Wander to Wonder
You have a few spare hours, or even a whole night. You want to go the beach, but you heard the blackflies are bad. There’s a good chance aurora borealis could be coloring the sky. Or wouldn’t it be nice to cast a line and stargaze next to your favorite fishing spot? But it’s a bit of a rugged hike, and the mosquitos… Enter the Trek-Tent Stargazer.
By Rebecca Tavernini '11 MA
Photos by Ryan Stephens '15 BS
You have a few spare hours, or even a whole night. You want to go the beach, but you heard the blackflies are bad. There’s a good chance aurora borealis could be coloring the sky. Or wouldn’t it be nice to cast a line and stargaze next to your favorite fishing spot? But it’s a bit of a rugged hike, and the mosquitos…
Enter the Trek-Tent Stargazer.
A lightweight shelter that can be used as a hiking staff when needed and provides a 360-degree view through its near-invisible mesh. The hiking staff cleverly converts to become the tent’s frame. Also included in the compact package carried with a shoulder strap is a waterproof rainfly, which can be adjusted to still see the sky. The whole thing weighs 4.5 pounds and sets up in just 60 seconds. And there you are, enjoying your precious time outdoors in comfort.
When inventor and founder of TerraHike Outdoors Evan BeVier ’22 BS came to the Upper Peninsula and Marquette for the first time with his family from their hometown of Traverse City, little did he know that trip would set the course for his life—so far anyway.
He recalled, “It was a beautiful weekend. I was 18, I just graduated and was trying to figure out where I wanted to go to school. And by some crazy luck, there was an orientation going on at Northern, and we said, ‘Hey, why not? Let's check this school out.’ That’s all it took. That and the nature scene.”
At orientation, he looked at electrical engineering technology, but it didn't seem like something he was going to be interested in, so he shifted to mechanical engineering technology. Today, in addition to running TerraHike, he works in electrical power distribution for Consumers Energy in the Ann Arbor area. “You just never know when life has something in mind for you!” he joked.
He got another life nudge from getting involved with Innovate Marquette and Invent@NMU, which provides jobs to students who help entrepreneurs design, prototype and launch their products and services.
“With the skills that I learned at NMU and the Jacobetti complex, working with Cale Polkinghorne and Joe Routhier, like how to design a 3D model on SolidWorks, how to 3D print and about manufacturing processes, I was able to prototype and create a display piece that can function and communicate the idea of the product—what became the Trek-Tent. I made a lot of early prototypes and iterations.”
Then it was time to test it out in nature.
“My prototype was kind of a rinky dink little thing, with 3D printed parts that were not very strong, but I marched out there and I found a campsite, and, you know, it was fun. I was thinking, ‘You're in something you built, that was only an idea, and now you're camping in it and you're looking at the stars….’ It was very rewarding.”
BeVier iterated more. He launched a Kickstarter which raised $10,000 from pre-orders. He found a manufacturer based in the United Kingdom that has a production facility in China. And after much international communication, double checking and working through mistakes and misunderstandings, he had 100 of the real Trek-Tents in hand. He said the nice thing about starting with a smaller quantity is that “you can test the waters, there’s less pressure and you don’t end up getting 5,000 of something that’s not what you wanted.”
BeVier was among five companies competing in the PEAK26 Outdoor Innovation Pitch Competition, held in March at the Jacobetti Center in concert with NMU’s College of Business Big Pitch Competition. TerraHike won as crowd favorite. He was hoping to raise funds to market his remaining inventory. One of the judges suggested he team up to sell his patented product to a large company like Cabela’s, which he is considering, as their reach is much larger than his own. “As an entrepreneur, you can have different paths and see which one hooks and if you reel it in a bit, then you know, that's the direction that makes sense. But you're in control, so you don't have to do anything that you don't feel right about, either.”
In the meantime, he has other ideas to add to the TerraHike line, including bike camping. Maybe even bringing back the product he worked on for his senior product for Mike Rudisill’s seminar: an anchor for a kayak with a crank system so one can fish, have lunch or just relax in moving water.
“For right now, though, my focus in on the Trek-Tent,” he said, and of course, his full-time job providing residences and businesses with electricity—an interesting contrast to getting away from it all to contemplate the cosmos and constellations.