Pitching a tent in the rain and staying dry while you are doing it is easy if you have a tarp. (Tim Jones photo)

In this case, the weather forecast looked . . . not great. A gaggle of warm and cold fronts were wobbling and lurching overhead like a bunch of toddlers learning how to walk and the weather geeks were pulling their hair out. A pre-dawn computer check said the morning would be sunny, the afternoon, evening and overnight cloudy with occasional showers. One site predicted as much as half an inch of rain and another mentioned the possibility of an isolated afternoon or evening thundershower.

A little rain isn’t a big  deal if you’re prepared for it. Even if the weatherman says there’s zero probability of precip, we generally go well prepared for the rain experience. Weather forecasters, after all, have been known to be wrong.

With rain in the forecast and a tent we weren’t familiar with, we went even more prepared than usual. In addition to the brand-new 3-person Carbon Reflex 3 tent  from MSR we were trying, we threw in an 8.5 x 10.5 foot waterproof tarp and a 150 feet of lightweight nylon cord. My old tarp and cords weigh almost 2 pounds. The new siliconized nylon tarps are half that weight and gain almost nothing when they get wet.

Tarps are useful when you are camping in the rain. You can pitch the tarp and set your tent up under it so the tent stays dry until the fly is on. Then, use the tarp to shelter gear that won’t fit in the tent. If your tent fly leaks, you can add the tarp over the top for more protection.

We hit our campsite and immediately strung the tarp between four trees. As we tied the last knot, the sprinkles started, so we pulled our packs underneath and set up the new tent. It’s a beauty—well made, only 5½ pounds, roomy enough for two guys in comfort and a third in a pinch, with two doors which make it easy for two people to use and a covered vestibule at each.

By the time we had the tent fully up and moved to  a level, well drained spot, the passing shower had passed. With raingear ready we headed out for a little hiking. Naturally, it stayed dry . . .

It's OK to sit out on an open ledge on a cool morning after a storm, not so smart when lightning is crackling (Tim Jones photo)

It didn’t rain again until dinnertime, and then only lightly. Under the shelter of the tarp, we heated healthy venison stew on one of two the new stoves we were trying out (stay tuned for more articles on camp cooking, stoves and cookware), ate, sipped wine, listened to the wind in the trees and the sprinkles on the tarp and got ready for bed.

An hour after we hit the sleeping bags, the fireworks started, first as flickers of light on the tent fly followed by distant rumbles we could almost feel more than hear.  The wind picked up, the rain intensified, and the lightning and thunder seemed to park right on top of us.

For the next four solid hours we had heavy rain and constant lightning. And I do mean constant–there was NEVER more than a second or two between flashes. Most of it seemed to be cloud-to-cloud—but at least two bolts landed within a quarter mile of our tent site, not really a comforting feeling. Still, it was an amazing show and the tent stayed absolutely bone dry inside. Did I mention that this is a great tent!

(kabachok.blogspot.com photo)

I’ve never experienced a lightning storm as intense and prolonged as this one. If the weather guys had gotten the forecast right, we’d probably have stayed home and missed a once-in-a-lifetime experience. By all means watch the weather forecasts, then prepare for worse weather and go have fun.

Lightning Safety

Lightning isn’t something to fool around with, but, in my opinion,  it isn’t nearly as big a hazard as the weather geeks would have you believe. You’ve heard the saying: “when thunder roars, go indoors.” Well, it ain’t that easy when a storm brews up at night when you are in a tent several miles from any road. Besides, the only two people I personally know who have actually been hit—indirectly, but still hit—by lightning were indoors when it happened.

How realistic is it to worry about getting struck by lightning? Not very. According to the National Weather Service, over the past 30 years an average of 58 people die in the U.S. each year from being struck by lightning.  The same agency reports roughly 20 million cloud-to-ground lightning strikes in the U.S. each year. No wonder someone getting hit by lightning makes the news

Still, I’ve had lightning strike within a few hundred feet of me nearly a dozen times over the years and I’ve actually seen both a huge pine tree and an electrical transformer being literally blown to pieces by lightning strikes, so I’m not entirely ready to pooh-pooh the possibility of getting hit.

So here’s what I do when thunder roars.

I definitely don’t want to be the tallest object around, even though lightning doesn’t always strike the tallest object. If you don’t believe this, check out this storm-chaser blog for some amazing photos of lightning striking wherever it darn well pleases.

Still, if I’m on or in the water, I get to land as fast as possible. If I’m on a high hill or a ridgetop or open ledges, I head for lower ground. If I’m in the open or among very tall trees, I head for low trees or brush preferably on lower ground. I still believe I’m safer down low.

Other than that, I just sit back and enjoy the show, figuring that short of bolting for the car, my only option is to ride it out. The other night, with lightning snapping overhead for four hours, I was able to lay back (on a Z-Lite foam mattress which should provide some insulation from a nearby strike, right?) , watch the flickering light play on the tent fly, and occasionally doze off until a particularly loud thunderclap would wake me, usually within a minute or two of dozing off, and let me watch the show again. You don’t  get that kind of experience if you run inside and hide every time lightning flashes.

When it's raining, set up a tarp first, then pitch your tent underneath it to keep the tent interior dry. (Tim Jones photo)

The monsoon has set in again this year. New England and the whole Northeast seem in danger of becoming a rainforest.

