No Subject

["David F. Addleton" <dfa@wimlaw.com>]

Sam,

> How do you keep the rain water from running down the hammock and tarp
> rope?  It seems that both would be sloped straight to lowest spot, which
> when I'm in a hammock would be the area on a plumber that's known for
> it's views.  (Sometimes I just crack myself up)

Most string hammocks I've seen come with a ring used to tie the hammock to
a tree. With the ring under the tarp, the string doesn't get wet. The water
runs down the tie off at the tree to the ring where it drops to the ground.
I've replaced the nylon marine rope that came with the hammock with 1 inch
webbing. I fear the webbing will soak up more water, but I've not had a
good rain storm in which to test it. I think the water will drip off the
webbing at the ring, just like it does with the marine rope.

As for the tarp, I can't really explain why it stays dry, but it does. I
suspect the principle is the same as with the hammock, but I use two small
bungees with these little plastic balls at the end. The balls put nearly
equal pressure on the grommet all the way around. They wind up turning the
tarp slightly up at the apex. What little water actually runs down the
bungee drops down at the ball/grommet junction. This also happens with cord
where the water drops down at the knot.

I use an 8x10 tarp and have stayed dry in heavy rain storms.

I remember well one storm on Cheoah where I stopped near the blue blaze to
the Sassafrass Gap Shelter and parked myself on the other, eastern slope,
away from the shelter.  Water ran under the tarp like a small stream, so I
hung my pack to keep it dry. When the rain stopped, I left my shelter and I
slacked packed to the top to meet a group of 8th graders hiking southbound.
 I was soaked thru by the time I gave up waiting for them, around 5 or 6
p.m. and returned to my shelter which had remained completely dry.  After
drying myself off I hung out my wet clothes under the tarp and climbed into
the hammock, to read and relax. A couple of southbound long-distance hikers
stopped in to look at the set-up before they headed down to the shelter. 
When it started raining again they went to the shelter. They were still
sleeping in the shelter when I met the 8th graders descending the next
morning. Their sleeping bags appeared damp if not wet at their feet. Nearly
every one of them (they used REI 2-person tents with a full fly) were wet
or damp, if not from the rain, then from condensation. They thought the
tent was leaking, but I looked at the tents and they seemed perfectly good
to me. Their teacher had trained them in setting up the tent before taking
them on this trip, so they knew how to do it, but were still quite
inexperienced.

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