Backpacking in the rain

[+Mike & Jess]

All indicators point to a wet, rainy weekend. Rescheduling is not an option as we already cancelled last year due to injury the weekend before (one last good mtn bike ride before our trip was a bad idea). This will be a weekend trip with expected water forging.

 

What extras, or changes would you make knowing it is going to be wet and most likely raining?

[+NVGreenGecko]

Leave the down at home and bring synthetic. Pack covers for sure as well as gaiters.

 

Have a great time!

[+Gratusin]

Several pairs of wool socks. You will get them wet even if your boots have gore tex and you wear gaiters. Wool dries quickly and will keep your feet warm even if moist. Definitely cover that pack, if your bag soaks, it will be a cold night, plus you'll be carrying extra water weight. Make sure your rain jacket is actually waterproof and not just resistant (speaking from experience) and also a wide brimmed hat will keep those annoying droplets from hitting your face. One last thing, don't bring anything made of cotton, it will never dry, it will chafe you, and will definitely not keep you warm. Hope this helps and that your hike is enjoyable.

[+TotemLake]

Teva sandals or similar (like water socks) and a small bottle of Gold Bond body powder. Keep your boots dry when the water is deep by using the sandals. The body powder will help with the inevitable chafing.

[Shiraz-mataz]

Over the summer we had to hike through a pretty nice rain shower (not a thunderstorm!). We just covered our packs and stripped down nekkid as the law allows and hiked on! It was over 80 degrees and the rain felt awesome. Of course be mindful of the temperature and be on the lookout for signs of hypothermia (even in warm weather), dry off as soon as you can, etc. Who needs all thay heavy rain gear anyway???

[+Mike & Jess]

Thank you for all the info.

First off, hiking 'nekkid' is not a great idea here. The law doesn't permit (not that we will see another person), and it tends to be cool/cold here when it rains.

Wool socks.... I knew that. Didn't think of it though, so a big thank you there.

TL: The powder wasn't something I had thought about carrying, but am now considering. I was planning on carrying water shoes for the two river crossings and potentially walking the two lakes. The water looks like it may be low enough to allow walking the shore instead of bushwacking the 4km.

sandles for camp was one of those 'if I have space' items as it would be really nice to air the feet.

[Shiraz-mataz]

First off, hiking 'nekkid' is not a great idea here. The law doesn't permit (not that we will see another person), and it tends to be cool/cold here when it rains...

 

I was exaggerating a little! "Nekkid as the law allows..." is what I said. Basically we just stripped down to our hiking shorts and Vibram Five Fingers. FWIW, New York and a couple other locales have top-free parity for men and women so, women can legally hike top-free should they so desire. Just sayin...

[+Mike & Jess]

 

I was exaggerating a little! "Nekkid as the law allows..." is what I said. Basically we just stripped down to our hiking shorts and Vibram Five Fingers. FWIW, New York and a couple other locales have top-free parity for men and women so, women can legally hike top-free should they so desire. Just sayin...

 

I had kind of figured as much, but when dealing with people from different backgrounds, anything is possible.

 

That being said, a rain coat and swim shorts may be the way we will travel. The first river crossing (~30ft from where the van will be parked) will be around 2ft deep. The second is only a couple inches, and the lakes, who knows.

The pants are going back on for the bushwacking section though.

[+easytrekker]

Well one year, 9 out of our 12 camping/hiking trips were in the rain. But it did prepare the young men (BSA). Backpacking (camping) in rain presents all sorts of issues. Just how far are you going determines much what you can do, how much you carry. If rain is called for I carry additional three plastic tarps, One to be a fly one to be a floor (under the fly) and one for under the tent. I try to stay out of the tent as much as possible. You have to very careful of hypothermia. You have to be able to get dry and warm.

 

I wear a poncho (a good one). Have a pack cover, but my poncho is big and covers my pack. I wear sandals in wet weather and near water. I hang them or my boots off my pack. carry extra fuel for camp stove.

 

Then hope the the rain stops and the sun comes out.

