How to not sleep in a bathtub

I was on a hot-day hike back in 2000 with a mate, and we pulled up at a flattish patch of of clear ground beside the track, called it a campsite, and pitched. The real campsite (we were to find out the next day) was actually 500 metres further on, in proper forest.

Not long after, an afternoon thunderstorm rolled over the range, the campsite turned into a shallow pool inside 30 seconds, and our tent floor went from dry to wet before we could even move it.

We saved most of the gear. The sun came back, the floor dried, and we kept going. The lesson stuck though, and it is not really about picking a better site, because you will get sites wrong sometimes. It is about the three things that save you when you do.

So today I’m going to go through a 10-minute rain audit you can do tonight, before your next multi-day. Three items.

Most hikers I see clip a rain cover over the outside of their pack and call it done. Then the first hour of real rain finds the seams, soaks the back panel against the shirt, and pools in the bottom of the pack from the inside. The cover keeps the outside of the pack pretty. It does not keep your gear dry.

This happens because rain on a moving body does not behave like rain on a parked car. It runs sideways, finds gaps, and tracks down the shoulder straps into the pack from the top. A clip-on cover cannot stop water that has already entered from above.

The fix is a roll-top pack liner inside the pack. One big dry bag, sized to fill the pack body, everything important goes inside it, rolled and clipped at the top. The pack itself can get drenched. Your gear cannot. I even go a step further and use a series of dry bags inside the pack liner. And my gear is yet to get wet.

Even with a liner, the trip back from a wet day to a dry sleeping bag is a contamination problem. Your raincoat is soaked. Your gloves are soaked. You take them off in the vestibule, throw them in the corner, and now your dry kit is sharing a small tent with a wet pile.

The reason this fails is simple. The wet kit will keep dripping for hours, and tent floors are not waterproof from the inside. A puddle in the corner finds your dry socks by midnight.

The fix is two coloured bags, every single trip. One for wet kit, one for dry. Wet stuff goes straight in the wet bag the moment it comes off your body. The bag lives outside the inner tent, in the vestibule. Dry sleep gear lives in the dry bag inside the liner, and never touches anything that has been in the rain.If you’d like to support the newsletter, then clicking on sponsor links helps A LOT. Please show today’s sponsor some ❤️

The worst rain damage happens in the first 90 seconds of camp, because that is when you are tired, cold, and tempted to take shortcuts. You pitch fast, dive in to get out of the rain, and bring half a kilo of water in with you.

The why is that you are solving for ‘get out of the rain’ instead of ‘set up the next 12 hours.’ Future-you has to sleep in whatever wet mess present-you tracks inside.

The fix is a fixed order. Pitch the outer tent first, including the vestibule. Take off the wet shell, pack cover, and gaiters in the vestibule, not the inner. Wet kit into the wet bag or at the very worst, on top of your wet pack in the vestibule. Boots stay in the vestibule, opening down. Only then do you crawl into the inner tent. 90 seconds, every time, no negotiating. Dry sleep gear is the reward for the discipline.

Three items. Ten minutes of prep this week, every wet morning easier from here on.

THAT’S ALL FOR THIS WEEK

Thanks for reading Mowser’s Musings. I hope this helps you hike further and happier.

Until next week, keep exploring.

Mowser

Discover more. Hike further.

P.S. If your shell or rain layer is the weak link, the shell and rainwear page on TrailKit is where I’d look first.