Optional Tent Rental and Daily Set-up
How It Works:
This optional service takes a lot of the work out of RAGBRAI. It includes the use of our Alps Lynx 4, three-season tent, daily set-up and take-down, and moving your baggage to and from your tent each day. You get up each morning and leave your packed bags inside the tent. In the next host town, you will find your bags inside the tent.
Our tent, billed by the manufacturer as a 4-man, is 63 sq. ft. and will comfortably sleep one or two people with duffel bags inside. We don't recommend three to a tent unless one person is a small child.
If you rent a tent, we will assign you a position on our tent grid, called Tent City, and your tent will have an address card bearing the tent number and the occupants’ last name/s. In each host town, you will have the same location within Tent City, so finding your tent each day will be easy. We are happy to place friends next door to each other.
This service is provided for seven nights, the Saturday prior to RAGBRAI through the Friday of RAGBRAI. The Friday prior to RAGBRAI and the Saturday on which the ride ends are not included (though we can usually offer an extra night in your tent the Friday before RAGBRAI if you need it).
Our departure time of 7:00 a.m. sharp applies to everyone on our charter, including those using the tent service. (This means you must be done packing your bags, and be out of your rental tent by 7:00 a.m.) It’s our goal to have the tents set up in the next host town by 1 p.m. each day, so it will be important for our tent crew to have access to all tents and bags by 7:00 a.m. daily. Members of our crew will move quietly through Tent City from 6:00 to 7:00 a.m. daily, removing stakes.
Special Note for Fast Cyclists:
We'll aim for set-up by 1 p.m. , but obstacles beyond our control, like the host town traffic and inclement weather, can sometimes put us a bit behind. If you pride yourself on arriving very early in camp, we don't recommend using the tent service--you'll be happier if you just set up your own tent on your own schedule. What we want most to avoid is having our hard-working crew impeded by early arrivers to camp laying bikes down among the tents before noon, blocking the routes to and from the truck, and even unpacking bags and spreading out their belonging in the aisles before the bag-delivery work is done. When you rent a tent, we’ll assign you to Tent City in good faith that you have read this information and will cooperate with our workers and their schedule.