36* & rain . . .

[gargoyle]

If your gear is dripping wet, set-up your tarp to find a safe haven. Remove wet gear and wring it out, then put on on your best, and hopefully driest base layer. I'm hoping you have appropriate rain gear to avoid getting everything wet, but this could happen, so its a good scenario. A tipped canoe or slipping during a river crossing, etc.

Stay active to generate body heat. A dry bag or two for your clothes and sleep gear is highly recommended, for just such unforeseen scenarios. Eating a quick warm meal and warm drink does wonders for the body.

If you have a set of hiking poles, or find some suitable sticks, you could fashion up a clothesline to one side of your hammock. But if your wringing out the gear good, you should be able to go with the ridgeline.

My fleece and polypro clothes dry out really fast, so makes sure your choosing good clothing to carry. Stay away from cotton, it takes forever to dry and offers very little insulation value.

[Muskrat]

CONFESSION . . .

Ok, I was all set, gear ready to go, and then we got a break in the rain. Checking the weather online we were not expecting rain again for a few more hours (12:00 am) and then rain was expected to be over by 3:00 am. Not exactly what I was hoping for. THEN, seeing all the snow that was being dumped on NC, the wife talked me into taking our two girls to a ski resort to go play in the snow.

. . . So, hanging got put off. But I am looking forward to setting up in the cold rain and will experiment with a secondary clothesline. FWIW . . . I do have synthetic clothing appropriate for cold-weather backpacking, raingear, etc. I have a thought of adding a clothes line, tying the ends on the tarp ridgeline just outside the tarp and then finding a way to pull the clothesline to one side of the hammock. Experimentation will soon follow . . .

[Crawldaddy]

a buddy of mine made a simple gathered end gear hammock that was smaller than his sleeping hammock and put the gear hammock directly under him. He had to raise his sleeping hammock a tad higher than normal, but it worked great for him.