Mountainsmith Lichen 2 Tent: Reviewed

I’m a REI Co-op member, and I get rewards or discounts from time to time. If you have an REI near you, please sign up for $10, it’s the best thing you’ll ever do. In fact I think when you sign up you get a $10 coupon immediately, so it’s free. Anyway, sometimes I check out their app, and last week I stumbled upon a Mountsinsmith Lichen 2-P tent for $80, marked down from $219. For $80, I absolutely had to have it. I liked the vestibule it has, but I’ll talk about that in a bit. It packs up fairly small, standing on end it doesn’t even reach my knee. I’m not tall either.

Right off the bat, you can see it comes with very sturdy, high-quality stakes. I prefer these shepherd’s hook style, as opposed to any other kind. The tent does come with a ground mat. I do need to mention that they don’t provide enough stakes — if you want the two guy lines to be staked, you’ll need to bring a few extra.

Putting the rain fly on is easy enough, but you should secure it with the Velcro points before putting the rest of it in place, will make it easier later.

As a 2-Person tent, it’s basically a 1-Person tent, but that’s always the case with tents. Always subtract one from the size stated. Now let’s talk about the vestibule.

The photo online makes this vestibule look huge, but it’s not. That’s my full-sized camp chair there, and clearly I get no protection, but as far as storing gear and such, the vestibule area is great. Backpacks and other things will easily fit.

My two cents worth: This is a pretty well-made tent. It took me 23 minutes to pitch it, which is me doing it for the first time and not reading directions (I never do anyway). I’m sure next time I can cut a lot of time off. There are a lot of stake points, it should be stable in wind, it was for me and I live in Kansas, which is basically a wind tunnel.

Personally, I felt like it was kinda cramped, but I’m the weirdo who likes to sleep in 4-Person tents when I’m solo. I love space. I don’t like the tunnel-style tent that starts high and descends. But I’m just not used to that style.

I like this tent, I will be using it again. It’s just not a this-is-the-one tent. Getting this thing for $80 felt like a gift from the camping gods, for sure. Mountainsmith is a company from Colorado, yet the tent is made in China. That kinda disturbs me. Last but not least, I folded up this tent and packed it into its stuff sack at the campsite on a breezy morning. I felt pretty great about that. Some tents are way more difficult.

Sleeping Pad Experiment, Entry #2: PowerLix

$40 on Amazon. It comes in a stuff sack that doubles as an air pump, like a lot of the “good” air pads do.

The stuff sack plugs into the sleep pad, and you open it, close it, and roll it up to force the air into the pad. Pretty awesome. I know this is a common thing amongst backpackers who know their sleeping pads, but it was my first go round, and I enjoyed the experience.

Bottom line — The sleeping pad was awesome. Stayed aired up all night, the material feels pretty solid, and the pad was as thick as any pad I’ve ever used. Love the camo color — badass. Down side? It’s not as small as other pads stowed away (Ascend) but it’s still worth it. I like this pad a lot, the Sleepingo felt a bit better, but cheaper. I’ll construct a top 10 list by the time I’m done with this experiment.

The Great Sleeping Pad Experiment Of ‘24

I have a bit of a rant, a bone to pick with the sleeping pad industry. For starters, a good sleeping pad is one of those game-changers for camping. There’s nothing worse than sleeping on the hard ground, and nothing better than sleeping on a good, comfortable sleeping pad. However, the prices for these things are astronomical. $200, $300 for some of the more popular ones! My first sleeping pad cost $60 — it’s the Ascend brand from Cabela’s. Of course I have a family of 5, so that puts me $300 in to cover the family. I can’t imagine paying $1,000 for sleeping pads. So here’s my complaint: can you assure me that your $300 sleeping pad won’t spring a leak? Because all sleeping pads have the potential to get poked by a stick or sharp rock, these things aren’t bulletproof. Therefore I refuse to pay buckets of cash for one of these things.

As it stands, I have 3 Ascend pads that won’t hold air. One of them I even patched up and it still leaks. So here’s what I’ve decided to do, I’ll call it The Great Sleeping Pad Experiment. What I’ve done is found countless numbers of cheap sleeping pads on Amazon. Most of these are in the $40 range, some are even as low as $25. I’ve decided that I’m going to buy a different one for probably my next 5 or 6 trips. Most, if not all, are brands of companies I’ve never heard of. So without further ado, here’s sleeping pad #1: Sleepingo

This pad cost $25 on Amazon and comes in one of three colors, I chose green obviously. I aired it up with my Giga pump, but when it came time to close the nozzle (pictured below) the thing just wouldn’t latch, so I had to keep re-airing it up until I finally got it to stay.

The air pad was extremely comfortable. I actually think it felt better than my Ascend pads. It stayed aired up all night, no issues. It was also a lot easier to pack up compared to the Ascend pads. The only problem with my grand experiment is that I’ll not be getting a very accurate idea of how durable these cheap pads are, if I only use them one night and move on to a different one. Regardless, the Sleepingo passed the comfort test and you’re unlikely to find a cheaper sleeping pad anywhere.