4th of July at Dolly Sods WV

[HappyCamper]

Spent Thursday night through Sunday morning at Dolly Sods in WV. Beautiful place even in the rain and boy did it rain practically the whole time! Camped at Red Creek Campground and our site got flooded. I now have bragging rights to hanging over a stream, unintentionally of course. :rolleyes:

Extremely pleased with the JRB large tarp. The rain was absolutely pounding at times and it rained so much while we were there I was afraid the silnylon would have problems, but it didn't! It didn't leak anywhere. I had seam sealed the ridgeline on both sides back in April and it's nice to know that my seam sealing work also paid off.

The JRB tarp tensioners work well. This was first time I had used them and had them on all tarp tieout points. I will leave them on because they worked so well. I also put a micro grip clip on each side of the tarp to give me more "real estate" inside but found they also helped keep the tarp taunt when the silnylon stretched from being wet.

In the 2nd picture you can see the latex swatch that I used to keep the grip clips from sliding around. Seemed to work. The grip clips stayed in place, but we weren't fighting that much wind. Just rain, rain, rain!

3rd picture you can see water flooding campsite and heading straight toward my hammock! At night there was one high spot where I put my shoes beneath my hammock, but had to remove slugs each morning that had crawled into shoes!

I slept like a baby in my hammock each night. If I had been in a tent, would have worried that I'd be flooded out. I think about half of the people camped at Red Creek left on Saturday. But this left open spaces for other campers coming in.

First time I got to use my Dry Ducks jacket in stormy weather and it kept me WAAAAAY drier than my Precip jacket. Love it and it's lighter than my Precip.

All in all this weekend was a great gear testing weekend. It's given me more confidence in my hammock gear for rainy trips, especially the JRB tarp.

HC

[BillyBob58]

Great report! Glad to hear of the excellent results with the JRB tarp, since I have the same one! What hammock did you have under it? were any tenters/ground dwellers with you?

[HappyCamper]

I had my HH Backpacker ASym with the full & half zips. Ever since I got the zip mods it's my go-to hammock. I was worried that with all the rain I'd get water running down into the hammock from the original support lines. Thought about putting some drip lines but just wanted to see what would happen. Hammock stayed absolutely dry.

The temps at night were in the low 50's. I used my No Sniv as my underquilt and used my WM Summerlite bag as top quilt. No pad necessary. I was so warm had to take off my vest and windshirt. Slept in shorts and t-shirt. Did wear a hat some nights.

My friend JD was there with his camper and pop-up screened pavillion. He stayed in camper with his dog Sky, even though he's usually a hammocker.

We were planning to backpack a night or 2 depending on weather. He set up such a great base camp and it turned out to be so rainy that we decided just to stay in base camp and day hike here and there. But even those hikes were curtailed by the rain.

I was told by some backpackers as I was leaving on Sunday that stream crossings got quite dangerous. About a dozen kayakers turned up at the Red Creek Campground on Saturday due to weather. Water high enough for them to hike in about a mile & 1/2 to make a 2.5 hour run on Red Creek. :)

[FanaticFringer]

Great report and pics. I also love my Driducks suite. I've not had to use the pants yet.
The jacket is just great and the price cant be beat. Also works well in cold weather to take that last bit of chill off your bones or to be used over a wearable JRB quilt.. Not the most durable material of course but any small holes that appear are taken care of with some duck tape placed on the inside of the material. Here's a great place to buy them. Great color as well. They run big in size. My mediums fit like a large.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Frogg-toggs-driducks-rain-suit-khaki-gear-dri-ducks_W0QQitemZ330249980435QQihZ014QQcategoryZ1370 84QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1713.m153.l1262

[neo]

Spent Thursday night through Sunday morning at Dolly Sods in WV. Beautiful place even in the rain and boy did it rain practically the whole time! Camped at Red Creek Campground and our site got flooded. I now have bragging rights to hanging over a stream, unintentionally of course. :rolleyes:

Extremely pleased with the JRB large tarp. The rain was absolutely pounding at times and it rained so much while we were there I was afraid the silnylon would have problems, but it didn't! It didn't leak anywhere. I had seam sealed the ridgeline on both sides back in April and it's nice to know that my seam sealing work also paid off.

