Wet Weather Camping, Rain, Snow, Whatever

[Flibitygiget]

Thought it might be a good idea to have a thread on Wet Weather Camping. One thing I can't stand is being confined to a tent during rainy weather, sure can spoil a trip.

Living and camping here in Colorado, we don't get a lot of it in the summer time, but we prepare for it just incase. When it does happen and your camping in the mountains, you get very little warning unless your are at the top of the mountain.

To prepare for it we have been using tarps to provide us dry space outside of the tent so we can still enjoy the outdoors. The tarps allow us to remain outside and stay dry while cooking, eating, playing cards or just chatting by the fire. And even if it doesn't rain the tarps will keep things from falling out of the trees or sky onto you or into your food, etc.

We have been doing the tarp thing for over 15 years now and I just don't understand why more people don't use them. Almost every tent camper I see brings one and then they stick it under their tent for a ground cover, then when it rains they have to stay in their tent and many of them still get soaked.

Anyway, here are a few pics of some of our rain setups.

[renodesertfox]

Re: Wet Weather Camping, Rain, Snow, Whatever

Sweet Flibity! Very nice pitched sites. Perhaps you could take a moment and explain in detail how you get your tarps high over your tent area, how much time is involved? How much rope you carry? The size you recommend? Where you purchased your tarps from? The knots you use to secure your tarps? Etc............

Our main tarp is 12x30 and it fits over our Kodiak Cabin Canvas Wall Tent. The tent has an attached awning that is 9x8 and the tent itself is 9x12. Here's a quick pic of our last rain campout in Napa Valley SP. Thanks for sharing and what a great way to introduce yourself and jumped right in became great Campateer, instantly! Nice photos!

[surmisez]

Re: Wet Weather Camping, Rain, Snow, Whatever

I love tarps and have one for under the tent, a medium sized one for over our tent, and a huge one for over the screen house -- covers the roof as well as all the sides, if necessary.

We set up our screen house as a kitchen with a card table and 4 folding chairs, as well as a living type area with 3 comfortable lawn chairs.



We usually don't set up the tarps until there's a 50% or better chance of rain. Then we move the camp chairs from the fire area to the screen house and it turns into a kitchen/family type room, with the camp kitchen on one end, card table and chairs in the middle, and comfortable camp chairs for lounging at the other end.

Our last camping trip of 2010 had two days of downpours, so we spent our time in the screen house and it was very comfy and dry, even the ground stayed dry under the screen house.

We watched as many folks packed up their campsites and drove away. We actually enjoyed the rain. Although, I would not have enjoyed it if we didn't have a dry tent and screen house.

[Flibitygiget]

Re: Wet Weather Camping, Rain, Snow, Whatever

Hey RDF,

Thanks for the welcome. Looks like you have camped in the wet more than a time or two. Checked out some of your pics, you've been to some nice places.

I use a special tool, my avatar, that I invented to get the ropes high into the trees. With this tool on the end of and extendable pole I can get the ropes as high as 20' even on trees that have no branches within that distance, heck I can do it on a light or telephone pole if needed. I don't have to climb or throw ropes and I can put them right where I want them the first time. I also use them as supports since they provide more attachment points and configurations than a standard tent pole. I can even place a third pole between two of them and have a solid ridge line if wanted.

There are a couple of very non-professional videos on the net that show how it works, just do a google on my handle.

Then at christmas time I use it to put the lights on the trees in my yard.

I use the ropes to suspend the tarps and also put our foodstuffs out of reach of animals.

The shelter items I carry are:
1 tent 10'x10'
7 2 12x20, 1 14x24 poly tarps and 4 12x12 ultralight Guide Gear nylon tarps.
1 12x12 poly tarp used inside the tent for the floor, pads and collects all the dirt etc.
2 50' 5/8" braided nylon rope
4 50' 1/4" braided nylon rope
12 10' 1/8" braided nylon cord
4 single 3/4" pullys
2 double 3/4" pullys
1 bag of assorted attaching devices, rings, carabiners, etc.
20 12" galvanized landscaping nails for stakes
2 6' extendable poles and
5 14' extendable poles with my special tool on each

Here are links to Ace Hardware and Home Depot with reasonable pricing ($17 - $18) for the medium duty painter type poles and free shipping offers on 6'-12' extendable poles. The shipping may be to the local store or to your home. I got mine at Home Depot over the years so I have 4 different type poles, but they all work fine.

http://www.acehardware.com/product/i...ductId=2974896
http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1...atalogId=10053

Don't know if you have a Costco or Sam's Club near you, they might have some of the heavy duty at a better cost.

KNOTS:
More times than not I use the double half hitch on rope to tree and the tautline hitch rope to stake

[Flibitygiget]

Re: Wet Weather Camping, Rain, Snow, Whatever

Hi Surmisez,

Isn't that the truth, gotta stay dry or it ruins everything. I have literally had people staring at us from their car for a couple hours before they got fed up and broke camp to go home because of the rain. Bet they use a tarp the next time.

Looks like you have a pretty comfortable set up there.

