I went out for a hike last week and as I planned to be out for most of the day I packed cooking/brewing gear, some food to cook, some extra layers (as my route was up over the local mountain) and a tarp.
The tarp was for setting up should I have needed to stop for food or just rest up during a heavy downpour.
I was very, very lucky in that the two times I chose to stop and have a brew and some grub, the rain didn't come. I did narrowly miss it on my second stop though and had I been half hour later I'd have got soaked. With the threat of rain I chose to hurry my lunch and get moving but it got me thinking......
Why was I concerned about the rain if I had a tarp? Well partly because I'm still a beginner with using them and it takes me a while to get my DD 3x3 set up in a way I'm happy with. Regardless of my lack of proficiency though, I didn't really want to go to the bother of getting it all out and put up for the sake of a 20 minute stop in all honesty and then going to the same trouble packing it back up again.
I had "waterproofs" (I use that term loosely) on so the main issue would have been keeping all my eating/drinking stuff dry.
So as most of you will have found yourselves in a similar situation, my question is what would you do for a quick stop in a heavy downpour to enable you to get some hot food and drink in?
Do you have any kind of quick set up routine that you go through that's minimal effort/no nonsense?
I was looking in to a basha and pole set up just for the added bonus of not having to find that ideal spot where the trees are where you need them but it still seems like it would take several miserable minutes to get it set up.
Then I came across this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeFfS8MCmtg
A poncho with eyelets has the added benefit of being a waterproof layer which would be good for me having discovered how useless my Regatta Jacket is at keeping out heavy rain but I also liked the idea of the bungee cords for being much quicker than faffing with knots.
For a sleep set up I'd absolutely stick with my 3x3 and paracord but this is just about having a quick set up and take down solution for keeping out of the worst of it.
What are people opinions or alternatives?
The tarp was for setting up should I have needed to stop for food or just rest up during a heavy downpour.
I was very, very lucky in that the two times I chose to stop and have a brew and some grub, the rain didn't come. I did narrowly miss it on my second stop though and had I been half hour later I'd have got soaked. With the threat of rain I chose to hurry my lunch and get moving but it got me thinking......
Why was I concerned about the rain if I had a tarp? Well partly because I'm still a beginner with using them and it takes me a while to get my DD 3x3 set up in a way I'm happy with. Regardless of my lack of proficiency though, I didn't really want to go to the bother of getting it all out and put up for the sake of a 20 minute stop in all honesty and then going to the same trouble packing it back up again.
I had "waterproofs" (I use that term loosely) on so the main issue would have been keeping all my eating/drinking stuff dry.
So as most of you will have found yourselves in a similar situation, my question is what would you do for a quick stop in a heavy downpour to enable you to get some hot food and drink in?
Do you have any kind of quick set up routine that you go through that's minimal effort/no nonsense?
I was looking in to a basha and pole set up just for the added bonus of not having to find that ideal spot where the trees are where you need them but it still seems like it would take several miserable minutes to get it set up.
Then I came across this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeFfS8MCmtg
A poncho with eyelets has the added benefit of being a waterproof layer which would be good for me having discovered how useless my Regatta Jacket is at keeping out heavy rain but I also liked the idea of the bungee cords for being much quicker than faffing with knots.
For a sleep set up I'd absolutely stick with my 3x3 and paracord but this is just about having a quick set up and take down solution for keeping out of the worst of it.
What are people opinions or alternatives?