[pct-l] rain theory

[steve_pct at hotmail.com (Steve Setzer)]

I had a pretty good system for keeping my stuff dry during the transition 
from hiking to camping. First, my sleeping bag was in a waterproof stuff 
sack and my sleeping clothes were in a silnylon sack. I lined my pack with a 
trash compactor bag and then used a pack cover on the outside of my pack.  
So there was no way stuff inside my pack would get wet once everything was 
packed up.  When I got to camp I set up my tarp first thing and got under 
it.  Then I could start unpacking my stuff in the safety of my tarp.  I 
never took my sleeping bag out until I was ready to get into it. I would put 
my warm clothes on as soon as I got under the tarp to stay warm.  In the 
morning, first thing I put away my sleeping bag, put on my hiking clothes 
and packed everything up while under the tarp. Last thing was taking down 
the tarp and strapping it to the outside of my pack. The nice thing about a 
tarp is that it doesn't matter how wet it gets.  Also the pack cover was 
great because I could get into my pack without having it exposed to the 
elements for too long. That may sound like overkill, and I wouldn't do all 
that for California but I think there was no such thing as overkill this 
fall in Washington.

So my warm, sleeping clothes never got wet at all.  My bag would get 
increasingly damp from condensation, but that was the only problem. It never 
got so wet that I couldn't stay warm (I had a down bag with Epic shell).

Getting cold and wet while hiking didn't matter too much because I knew I 
had warm clothes and bag in my pack.  Of course you want to avoid 
hypothermia but most thru hikers don't have a warm layer to wear while 
hiking (maybe some do, but I didn't - or if you wear your warm layer while 
hiking it won't be warm and dry for sleeping). So we just had to keep moving 
to stay warm and that usually did the trick. On a non-thru hike I would take 
a fleece that I could wear while hiking because it insulates when wet.

Just a side note, if it was only a light drizzle I noticed that I stayed 
drier without rain gear.  My body heat was enough to keep my T-shirt drier 
than if I was sweating under my rain gear.

And don't forget the key to wet weather hiking ... hotel rooms!

Steve

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