tarp camping in the rain?

[Bjorn Victor]

Imagine:

- Rain all day long.
- Everything (including yourself) is wet.
- You arrive at your campsite.

What do you do?
Pitch tarp first would be my guess.
And then? (and here is my question)

Do you throw your backpack in the mud, take out the bivy cover and put it in the mud too, place the sleeping bag in the bivy bag without touching the mud? Place thermarest in the mud under the bivy bag or inside the bivy?
Do you have a ground sheet? If yes, how big?
Put the trangia in the mud and start cooking?

Basically: how do you deal with wet/muddy floor? Where do you put the backpack?

Or do you all stay in when it rains

Bjorn

 

[wingstoo]

You say everything is wet, does that include the contents of the back pack?

LS

 

[davef]

Hammock

 

[Bjorn Victor]

ok let's say you kept the inside of the backpack (with sleeping bag and clothes,...) dry.

 

[JonnyP]

I have one of those cheap net hammocks that I sometimes string up under my main hammock and I will put all my gear in that to keep it off the wet ground............Jon

 

[wingstoo]

First thing I would do is hang my back pack in a tree.

Then get the tarp up to provide some shelter.

Then get out of my wet clothing.

LS

 

[beachlover]

I love the rain as it keeps the bl**dy holidaymakers in the pubs and amusement arcades.
My strategy is tohang rucksack on a tree above the mud and set up tarp with low side into the wind and rain, chuck out the groundsheet - mine is 6 x 4 and I often only use it folded in half. once I have that sorted I either bring the rucksack in, or unload the dry bags onto the groundsheet.
In my rucksack I carry a chopping board which doubles as a clean and dry spot to put the cooker on.
That only covers a day out, but it would be a similar rationale for an overnighter, but at the end of the day the mud and wet gets in and often the real satisfaction is to have got home and have done it. I take rubble / bin bags to pack the dirty / wet stuff in for the trip home.

 

[leon-1]

Bjorn run a line underneath your tarp have drip lines on it before it goes underneath the edges of the tarp, hang your pack from the haulage loop on the back of the harness using a karabiner.

You can then access the contents of your pack without everything sitting in the mud or water running down over it.

Set up your hammock, get your stove out, have a brew and contemplate what happens next.

 

[Bjorn Victor]

calling all those without hammocks...

 

[The Joker]

I'll let ya all know after the weekend, As Phil562 me and a certain Mr Pickett are out this weekend.

Normally if its wet its tarp up then a ruksak holder (simple tripod) to keep it off the ground and then set the rest of my kit up, hammock etc.
As far as cooking and such likes use a log as a table.

 

[Phil562]

An Army anecdote:

Company Commader to his Sgt Major

"I say Sgt Major whats the wet weather training programme"

"Sir" says the Sgt Major "The same as the dry weather one except the lads wear their water proofs"

 

[Wayland]

First thing I do is hang the tarp then hang everything under it.

I use a net hammock under the fly as dry "shelving".

 

[leon-1]

An Army anecdote:

Company Commader to his Sgt Major

"I say Sgt Major whats the wet weather training programme"

"Sir" says the Sgt Major "The same as the dry weather one except the lads wear their water proofs"

If it ain't raining, it ain't training

I'll get me coat or waterproofs as the case maybe:umbrella:

 

[steven andrews]

Imagine:

- Rain all day long.
- Everything (including yourself) is wet.
- You arrive at your campsite.

What do you do?

Dig a big hole, then lie in the puddle.
Oh no..hang on a minute..I'm not in the army any more.

I try to avoid camping somewhere muddy. The wooded area where I camp gets wet, but due to the foliage on the ground doesn't get muddy.

I pitch a tarp first, lay a groundsheet under it and put my rucksack on the groundsheet.

I carry a small 58 poncho that can be pitched to shelter the seating area around the fire, separate from the sleeping tarp.

Once everything is pitched and the fire is lit I'll change into some warm dry kit - and have a beer.

 

[RAPPLEBY2000]

this has happened to me on several occasions.

assuming you don't have a hammock or time/materials to make stuff this is stuff i have learned over years of trial and error about quickly setting up your camp.

before your hike:

Put your sleeping bag in your bivibag(be it goretex or plastic) problem solved! don't use a compression sack use your rucksack to compress it!
Get a waterproof cover for your rucksack, and a liner for the inside.(both can serve as extra emergency ground sheets).
Keep your tarp kit at the top of your bag, or in a pocket so you can get it easily!(attatch cords at home it saves fiddly knots when you are in a hurry)!
Make life easy, bring some tent pegs (you can make some "proper ones" later)!
i always have a climbing crab on my rucksack so it can be clipped up to a branch or cord quickly!
have you considered using travel straps(bungees) to fix your tarp? they are much faster, and easier to put up and take down. not bushcrafty but it solves another problem! especially when wearing gloves!

on the trip:
if you are camping in mud, why?
choose a well drained area, with leaf litter or grass(sand or shingle even better)!
camp on a slight slope or on a small rise so water will run away from you.

as you arrive what sort of shelter do you want? just for sleeping, sitting under? standing under? or a quick drink? if you aren't sure make it chest hieght you can move it up or down later.

a basic lean-to design is the quickest shelter, 2 trees 2 pegs. though a tent design is better weather proofing, it is more difficult to put up quickly.

goretex needs to be looked after keep the base ofyour bivibag clean at least with a cheap piece of plastic ideally with a camping mat (to stop thorns).

trangia.....you could take a piece of kitchen foil to place it on, i never really worried about keeping the outside of my trangia clean, though a handful of grass or twigs would suffice as a mat though you'd then have a fire risk. personally i'd not worry and clean it at home.

as for living there for the rest of the day, or weekend, take a good book! a secound tarp is always useful for a larger working area.
don't forget a tarp is an excellent water collector why not try it!


if you follow the abouve advice you can have a tarp, bivibag, sleeping bag, trangia, all set up for the night in around 5 minutes! and dry!

hope that's helpful.

