Backpacking in the Rain

In my previous post I mentioned that we encountered a lot of rain, both during the day and at night.  I've only encountered heavy rains during a hiking trip a few times.  I thought I'd summarize what I've learned so far about what works and what doesn't.  Keep in mind that this only relates to heavy rain.  If you are expecting a lot of drizzle then what I say below won't apply.

Silnylon Tarps and Shelters

When you first venture into ultralight backpacking you soon encounter a fabric called silnylon.  It's a ripstop nylon that has been impregnated with silicone.  Lightweight tarps are made of the stuff as are many single-walled shelters.  It's great stuff because it's lightweight and mostly waterproof.  By this I mean that with enough force water will be able to penetrate the fabric.  In a driving rainstorm you experience this as "misting": fine droplets of water that splatter on you.  If the intensity of the rain lasts for a while then you and your stuff will get damp.  I've experienced this on a few occasions and this was one of them.

Gatewood Cape

The Six Moon Designs Gatewood Cape is a really neat piece of gear. It's made of silnylon and so misting can be (and was for me) a problem. But it's only 11 ounces for rain gear AND shelter and so it is something of an ultralighter's dream. The more you look at it the more you are impressed with the design. A lot of good thought has gone into it. It sets up with a trekking pole and six stakes. Setting it up takes some practice. Chris had to help me each time.

Gatewood Cape (downloaded from backpackinglight.com)

My Poncho and Bivy

I've used a poncho and bivy (a rather common combination) which means that your poncho is raingear and half your shelter.  You need the bivy because of possible splatter getting on you.  But bivy sacks are not weightless.  The idea of the Gatewood cape is to eliminate the need for the bivy.  In my experience this is only partially true.  The cape does provide 360 degree protection but is quite small if you pitch it close to the ground (even for me at only 5'5" tall).  The usual thing is to pitch it with a gap of several inches at the bottom.  This left me exposed to windblown rain on the first night.  The second night I was able to guess the direction of the weather and pitch one side down.  This would be a great piece of gear for when you thought  rain was possible but that a storm would be unlikely. 

Rainwear

The Gatewood cape or a poncho is rainwear and shelter.  However cool this seems it does raise some problems.  Chris had brought separate rainwear and so the second evening I had just barely finished eating when a storm rolled in so I had to huddle inside.  Chris strolled by and offered to hang my bear bag for me.  If he hadn't done that I don't know what I would have done.  You can't leave your shelter during the rain if you go this route.  I recommend bringing a pee bottle with you if you try this -- worked well for me (I doubt it would work so well for the ladies).

Even with a poncho or cape I would bring a hat.  The hoods on ponchos make your head and neck sweaty. 

The other way to go is to get a rain jacket and perhaps rain pants.  The problem is that your body produces moisture while you hike and if you are inside waterproof clothing you get pretty sticky.  Breathable raingear is a must.  The most breathable and least expensive is DriDucks.  They are not super durable though.  But for $20 you can afford to replace them often.   I don't think I would recommend wearing rain pants, whatever the brand.  My legs got really wet from the mountain laurel bushes that crowded the hiking paths even when it wasn't raining.  Rainpants might snag in such situations.  But my nylon hiking pants dried quickly so I didn't care if they got wet.

Synthetic Insulation

Backpackers are fond of down as an insulation. It's amazingly warm for it's weight and packs down small. However it can't stand a wetting. My modified winter quilt uses high quality down as insulation and since I use it in the cold weather (below freezing) I've never really had a problem with it getting wet. For warmer weather I use a quilt my wife made me using Climashield XP synthetic insulation. It's not as warm per ounce as down and doesn't compress as well but it works great in wet conditions. During the night on this recent hike the outside of my quilt took the brunt of the misting and got pretty wet. However I stayed warm inside.  In the morning the quilt dried quickly.  Down quilts don't insulate when wet and don't dry quickly if they get wet.  For spring hikes I think synthetic insulation is a must.

At this point I should insert another trick that I had heard about but never had to try.  In the evening my clothing was wet (especially my pants).  I didn't bring extra dry clothing because I wanted to try this trick.  Just go to bed wet.  The heat from your body dries your clothes at night, provided the moisture can escape (wouldn't work if you were in a bivy that wasn't very breathable).  This worked well for me.  So I went to bed with wet clothes under a somewhat wet quilt and woke up mostly dry.  Cool huh?