Our tarps actually shelter our fire pit so we can still enjoy it during a down pour.

Happy Camping

[renodesertfox]

Re: Wet Weather Camping, Rain, Snow, Whatever

Well, you nailed down everything I asked for! Thanks for sharing! I'll check out "Flibitygiget" next. You might want to consider becoming a preferred vendor here on this site as well. This site gets alot of web traffic! Once again thanks for signing on CF!

Just spent a good 30 minutes looking at your website. You might also consider posting some or your set-up videos on CF as well! I'm going to order a couple soon and try it out! Looks exciting! Thanks for sharing! You have a nifty Flibitygiget! Heehee!

Check it out, y'all here: http://www.world-interactive.com/

[guitarzan]

Re: Wet Weather Camping, Rain, Snow, Whatever

What size and material is this tarp? That's about the size I need and the material looks somewhat reflective.

Thanks for the ideas on tarping.

(Edit, add) How would I tie off on a tree with no limbs or a pole? I watched the flibitygiget videos on youtube and that's a pretty cool little device. I just catch figure out how you'd work the rope that high up without any limbs to work over. Thanks!

[Flibitygiget]

Re: Wet Weather Camping, Rain, Snow, Whatever

Thanks RDF, I'd love to post a vid or 2. Is there a particular thread for that or is any where good?

And thanks for posting the link to my site, I have bet my life savings on this little puppy and if it doesn't grow up into a full sized dog I'm just going to be left with a pile of poo, LOL

I hope to do some more vids this summer on our trips, so maybe I'll have some better material then.

Thanks again.

[Flibitygiget]

Re: Wet Weather Camping, Rain, Snow, Whatever

Hey Guitarzan,

Glad to share, we love using the tarps, make our outings far more enjoyable even in good weather.

That is a 14'x20' grey poly tarp. As far as tying off on a pole or tree with no limbs, go to our site listed in the post #6 and go to the video page, view Flibitygiget2 video and it will show you how to walk the rope up the tree.

[surmisez]

Re: Wet Weather Camping, Rain, Snow, Whatever

I like the Flibitygiget tool you invented!

[Johnny Test]

Re: Wet Weather Camping, Rain, Snow, Whatever

can you give some details about the aluminum poles you use. Are they fixed or extendable? What is on the end?

[renodesertfox]

Re: Wet Weather Camping, Rain, Snow, Whatever

The tool vids could be posted in the General Chat section if you'd like, or tent too. You could include your website in your signature block too, if you'd like. There are a few other campateers here that also have their own camping products for sale and that's okay as long as you stay relatively active in the forums and aren't out just to make a buck. Making a buck is the name of the game if you got everything riding your special pony. If you also became a preferred vendor here's what you get:

Rotating banner ads on the leading URL for camping based forum
- Post Threads in the Preferred Vendor Section (threads last a whole year)
- Post in the Camping Products and Review section( it's the first sub-forum at the top of the list of topics)!
- Can Tag Own Threads (great for expanding your SEO)
- Can Create Tags (custom tags for your business)
- Can Post Events (discount timelines, sponsored events)

just send me a PM for details.

A vendor membership is on $99 a year. It's great advertisement for the dollar. The post where I listed your site will eventfully turn into page 3, then page 4, and on and on as new threads are added weekly and people will forget. Just trying to help you out, that's all, cause it looks like a great product! If you had never taken the trouble and just posted your site without introducing yourself as a regular campateer then by the rules of this forum I must move your thread to the unapproved vendor section and those only last five days and then they are deleted forever! Good luck to you and your product, as soon as my next retirement check comes in I'm ordering some. And thank you for taking the trouble to introduce yourself as a campateer first! BTW, I won't mention it again.

Also, this is a healthy site, you'll never see spam or porn nor very intense profanity. Those individuals are banned for life( at least the IP address is). This has been a constant here since before I became a mod. And it stays that way! If another campateer has a problem with another's use of profanity I'll give one warning, edit the offending speech then the second time that offending IP address is banned.

[Flibitygiget]

Re: Wet Weather Camping, Rain, Snow, Whatever

Johnny,

It is the Flibitygiget that is on the end of the pole. My avatar is a pic of one. The poles can be fixed length or extendable, best to use the extendable for more reach. I use a couple of 3-6' and for 7' to 13' poles with the Flibitygiget one the end of each. The poles are the same kind you can buy in the paint dept of any Homedepot, Lowes, Ace and many other home supply type stores.

Check out the videos on our site, they are very basic but get the point of use across I think. We will be adding some more as time goes by.

[Dubbya]

Re: Wet Weather Camping, Rain, Snow, Whatever

I use a 20x20 blue tarp as a giant rain fly all the time. Even when it's not raining, they make good shade silver side up.

[GlitterHiker]

Re: Wet Weather Camping, Rain, Snow, Whatever

Thank you all for the pics. I am one of those tent campers who has a tarp and uses it as a ground cover ... The main reason is that I had no idea had to hang it, stake it, pole it. I have searched all over the internet for good pics to give me some idea of how to do it; there are more pics in this thread than I've found in months. Much appreciated!