[hippocampus208]

Well one year, 9 out of our 12 camping/hiking trips were in the rain. But it did prepare the young men (BSA). Backpacking (camping) in rain presents all sorts of issues. Just how far are you going determines much what you can do, how much you carry. If rain is called for I carry additional three plastic tarps, One to be a fly one to be a floor (under the fly) and one for under the tent. I try to stay out of the tent as much as possible. You have to very careful of hypothermia. You have to be able to get dry and warm.

 

I wear a poncho (a good one). Have a pack cover, but my poncho is big and covers my pack. I wear sandals in wet weather and near water. I hang them or my boots off my pack. carry extra fuel for camp stove.

 

Then hope the the rain stops and the sun comes out.

 

I once experienced mountain hiking under the rain. In the midway. It's so annoyed to have our SHOES sucking wet, but we just couldn't throw them away, cos it's in the winter. To makne things worse, we got lost for half of a day. It's such a daymare.

[gitarmac]

I love hiking in the rain! It's important to be prepared for that however. Good shoes are a must, that's another topic though. I wear goretex or some other kind of waterproof boot that I have tested at home when I go out. I have a boot dryer at home as well.

 

If its fairly warm it's not much of a problem, you will only sweat if you wear something waterproof.

 

I have a variety of rain gear, a simple pauncho works pretty well. I also have a marmot precip and something similar by patogonia that works well in heavier downpours. Frogtogs work too.

 

I try my stuff out at home when I go on day hikes or working in the yard so I know their limitations. More often than not it rains when I plan a camping trip, it's easier in the long run to learn to appreciate it.

 

I think wet boots are the worst thing, you can't really dry them out very well on a hiking trip and they squish and chafe otherwise.

 

Test your tents and stuff in the yard so you can seal any leaking seams.

[+Jeepergeo]

A good and stout hiking pole or staff is really helpful when crossing rapid water.

 

Other than that, perhaps a good book just in case you get tent bound for a bunch of hours.

 

And maybe an empty quart sized Gatorade bottle, also in case you get tent bound for a long while.

[+Mike & Jess]

It has been a while since I was in this thread, so I thought I would follow up on it.

The trip was great. The bike/hike in was nice the saturday (15'C and sun). My GPS was flaking out on us during the bushwhacking, so we ended up adding a couple miles to that part of the trip while traveling with compass and topo (the bush was dense).

The temp dropped pretty quickly as the sun went down and around 8PM the rain started.

Although we stayed dry during the night, the temp when we went to bed was ~3'C and raining, which made for a slightly uncomfortable sleep.

Of course, the rain stopped after we had eaten and packed up camp. The fog lifted by mid morning, providing us with a nice warm sunny day to travel out.

For foot wear, I had opted for hiking sandle (looks like a shoe, but designed to get wet). These worked really well, considering I had slipped a couple times along the shoreline of one of the lakes and ended up swimming/floating a couple times. They didn't offer as much protection as a boot, but where lighter for biking, and didn't hold the water when I fell into the lake.

 

Here are a couple pics from the trip (my P&S camera wasn't happy with me on this trip)

Crossing the river at the start of the trip.

This was the end of the nice biking trail. about 300 yards past where the photo was taken, the trail dropped down to a moose track, then disappeared.

 

This is when we first stepped out of the bush on top Wood Lake. I was so glad to see the water as we had just gone up and down a pretty rough elevation through the bush.

This was my pack on the trip in. It was reasonably well balance, but I was carrying too much water in it. The bear spray you see in the photo I found in the bush while bushwhacking. I wasn't pleased about carrying extra crap I would long the way, but was doing my part by picking it up. I did find a machette as well long the hike in.

The Bushwhacking.... This is what we fought for ~6km.

This was base camp. After bushwhacking for ~6km, and nothing but bush, this was an amazing site.

Yes my tent was huge, but it was worth the weight as I knew it would be dry and had space for our packs.

 

 

This was the view we had as we started out trip out. The fog was lifting, but it was still slightly raining

[Connfederate]

Nice! Thanx for the follow up report and pix.

[+TotemLake]

Great pictures! Thanks for sharing.

[+Mike & Jess]

A couple lessons learned from this trip (with day temp ~15'C night ~3'C);

Need to look into a compact sleeping mat. My light weight sleeping bag worked good to hold the heat in, but the cold coming in from the ground made for a rough sleep.

