How to Stay Dry when Camping:

#2 in the Camp Craft Series

Getting wet while camping can ruin your whole trip. Waking up in the middle of the night to a flooded tent is no fun. Flooded-out campers usually go home wet, tired, and unhappy.

There is absolutely no reason for this to happen. You can camp in any weather and enjoy it, even in a downpour. You just need to know a few secrets about staying dry.

Pitch your tent in the right area

Watch where you pitch your tent. There are telltale signs on the ground that point out where water naturally runs during a rainstorm.

When it rains, little rivulets flow downhill in miniature streams. Along the way, they collect pine needles, silt, and other debris. When the ground dries out, you can see the sediment deposited in V-shaped accumulations, all pointing downstream. Also, pine needles and debris accumulate where water once ran, especially above those V-shaped areas. Survey the ground before pitching your tent and avoid these areas.

Even in standing water pine needles and debris tend to accumulate. When the ground dries out, what was once a small pond becomes a bed of pine needles. Campers see this bed of pine needles and figure that would be a nice comfortable place to pitch a tent. If it rains, those campers are in for a rude awakening.

Learn the art of the tarp

First, pitch your tent on a tarp that is slightly smaller than your tent floor to prevent water from running off under your tent and to keep your tent floor up off the damp ground.

Buy a large tarp that will cover your tent side-to-side from the ground, over the top, to the ground on the other side. It should also cover front-to-back, sticking out at least 2 - 3 feet past your rainfly (not past the just the tent). This may seem excessive, but in a downpour this will keep the inside of your tent totally dry. You can even leave your tent and come back hours later, assured that your tent will stay dry.

Note: Do not use a plastic painter's drop cloth. It does not breathe, and water will condense under it just like in a hothouse. Your entire tent will get wet. If your tent does get wet, don't touch the insides of the tent. Where you touch, the tent will leak.