not being waterproof, and rain is not a seasonal thing in the Pac NW, but I figured the 6-person tent would be large enough for my adult daughter and myself + all our stuff if need be. First setup (test before our big trip) was less than perfect. We attached the tent clips to the poles before inserting the pole ends in the receptacle cups for those at the corners of the tent. Later, I searched and found some YouTube videos that helped a lot. Second time (at our campsite), we assembled the poles and inserted the pole ends in the receptacle cups first, then attached tent clips to the poles. This tent is TALL and we're not, so it was a bit tricky attaching the highest clips and tying the fabric strip to the pole frame at the very top. We accomplished this by unzipping the screen room and tent doors and stepping nearer the center of the tent. Next time, we'll probably tie the tie before inserting pole ends in the receptacle cups and bring a super collapsible step stool to address the vertical challenge. Rainfly. After some confusion about the front/back of the rainfly during first setup, I marked the corners of the front with a sharpie pen, but it really wasn't necessary. The front has a 5" wide piece of fabric attached to it, draping over/attaching to the screen room pole. Stakes. The stakes that came with the tent are really a checkbox (yeah, we include stakes). When I bought the tent, I also bought the Coleman accessory kit (the rubber mallet, stake puller, heavy duty stakes were really helpful). Those stakes are good, but the YouTube videos about guy lines also taught me about the lightweight aluminum tri-beam stakes. I found them at a nearby equipment store and wished I'd bought more than 4. I'd used the Coleman heavy duty stakes for the corners of the tent, and the tri-beams for everywhere else. Guy lines. The rainfly comes with guy lines attached. I like that they are white and have reflective strips woven in and they were great for night visibility. They also have line tighteners attached for making the lines taut after they are attached to stakes, but the reflective material prevents the guy lines from sliding, so tightening took a little bit more work. Even so, I don't think a taut line knot would have slid any easier (TY, YouTube for teaching me about guy lines and knots). Footprint. Prior to laying out the tent, we laid down a footprint (Columbia makes one that is 9'10" x 8'10" - perfect for this tent and a true footprint with web loops that join tent stakes at corners). The tent does have a thick tarp-like floor, but it was in breaking camp that we discovered the true value of the footprint. The underside of the tent floor was clean, despite setting it up on dead, damp pine needles and other detritus. The footprint was easy to flip over, sweep off, shake out. Another YouTube video explained why I wanted a footprint slightly smaller than the tent - it doesn't create a catch basin for rainwater between footprint and tent. Breaking camp. As I mentioned before, the footprint kept the tent floor clean. But the rain, breeze, a bird, and damp ground messed the rainfly and underside of the screen room floor. We live in an apartment so I really don't have a place to spread it all out for cleaning after we got home. And I didn't want to take seeds and bugs to another area where they might be invasive species. So we took a little extra time to sweep off, shake out, wipe down the rainfly. We unstaked the screen room first, then folded it back onto the collapsed tent and swept it off toward the bare ground. Packing it all back in the bag. I love the expandable bag feature and had already cut that seam, but the bottom side-to-side seam kept the bag from becoming a fully 4-5" taller. I found that the rainfly, folded to a shorter length than the bag, fits nicely in the bottom, then the tent... I folded the 10' wide width so that the front corners met in the middle, making a strip 5' wide by 9' long; then folded again in the same direction, so the tent was a 2.5' wide strip, 9' long. The 9' length, folded in half, then in half again, then in half again, it fit perfectly. Rain. Yes, it rained. Early June. Oregon Coast. The rainfly, properly staked with guylines, kept us dry. The rainfly also provides a 3' roof over the screen room, leaving just a couple of feet exposed. After a night of gentle, all night long rain, there were a couple of small (4"?) puddles near the front of the screen room - easily sopped up with 3-4 paper towels. The 6-person is perhaps too large for 2 people (twin air mattresses on opposite sides left 4' between us), but I really wanted the additional height. Both my 4'10" daughter and I (5'3") can stand up and move around in this tent. Our first trip was only 4 days long, but we could comfortably spend a week or two. I also wanted the screen room so that if we found ourselves camping with gnats and mosquitoes, we could kick back in comfort. I found the Coleman Utopia Breeze Beach Chairs fit perfectly and gave us plenty of headroom. Is this the tent for hardcore campers who are planning a cross-country roadtrip? It is easy to set up, take down and pack. It easily withstood hours long rain showers and a breeze (less than 7 mph in a valley campsite, shielded by nearby hills), but it really is a fairweather tent. The back window doesn't have a covering (the rainfly provides privacy, but wouldn't prevent a cold wind from cooling the interior).