 

[Nemisis]

I carry a poly tarp with eylets as a ground sheet I open it out place my pack onto it then fold it over and secure to the ground with a couple of tent pegs while I set up the tarp and hammock. Then drag it into the shelter open it out and peg it down set up the trangia to boil while I get changed in the dry. I carry a second tarp that fastens to the first if needed I can hang a washing line under it.
Dave.

 

[Ahjno]

Imagine:

- Rain all day long.
- Everything (including yourself) is wet.
- You arrive at your campsite.

What do you do?
Pitch tarp first would be my guess.
And then? (and here is my question)

Do you throw your backpack in the mud, take out the bivy cover and put it in the mud too, place the sleeping bag in the bivy bag without touching the mud? Place thermarest in the mud under the bivy bag or inside the bivy?
Do you have a ground sheet? If yes, how big?
Put the trangia in the mud and start cooking?

Basically: how do you deal with wet/muddy floor? Where do you put the backpack?

Or do you all stay in when it rains

Bjorn

1. Stay inside, put on your computer, surf to www.bushcraftuk.com/community and have fun

2. Hammock

3. Without hammock:
- Rucksacks sometimes come with raincovers, also additional available. You can put it in the mud if you really have to, or do as the others do and hang it on a tree with a carabiner.
- Put up tarp.
- As for sleeping in the mud ... now you see what the benefits of a hammock are You could use bin liners or a poncho draped on the ground. I've used bracken and spruce with succes, but you're not always in the position to use those materials.
For the wettieness ... Wet bracken is far more better than mud - nice facial in the morning though
But camping in the mud is something you should avoid - as it spoils all your fun, something that bushcraft should be all about.
- Keep your sleeping bag inside your bivy, so when you get to your camp spot in pouring rain your bag won't get wet when you get it out of your rucksack.
- Place TaR inside bivy bag when you're under tarp cover.
- Get a brew going.
- Get of your wet kit, and put on some dry stuff.
- Have a brew and something to eat.
- Laugh at your companion who's still struggling and gets wetter every second.

 

[Bjorn Victor]

Morning all,

Thanks for the replies so far!!

The thing is, I'm pretty used to tarp camping, so I have encountered some pretty rough weather and slept in strange places and positions (don't ask ).

The problem is that I always go trekking in the Alps. No many trees there so high up. In the valley it's ok. Way up even grass is not there anymore. All I have is rocks and dirt.
So: no hammocks. No bungees.

I set up the tarp low and open a poncho as ground sheet. Foam mat and sleeping bag on ground sheet and ready. I fix the tarp with guy lines (already attached) to rocks and some tent pegs.
The wind is pretty strong sometimes and if I pitch my tarp so high as some of you do, the rain will come in horizontally...

Anyone has been in the mountains with a tarp? Any suggestions? Things I can try to lighten my load?

Again, thanks for the input :You_Rock_

Bjorn

 

[Mantic]

Firstly my sleeping gear and clothes are in a dry bag in the rucksack so they can be put in a river for all the difference it'll make. Most of my other gear is bagged in water-resistant bags, which sit inside one big waterproof bag inside the pack.

This means that I can leave the rucksack in the mud without any problems. I can also take bags of kit out and unless I put them into a puddle, they'll stay dry (even in the rain). If the bags get muddy, so what - they only go back inside the pack with outher bags.

I'll post some picks soon as I've just made a load of bags after I gave the last lot I had to a mate.

A very needy mate

 

[RAPPLEBY2000]

ok i see the problem,

i camped up sca-fell in england once with a tarp, there was nothing to tie anything to!
i had to make a very low shelter 1ft high! not comfortable, i found an iron bar which i used as a tent pole otherwise it would have been even lower.

this is where bivibags come into thier own!

3 more ideas:

1: if you have a breathable Bivibag, you only need to cover the top part the bag where the entrance is you could use an umbrella if it wasn't too windy :umbrella: !!

2: if you have a frame rucksack use it to prop up part of your tarp, use walking poles or ice axes,or take some alloy tent poles.
(for an ultralight option, take some adapted archery arrows they are extremely light and about the right length 2ft obviously put something blunt on each end!)

3: how about a hoop design? have a surf for an idea called: "Alpha poncho tent "
i have made one, it is a standard US army poncho with 2 poles forming an "X" across the whole thing, i am about 6ft tall and i find it far too small for me but it's an idea worth following up for a tarp design in a barren landscape.
SASS make a tarp with purpose made sleaves to hold poles in a simular design.

basically in a mountain enviroment shelter is difficult anyway due to the weather and roughness of the ground, i would say that everyone has given good advice and most of it still applies, i.e. keeping kit of the ground, site selection, and so on.
it really depends on how much luxuary you want.

as for going more lightweight, remove bivibag or tarp they both do the same job.

cord on tarp can be lighter, checkout kite flying cord.

do you need the whole trangia? could you get away with just the burner? consider a coke can stove!

for some other ideas take a look at the "Sgt Rock hiking HQ" web site
an ex soldier that's gone ultra-lightweight it covers loads of ideas about shelter gear choice, cookers, etc.

and i'm not sure about this......can we really combine ultra-lightweight with bushcraft? i've tried but it's hard!