The JRB tarp tensioners work well. This was first time I had used them and had them on all tarp tieout points. I will leave them on because they worked so well. I also put a micro grip clip on each side of the tarp to give me more "real estate" inside but found they also helped keep the tarp taunt when the silnylon stretched from being wet.

In the 2nd picture you can see the latex swatch that I used to keep the grip clips from sliding around. Seemed to work. The grip clips stayed in place, but we weren't fighting that much wind. Just rain, rain, rain!

3rd picture you can see water flooding campsite and heading straight toward my hammock! At night there was one high spot where I put my shoes beneath my hammock, but had to remove slugs each morning that had crawled into shoes!

I slept like a baby in my hammock each night. If I had been in a tent, would have worried that I'd be flooded out. I think about half of the people camped at Red Creek left on Saturday. But this left open spaces for other campers coming in.

First time I got to use my Dry Ducks jacket in stormy weather and it kept me WAAAAAY drier than my Precip jacket. Love it and it's lighter than my Precip.

All in all this weekend was a great gear testing weekend. It's given me more confidence in my hammock gear for rainy trips, especially the JRB tarp.

HC

:)nice pics and report:cool:neo

[slowhike]

Those pull outs on the tarp make quite a difference in the roominess don't they?
BTW, are dri ducks & frog toggs the same thing?

[FanaticFringer]

Those pull outs on the tarp make quite a difference in the roominess don't they?
BTW, are dri ducks & frog toggs the same thing?

I believe that frogg toggs was bought by driducks....or something like that.
I do remember that Frogg Toggs had thicker material.

[Peter_pan]

HC,

Great report..... With all that rain care to comment on haw well your down UQ performed and how dry it stayed?

JD stayed in the camper .... HMMMMM.... There goes his braggin rights.

You hang girl!!!

Pan

[angrysparrow]

BTW, are dri ducks & frog toggs the same thing?


I believe that frogg toggs was bought by driducks....or something like that.
I do remember that Frogg Toggs had thicker material.

If my understanding of the situation is correct, then Dri Ducks used to license Frogg Toggs' first generation of material for sale under their own brand, but they were eventually acquired by Frogg Toggs. After the acquisition, Frogg Toggs released newer (and thicker) material for their own brand, but still market and sell the original material and designs under the Dri Ducks brand.

I could be mistaken about that, but from all the current availability of products it seems to be true.

[traviso71]

did ya get to roam up around Bear Rocks? Or go to to Lions Head on Rocky Ridge?

[JayS]

HC,

Glad to see you out and about with JD and Sky dog. Looks like a nice trip. Isn't it great to get a challenge like the rain and see how your prep work paid off?

[rock_rat]

One of my favorite places on earth. I'm glad to here you had fun even in the rain. Next time your there hike down to blackbird knob and spend the night. It's only a couple miles and well worth the effort. The trail head is beside Red Creek campground.

[HappyCamper]

I got my Driducks from the Frogg Togg website. And yes the Frogg Toggs are thicker and more durable than my Driducks, and both are excellent and seemed to be pretty darn equal in keeping you dry. JD had a Frogg Togg jacket at camp and I had my Driducks jacket so we had plenty of time and rain to make a comparison.

Didn't make it to Black Bird Knob, Rockrat, but I'll put it on my list now that you mentioned it. :) Did make it to Bear Rocks on my way out. Very cool.

Jack, my No Sniv down underquilt performed great. It was hung under my hammock from Thursday night through Sunday morning. Half of that time water was running directly under hammock and it was absolutely fine. I did go back to raise and tighten up hammock to make sure it would not hang too low once I was in it. :) My hammock was hung over tall grass so I didn't have to worry about splash or misting because grass absorbed falling rain. But we did have fog roll in at different times that you can see in my first attachment picture. But I didn't have any problems with either top sleeping bag or No Sniv underquilt.

No water absorbtion as far as I could tell. One time I pulled my WM Summerlite top bag out of hammock and put it in screened tent to air out but that really wasn't all that necessary. Both down bag and No Sniv down quilt were fine.

I have a synthetic bag and my down ones, but even when weather forecasts call for rain, I use my down bags because they keep me so much warmer and are lighter even though synthetic bag has same temperature rating.

Of course down cost me more than synthetic bag, but I've never regretted spending extra money because in long run they are definitely worth it IMHO. Plus I've always gotten mine on sale, which helps a little.