Footwear

There were lots of creek crossings as you can imagine on this trip. But when hiking in heavy rain the trail itself turns into a creek so your feet are constantly wet. My hiking companions wore waterproof Gore-Tex boots but found they still had wet feet by the end of the day. The first day I felt smug with my sandals and Sealskinz socks. I could cross creek and hike through water all day and no water would get in. When the rain stopped I took them off and just wore liner socks with my sandals. So my feet were cool while my companions had hot, sweaty feet. I've used this strategy before successfully. But this time I ran into a problem. The second day the sealskinz socks were still wet from the day before, both inside and out. I think the issue is that the membrane inside is somewhat breathable and the heat from your feet allows sweat to pass from inside to outside. When the sock is off there is no temperature differential and so moisture seems to pass from outside to inside. At any rate it didn't look fun to put them back on so I just hiked in regular socks and changed them when I could. Not super fun. I think the better solution would be to continue to wear the sealskinz until they are dry outside and then take them off.

West Rim Trail Hike

The day after Easter I went with a buddy from Hammockforums named Chris and a friend of his on a hike on the West Rim Trail of Pennsylvania's Grand Canyon, more correctly known as Pine Creek Gorge.  The trail is 30 miles long and we decided to take it in 2 1/2 days.

Chris' friend turned out to be  Curt Weinhold, a photographer from the area. If you have used guidebooks for hiking trails in Pennsylvania then you may have seen his work. If you click on PA Wilds or Nature on his page then you will see examples of his work. Some of the photo's I've posted below are actually his also.

Here's the man in the flesh, just as we began our hike, at a bridge over Pine Creek. We started at the southern end of the trail and hiked north to Ansonia, PA.

Another shot of him looking every inch the outdoorsman that he is. He has spent a lot of time in these woods.  He probably knows this trail better than any many alive actually.

It was wet when we began our hike as it has been all spring. We had a lot of rain during the hike as well. That made things uncomfortable but did make for some gorgeous views of waterfalls and creeks.

There were so many gushing creeks and waterfalls that after a while we realized that if I stopped hiking to take pictures of each one we'd never make any progress.

On top of the rim I was stunned at the quantity of Mountain Laurel. Mountain Laurel is a flowering bush which is evergreen and is the state flower of Pennsylvania. Here's Carl standing on the trail with Mountain Laurel behind him.

A first for me was to see porcupines in the wild. They are actually easy to spot because they make a lot of noise as they scamper up trees to get away from you. It was fun to see but my hiking buddies tell me they are a major nuisance. While you are hiking they will often eat through the tires, brake lines, and other important parts of your vehicle. Experienced hikers put mothballs near their cars when they leave them at the trailhead.  Apparently porcupines don't like the smell.

The problem with hiking a rim trail is the temptation to camp on the ridge to get nice early morning views. That left us exposed to windblown rain from the thunderstorm that raged all night. I was on the ground under a tarp rather than in a hammock so I got quite a bit of spray on my quilt during the night. In the morning we woke up to mist filling the gorge.

As the sun came up I hung my stuff out to dry and watched the mist clearing out.

The second day was sunny for most of the day but then thunderstorms came in the afternoon.  Below you see me hiking in a piece of gear called a gatewood cape that Chris loaned me to try.  It's like a poncho tarp but sets up into a shelter with 360 degree protection. On the right you can see it set up for our second night.

Near my cape setup you can see an ad-hoc creek forming. The ground was so waterlogged and there was so much rain falling that little creeks were forming everywhere. This one got within a few inches of flooding me out.

Here's Chris looking much drier than I was because he was in a hammock. While I enjoyed trying out the cape this hike reinforced my opinion that hammocks really are the way to go in rainy weather.

The next day provided some more great views of the gorge.









Here's me at the end of the hike. Not looking beautiful but feeling good.

Being a Radical

When people make fun of ultralight backpackers they always give a particular example of radical, ridiculous, over-the-top weight-saving behavior.  I know you know what it is.   Cutting the handles off toothbrushes, right?

Well I always laughed at that also.  Until recently when I started putting my gear together for a three-day hike on the west rim trail of the pine creek gorge.   I noticed that the child's toothbrush that I take backpacking was getting pretty worn out.  So I went to look for a new one.  Ack!  Have you seen the toothbrushes these days?  They are ridiculously heavy!  The plastic is needlessly thick and the handle is covered with a heavy layer of rubber.  Good heavens!  Why the heavy duty construction?  This is for brushing teeth, not chipping away at glaciers.  Even if I weren't a backpacker I would be offended at wasting that much of the earth's resources on a toothbrush.

So I've officially joined the ranks of the backpacking radicals.  A few minutes with my dremel tool and the toothbrush is about the size and weight that any human really needs.   On the left is the old toothbrush I'm replacing and on the right is the new radicalized toothbrush.

I'm really excited about this upcoming hike.  I'm going with two other backpackers who've hiked this trail before.  We are leaving early Monday morning and I'll return on Wednesday evening.  I'll be sure to post some pics.

