Time to get everything in order -- Today I worked on the tent

I've never had a lightweight, single-person tent, but after a lot of online research and some feedback from Airlock, I chose the ZPacks Altaplex -- a 1.5-person tent with a bathtub floor and mesh between the floor and tent so that condensation can run down the inside of the tent and out through the mesh, hopefully keeping everything inside the tent dry. We shall see.

Today I finally broke out the instructions and went to work cutting the supplied Spectra cord and creating 2" loops on the ends of every string before attaching them to the tent.

Five 27" cords and two 50" cords.

And then it was time to get outside and learn how to set up the tent. Fortunately, ZPacks has an excellent tutorial on YouTube. 

Let's just say that it was a learning experience; first, I realized that if I do want to use a groundsheet, such as Polycro, it helps to put something heavy on each corner. Or, you can then watch it blow away on any breeze; fortunately, I managed to run and jump high enough to pull it down. Most likely I won't bother with the Polycro--after all the floor is waterproof, so the groundsheet is a bit of overkill, albeit the bottom of the tent might stay cleaner longer.

Finally, after re-watching the video and making the adjustments, I had a reasonably satisfactory set-up:

The tent, including all the guy lines, stuff sack, carbon fiber pole, and 10 Toaks Titanium angled tent stakes (with stuff sack) comes to 24.7 ounces. I could probably drop that a couple ounces by using some lighter stakes, but I'm a Ti lover, so I will wait and see how these perform.

There is plenty of room inside the tent for two not-so-large people; my wife and I could sleep in this together, if need be, but the waterproofness might be compromised by the sides of the floor being depressed from the bodies pressing against them. With only one occupant, there's more than enough room for me, my bag and my shoes.

With two mesh pockets, one on each end of the tent, there's plenty of space for the little items: eyeglasses, flashlight, etc.

Costs: Tent and carbon fiber pole: $624.00; Toaks Ti angled tent stakes: $36 for 12 pieces.