[at-l] rain test!

[astrogirl at aol.com (Nicole Markee)]

I took my new GoLite Helios jacket and G5 pack out in the rain today.  
I have not seam-sealed the pack.  My usual method with the GoLite 
Breeze was to not use a cover and protect the stuff inside with 
silinylon stuff sacks or ziplocs.  This worked fine and I never got any 
water buildup.  It was 45' and pouring rain with a bit of fog.

The pack leaked like a seive and built water up inside.  As a result, 
I'm going to seam seal it as with an inside liner bag, I'm afraid I'd 
be carrying a puddle around in the bottom under the plastic bag.

The helios jacket is fine.  It is not waterproof exactly, but it does 
for me.  Total waterproofness leaves me soaked inside from sweat, so 
what I'm really looking for is to keep my hair and top of my head dry 
so I don't lose a massive amount of heat from a wet head.  It does that 
and it kept my non-sweating parts dry too.  Water can run up the arms, 
however, as the elastic at the wrists is not tight.  The jacket is 
about 1/3 of the weight of my old rain jacket, so this is a ginormous 
improvement.

I actually have another wee-tiny radio that I tested today, in addition 
to the One World.  I'm happy with it.  It's a Lobeman (you can buy them 
on internet for $15, just google it up).  It weighs 18 grams on my 
kitchen scale.

-Astrogirl.