On Friday and Saturday last week I took a group of Scouts to Linville Gorge. We parked in the Table Rock Picnic Area parking lot, arriving at around 2:00 in the afternoon on Friday. From there we headed to the top of table rock for a sack lunch. The views were amazing! Then we headed down little table rock trail to where it intersects the Spence Ridge Trail. We followed Spence Ridge Trail to the Linville River Trail, followed that downstream about 2 miles and set up camp. We had three hangers, and five ground dwellers.

About 8 PM we started getting some heavy rain. I had my fingers crossed that my diy tarp made from silnylon I found in the dollar bin at walmart would work. I had tested it with a hose at home, and it seemed fine. After about an hour i felt a little mist splash on my face. Then five minutes later, same thing. I searched around for a leak, but couldn't find anything obvious. A few drops were forming on the inside of the tarp in random locations, then when a large drop would hit the tarp it would splatter the large drop and I would feel it with my face. Sort of like a Chinese Water Torture. For about 30 minutes I lay there trying to figure out how to solve this problem. I had a neat sheet tied under my DIY narrow foot bridge, and I could see that it wasn't needed underneath. So, I tied it on top, over the ridgeline, under the tarp. This prevented any splatter from hitting me. The rain continued for about 6 hours. I stayed dry and warm. I had a wally-world ccf pad underneath, and a jrb quilt on top. Temp was about 45. The next day we hiked around a bit, then out. We logged a total of 17 miles on the trip.

Here is my question. Is this splatter because wally-world sil is junk, or was it because of heavy rain pushing its way through the fabric? In other words, has anyone experienced this with first quality silnylon?