Let’s just assume, for the sake of argument, that it’s going to continue. It rained often last summer and the summer before that. If you plan an overnight hike,  it’s safe to assume it’s going to rain at least part of the time.

You could decide not to go—which wouldn’t be any fun at all. Or, you could pretend it isn’t going to rain, get totally soaked and live with it—which also doesn’t sound like much fun.

Believe it or not, some rain can actually add to the pleasure of camping. There’s something absolutely decadent about snuggling down in a dry sleeping bag in a watertight shelter listening to rain falling

Here are a couple of tricks for enjoying camping in the rain.

Pack Right:

When the tent body is up but the rainfly isn't, the inside of your tent can get wet in a hurry . . . pitching it under a tarp keeps things drier.(Tim Jones photo)

Just as you dress in layers to stay comfortable in bad weather, you have to pack in layers to keep dry. Any one layer of protection can fail, so double or even triple up.

Pack anything you absolutely need to keep dry—sleeping bag, clothing, food, GPS, in the dry bags originally designed for canoeing. There are lots of good ones on the market; I like the siliconized Cordura Ultra-Sil Dry Sacks from Sea to Summit. Never had one fail.

Even though it’s probably made of waterproof material, your backpack isn’t waterproof. It has too many seams and openings. So if you want all the contents to stay dry, use a pack rain cover, a waterproof pack liner, or better yet, both are absolutely necessary. I’ve used pack covers  from REI and they worked great, but newer siliconized nylon pack covers from Sea to Summit are lighter and more compact when they aren’t deployed to cover your pack.

Heavy duty trash bags make pretty good pack liners—but water always seems to find its way into that big top opening, so I’ve switched to a huge Sea to Summit Ultra-sil pack liner with a roll-down top that seals completely. It keeps everything dry no matter what. Get one that completely fills the main pocket of your pack.

It doesn’t matter if everything in your packs stays dry only to get wet when you take it out. So here’s the real trick to setting up a dry camp even in a downpour:

On the outside of your pack, somewhere easily accessible carry a large lightweight tarp and lots of nylon cord. I use an excellent  27 oz. S2 8.5×10.5 foot ripstop WXTex tarp from Pacific Outdoors.  Bigger is better. This tarp is heavier (and probably more durable)  than the new siliconized nylon versions, but it’s served me well and I probably won’t replace it with a lighter version until it fails a decade or two from now.

When I get to my campsite, I  lean my pack against a a tree (so the pack cover still protects it, and grab the tarp. I then choose the spot to set my tent and hang the tarp directly over it, trying to pitch it so the water runs off to the downhill side.  With enough cord, it’s almost always possible . . .

A freestanding tent can then be set wherever you want it, leaving the tarp set up for a dry cooking space. With the fly on, the tent interior stays dry. (Tim Jones photo)

Then,  I carry my pack under the shelter of the tarp before I open it and the packliner in it. I set up my tent and rainfly under the tarp, so the tent’s interior stays dry. Some tents can be pitched so the fly goes up first, then you add the tent body—nifty trick if you have someplace to keep the tent body dry while you pitch the rain fly for added protection if the wind blows rain under the tarp.

In the morning, do everything in reverse order, taking down the tarp only after your still-dry tent and contents are safely stowed. Using this system you can keep your gear dry even through an extended rain. The wet tarp  and wet tent fly add weight, of course, but it’s lighter than a pack full of rain-soaked gear.

HARD-TOP OPTIONS

Shelters like this one are common along the Appalachian Trail, Long Trail, and throughout the Adirondacks, Green and White Mountains. Perfect for a rainy night. (Tim Jones photo)

This kind of weather makes hard-top camping a real option. Throughout the hills of New England you can find cabins, lean-tos huts and yurts, all of which allow you to camp out without having to worry (much) about the rain. You do still have to worry about mosquitoes . . .

The Appalachian Mountain Club, has a system of high huts in the White Mountains, e are perfect options for an overnight, whether it’s raining or not. If you’ve never been backpacking, this is a great way to start since you don’t have to worry about shelter or food. Their cabins such as High Cabin on Cardigan Mountain in New Hampshire and Goose Pond Camp in Mass., are another option.

There’s also a new system of 12 hike-to huts being developed by Maine Huts. Two have been completed.

The lean-tos and shelters along the Appalachian Trail in CT, MA and NH and Vermont’s Long Trail are often crowded in the summer, though that may not be the case when it seems to rain constantly. Mid-week is an especially wonderful time to go and explore.

The Randolph Mountain Club has four shelters: Gray Knob, Crag Camp, The Log Cabin and The Perch, with bunks available on a first-come, first-served basis

The White Mountain National Forest (www.fs.fed.us/r9/forests/white_mountain/recreation/camping) has lean-to shelters in some backcountry campsites and several hike-to cabins, some of which can be reserved. Download their “On Foot” brochure for an (almost) complete listing.

Merck Forest & Farmland Center (www.merckforest.org) in Rupert, VT has several cabins that look like they’d be perfect for a rainy-night getaway.

There are several Yurts for rent at Tenney Mountain in Plymouth NH, (www.whitemountainexploration.com/yurts.html), and another one at Maple Wind Farm (www.maplewindfarm.com) in Huntington Vermont.

If you know of any other hard-top shelters open to the general public that I’ve missed, please drop me an email.