Dealing with Wet Wood

A friend of mine and I are planning a long backpacking trip this summer, 70 or 80 miles in 6 days.  In thinking about the logistics of taking an extended backpacking trip I began to wonder how the backcounty boiler that I reviewed in my last post might work as a stove system for the trip.  It's appealing to think that I might not have to carry any fuel for my stove.  Fuel planning is a bit of a stress because there's always some uncertainty about how fast you will go through your fuel.  I've certainly had my fair share of accidentally spilled pots of hot water which have required me to boil again -- using twice as much fuel as I had planned for that meal.  Liquid fuels can also leak or spill (although I haven't had this happen yet) leaving you with less than you might need to finish your hike.

However if you take a wood stove and plan on collecting your fuel then you must face the possibility (especially in this part of the country) of rain, perhaps for extended periods, such that the only wood you will find will be wet.  I thought about carrying esbit solid fuel as a backup.  Initial tests using esbit in the boiler were a bit unsatisfactory.  Then it occurred to me that perhaps the best use of an esbit cube would be to dry out the wet wood.  So I performed the following test to see if that strategy might work.

After having done the test I'm now wondering if I could get away with less than I cube.  Also I'm wondering if there are other alternatives to use in the boiler when the wood is wet.  Any thoughts?

Backcountry Boiler

I'm pretty excited about a new piece of gear I just received. It's called the Backcountry Boiler and it was designed by a backpacker in Pittsburgh named Devin Montgomery. His website is here. The lightweight backpacking community has been eagerly anticipating the release of the boiler. In the first run only 100 were produced and I was able to get one of those first 100. I'm looking forward to using this on upcoming hikes.

In a later post I'd like to talk about what to do when dry wood is not available.

West German Wool Army Pants

In continuing my winter gear theme I've decided to talk about pants for winter camping. Actually this is a review of a new piece of gear that I haven't really put to the test yet. I'll have to follow up some time in the future for a review of how these pants performed for me.

Back in January our local boy scout council held it's annual Klondike derby. For those who don't know what this is it's like a sled dog race where the boys are the dogs. They build sleds and pull them around a course, stopping at various stations where they must complete scouting skill-related activities. I volunteered to help at the Map&Compass station that our church congregation was in charge of. The day of the derby turned out to be one of the coldest days of the year. It was about 0F when we arrived in the morning. I was wearing two pair of long underwear under my nylon hiking pants (that I wear in all seasons). My upper body was fine because I had on many layers and a down parka. But my legs were a little cold. I mentioned it to one of my buddies who was there (who is a real outdoor expert)and he pointed out his wool pants.

Wool is great stuff as I've mentioned before. It's water and odor resistant, and has great wicking and insulating properties. Furthermore in a dense weave, such as you would have in a wool pant it is windproof. I love my merino wool tops and I've consider merino for a base layer on bottom but I had never thought about wool pants. So I set about looking for some.

The classic outdoor wool pants used to be the Malone pant made by Woolrich which is located not too far from me. However they seem not to make them any more. Or at least I couldn't find them on their website. I've found various places online where you can buy them and the going price seems to be about $90. A bit steep for a pair of pants I wasn't sure I would like.

Then I found a review of some West German wool army pants by a backpacker named pig-monkey. I hopped on eBay and soon found a pair just like he had talked about, and miraculously they were in my size. I got them for $16.

These pants are very cool. Military pants seem to be very well made. The waistband is adjustable with buttons inside and out. There are bar tacks on all the pocket seams and inside there are cloth panels over every seam as well as the crotch, waistband, and ankles.

The fly is button-up and there are lots of pockets. The knee area (from mid-thigh to mid-calf) has a double layer of wool (you can see the upper seam of the second layer in the photo to the right).

 

I tend to use the "cargo" aspect of my hiking pants a lot so I really like all the pockets. Each one has a button closure.

The flap on the cargo pocket is tacked down on the front so that the flap stays down even if it is unbuttoned.

Outside the cargo pocket,but still under the flap, is an extra little pocket that is just right for a small knife, or keys, or coins.

In the main compartment of the cargo pocket there are long ties to which you can tie small pieces of gear. The ties are long enough so that you can use the gear (say a knife, small flashlight, or compass) but it makes it impossible to lose by dropping. Very cool idea.

There are snaps around the ankles also so you can snap them tight to your ankles before you put your boots on. When snapped the pants can't ride up on your leg and get over the top of your boots to let snow it.

This works great with my NEOS.  I had a chance to try it this morning because strangely the biggest snow of the year just arrived last night.  I went out shoveling wearing these pants and was impressed with how well this feature works.  In the past that has always been my problem when in deep snow.

The one thing that concerned me about these pants was that the reinforced knees seemed very stiff and made a crinkly sound when I walked.  The knee area has a double layer of wool but there seemed to be some kind of papery material between the layers of wool.  I opened up the bottom seam and found the culprit.  

