VIDEO: Camping in Thunderstorms and Heavy Rain!

[Rhody Seth]

My friends and I spent two nights at the Crocker Cirque campsite on the Appalachian Trail in Carrabassett Valley, a beautiful area in western Maine. We met up Friday afternoon with the plan to hike three 4000 footers on Saturday and three on Sunday. It would be a very very humid weekend with a forecast that called for rain and thunderstorms throughout. With that in mind, we were fortunate that we only dealt with rain that first day. But it was a lot of rain! And it arrived just as we began to set up camp.

I pitched my hammock very low as I was afraid of bad weather and while very low to the ground I had a couple of the best nights of sleep I've had yet in the hammock. My friend Rob and his son somehow hung against each other so that they could share a tarp. It seems like it went pretty well for them. They remained dry if nothing else.

While the initial downpour made a pool around my tarp, the water did recede and it did not return as the rain because more reasonable as the evening wore on. In the end we made do with the wet conditions and had a great night in the woods! Lots of shenanigans in this video and eventually I'll post Part 2 and 3 in this thread.

[Zach L]

I love camping in the rain! I sleep the best when it’s cool and rainy! Thanks for posting!

[alt.thomas]

LoL: the kid’s yawp after “No taxation without representation”

[Adroa]

Looking forward to the next parts!

[psyculman]

Thanks! It's all about the adventure. Look forward to more.

[-INCH-]

Once again a killer video dude. Thanks!!

[Rhody Seth]

Looking forward to the next parts!

I love camping in the rain! I sleep the best when it’s cool and rainy! Thanks for posting!

Thanks! It's all about the adventure. Look forward to more.

Once again a killer video dude. Thanks!!

Thanks all! The rain tapered off around midnight and I had one of the best nights of sleep in my hammock yet. The following day turned out to have great weather, though the high humidity and temps wore us down as it went on. We summitted three 4000 footers and actually went up South Crocker three times as it was the junction for all the peaks. We returned to camp in the early afternoon and spent the time making a fire and relaxing. Duncan had to dry out his tent and all the stuff in it as it got wet during the initial setup the previous day. Thankfully it was dry and sunny which helped him considerably. A few AT hikers camp to check out the campsite before opting to camp a little ways off. I had another great night of sleep in the hammock and the following morning we packed up and returned to the car to drop off much of our gear for the big hike ahead.

[Phantom Grappler]

If it rains, then we’re really camping.
Rain can be a challenge, especially if there is wind and rain.
Sometimes the ends of my hammock gets damp.

And I’ve had wind and rain made worse by having tarp ridgeline and hammock ridgeline too far apart.
Coupled with me not having makeshift doors closed tight enough.

With high winds and rain, I’ll probably get wet again.
But I’ve been working on setting up more carefully.

What I’ve been doing may not work for everyone
It might not even work for me!

Dutchware bonded seam winter tarp with doors and two internal pole mods.
I can set both hammock and tarp ridgelines close together. And tarp is allowed to make a large footprint—its 12 by 11.5 feet.
I can pull the doors a bit lower tied to base of trees hammock is on.
Then I can use two ponchos, one over each end of hammock ridgeline. All snaps are snapped on outside edge nearest the trees. And one or two snaps are snapped towards middle of hammock.
A mini tarp would work even better, hanging on hammock ridgeline.

I envy the strack setups with fully closed doors.
I’ve got a lot to learn, and might never get it completely right.

That’s what hot coffee in am is for!

[Rhody Seth]

I envy the strack setups with fully closed doors.

I do love them buttons on my tarp's doors. It's nice having them snugly tight.

[Rhody Seth]

Here's the final video of our Carrabassett Valley trilogy. We hiked point to point and climbed three more 4000 footers - Sugarloaf, Spaulding and Abraham. The clouds lifted at points and we didn't deal with rain or thunderstorms...though the bugs made themselves known throughout. Impressive hiking from the youngest of our group at 12 and 15 years old.