 

Carrying less water then I had, specially in Northern Ontario with plenty of lake/river crossings. Going in, I had way too much water on me (2L blader, 2 x 1L bottles and my 600ml filtering bottle). This added a lot of weight. Coming back out, I only had the blader and a 1L bottle which was lighter and was enough to get me to the next good water source. I would have been ok with just the blader, but I don't like finding out I am out of water in the middle of a trip.

As a MTN biker, I generally go with the rule of ~2L of water per hour. For hiking, this is probably over kill.

 

Rain pants are way too hot for hiking/biking. I had a poncho as a backup, but with the bushwhacking, optted for the rain coat and pants. Not sure what to do the next time around. Shorts would have been bad for bushwhacking, but the rain pants where way too warm. Maybe more breathable pants would be in order.

Edited December 20, 2010 by Mike & Jess

[+G & C]

You might be able to fix your water carrying problem by getting a water pump. Especially if you're going to be hiking/biking in an area with plenty of sources of water. I tend to carry an empty water bladder and a 1L Nalgene bottle full, and just fill that up whenever I run low. If I need to carry more water, I pump the bladder full. Saves weight, gives options.

 

One thing that I didn't see mentioned here is one of those waterproof pack covers. They're pretty cheap, and they pretty much guarantee that whether you're carrying synthetic or down, your bag will be dry come time to hit the sack.

 

Regarding your idea for a good, packable sleeping mat: do it. They're awesome, and will definitely aid in keeping you warmer. If you have a REI anywhere near you, try hitting up one of their used gear sales. Mine ALWAYS has a bunch of good sleeping mats for sale for real cheap. I got my ThermaRest Pro Plus Reg for around $20, because somebody bought it and decided they needed a long.

[+MtnMutt-ProDuckShins]

A cheap Black Garbage sack covering your Pack works during the Hike/Bike trip and of course at night.

Your Sleeping Bag can also be protected by putting a smaller garbage bag into Stuff sack then your Sleeping bag.

If worried about clothes another Bag or a Dry bag.

I've been using them for years in the Northwest Trails and of course Mountain Trips. I'm not a latest Fashion guy, I look at what I can use to survive my needs.

I've taught this to Scouts for 15 years with no complains, just laughter and smiles.

[+Mike & Jess]

You might be able to fix your water carrying problem by getting a water pump. Especially if you're going to be hiking/biking in an area with plenty of sources of water. I tend to carry an empty water bladder and a 1L Nalgene bottle full, and just fill that up whenever I run low. If I need to carry more water, I pump the bladder full. Saves weight, gives options.

 

One thing that I didn't see mentioned here is one of those waterproof pack covers. They're pretty cheap, and they pretty much guarantee that whether you're carrying synthetic or down, your bag will be dry come time to hit the sack.

 

Regarding your idea for a good, packable sleeping mat: do it. They're awesome, and will definitely aid in keeping you warmer. If you have a REI anywhere near you, try hitting up one of their used gear sales. Mine ALWAYS has a bunch of good sleeping mats for sale for real cheap. I got my ThermaRest Pro Plus Reg for around $20, because somebody bought it and decided they needed a long.

I had carried a water bottle style filter. It is not as fast as a pump, but was smaller, and cheaper.

The problem with my packing was that I packed my water for regular mtn biking consumption. When I am biking, I go through ~1L and hour. As mentioned, it was a lesson learned.

As for the sleeping mat, Had we gone a week earlier, it had been a non-issue.

I think I will pick one up anyway for the next trip. It's always nice to have a good comfy sleep.

[+Mike & Jess]

A cheap Black Garbage sack covering your Pack works during the Hike/Bike trip and of course at night.

Your Sleeping Bag can also be protected by putting a smaller garbage bag into Stuff sack then your Sleeping bag.

If worried about clothes another Bag or a Dry bag.

I've been using them for years in the Northwest Trails and of course Mountain Trips. I'm not a latest Fashion guy, I look at what I can use to survive my needs.

I've taught this to Scouts for 15 years with no complains, just laughter and smiles.

 

Everything in my pack was either in a dry sac, or XL zip-lock freezer bag.

I also carry a number of black garbage bags with me. They work great for many things, including emergency raincoats.