I imagine these pants were made back in the 60s or 70s.  This reinforcing material seems to be coated with something that has stiffened up and cracked over the years.  There was a fair amount of yellow dust on and around it.

Removing it turned out to be easier than I thought it would be.  The old reinforcing material rips easily and soon came out.  I had to open one more seam to get to the part behind the cargo pocket.  Here you can see the offending material after removal.

The entire procedure took only five minutes and the resulting product is quieter and more comfortable.  

Pig-monkey recommends lanolizing your wool outer clothing. That will increase the water-resistance of the pants.

Although I think these are very cool pants I'm still not sure how I will like them for backpacking. They are rugged, water-resistant, and warm but they are heavy. I may decide that I would prefer a rain pant over a fleece layer on bottom. Rain pants have their own downsides. They tend not to be as utilitarian in terms of pockets and such and the danger of condensation is high compared to wool.

I'll have to do some more experimenting.

Postscript: Shortly after this post I went outside wearing the pants to make snowmen with my kids. I purposely spent a lot of time on my knees in the snow to see how well the wool repels water. I was really impressed. At the end of the process I stood up and dusted off the snow and the pants were dry and my legs were warm. Pretty cool.

Winter Gloves for Backpacking

There is no gear choice more agonizing to backpackers than choosing gloves. Most backpackers end up with many pair, none of which is totally satisfactory to them.  I've recently changed my glove strategy and so far I'm cautiously optimistic.

My previous pair of gloves were glove/mittens that I picked up for cheap somewhere.  Mittens are warmer than gloves but don't allow you to do anything that requires much dexterity.  The idea of this system is that you get the best of both worlds.  You can fold back the part of the mitten that covers your fingers. Velcro on the back of the glove holds this top part in place.  When in glove mode they are fingerless.

My Old Glove/Mittens

This seems like a great idea. The problem here was that the execution wasn't that great. Notice that in either mode your thumb is still encased. It turns out to be surprisingly hard to do things like use a lighter or tie a knot while your thumb is covered.

The other weakness of this is that it isn't waterproof. The material doesn't absorb water but snow or water can easily get under the flap.

SealSkinz Waterproof Gloves

I have a pair waterproof gloves also. They are SealSkinz gloves. These gloves are completely waterproof but the inner membrane is one-way breathable. I think they are probably designed for fisherman or paddlers rather than hikers. However they are nice for spring hikes when there might be cold rain or you might have to mop the frost off your tarp in the morning. They are windproof as well of course so they keep the chill off a bit. But there is no insulating layer so if it gets down near freezing your hands will be cold.


Backpackers tend to prefer a layering system with a waterproof outer mitten and an insulating liner glove inside. If you get too warm you can use either the liner by itself or the mitt by itself. I've looked at many such models and finally found one which I think will do well: Outdoor Research Meteor Mitts. Initially I had trouble finding these because REI's site has these under women's gloves. However if you start searching for Outdoor Research mittens and then select Unisex then you find these.

Meteor Mitt liners

What's cool about these is that the liner is a glove/mitten, like my old ones.  In fact these are much better because the thumb can be uncovered also.  The fingers are not separated underneath like my old gloves but that was kind of a useless feature.  This provides so much dexterity that I really can tie knots without getting down to bare hands.

Liners with digits exposed

The covers for fingers and thumb have little magnets in them that stick to tiny magnets on the back of the gloves to keep them out of the way.  Nice touch I think.  Since the liner is fleece velcro would be a pain.









The outer mitts are well designed also.  The gauntlets come up quite far on your arm and can be cinched down to keep out snow.  I've held them under running water and they seem to be highly water-resistant.

Meteor Mitt Shells

At the bottom of the picture the the left you can see part of a long loop of cord with a simple cord-lock.  This puzzled me at first and then I realized that if I put this around my wrist I could take the mitt off and let it dangle without worrying about losing it.  This means you can take off the outer layer without stopping to undo your pack.  Very nice.

My one gripe -- velcro which makes the shell difficult to remove

After using these gloves on two outings this winter I have concluded there is one minor design error.  The mitt and the liner stay attached to eachother due to matching strips of velcro.  This makes is surprisingly hard to get the mitt off.  I found myself just removing the whole thing when I needed to use my fingers.  I think I'll remove this velcro.  I imagine the idea was to keep you from losing the liner.  But the difficulty it imposes partly negates the advantage of having a liner which allows for finger dexterity.  This is an easy modification so I don't mind having to do it.


I've used these gloves in very cold temps and I would say these gloves are good down to 10 F (-12 Celcius).  Below this temperature I found my fingers getting cold if I were standing still.  While walking I could keep my fingers warm down to somewhere around 0 F.  If you are going to spend significant time below 10 F then I would recommend something like the Black Diamond Mercury Mitten. I considered these initially but decided they were overkill for my purposes and would provide only minor dexterity.