Dealing with Wet Gear

After camping in the rain, you are left with wet gear. There are lots of concerns with this, and the only good answer is that things needs to be dried out as quickly as possible. Each trip is different, and the solution may vary depending on what your next step is. Are you heading home, going to a hotel, or moving to another campsite? What's the weather like tomorrow? Later in the week?

What you don't want to do is pack up a wet tent and leave it. It will certainly mildew and likely become unusable. Also, if you can avoid putting your wet tent into a stuff sack, that helps as well. However, you don't want to get all the rest of your gear wet, either, so you may not be able to avoid this. There are lots of different suggestions online for how to manage. Most obviously, make sure to shake as much excess water off the tent as possible before doing anything. Beyond that, suggestions include folding the tent rather than stuffing it, wrapping everything loosely in a tarp, and lashing the wet tent to the outside of your pack if you are backpacking.

Since our trip mixed campgrounds and hotels, we had some options. If you move to another campsite, set the tent up as early as possible. This will give it a chance to dry out. After our first big rain at Davis Bayou, we were heading for a hotel in New Orleans, so we packed the gear wet then took it all out the second we checked in to the hotel. It wasn't drying very quickly in the room, but the room was oriented around a courtyard, so we hung the tent and sleeping bags over the railing, where they dried much more quickly outside.

Wet isn't the only concern with gear; also watch out for mud and rocks. Our tent is small enough that we can pick it up easily and shake out any rocks, but this may not be possible with a larger tent. If your tent is too large to turn upside down and shake, you should probably carry a small broom and dustpan so you can sweep up any debris. If a rock gets stuffed into a stuff sack with a tent, it can rip and seriously damage a tent. Mud can weaken the material of the tent and mud and water can hurt the waterproofing. Bottom line: make sure your tent is clean and dry before you store it.