Yet another new sock idea

[wisenber]

I SWEAR they had some left after I bought my 8!
They were under the "closeout" section, but when I checked just now, none were listed. I had no intention of cornering the DriDucks Poncho closeout market. Perhaps you just have to keep an eye out for their closeouts from time to time. I just got lucky.

They are pretty attractive at $12.95, but $5.99 was just too sweet to pass up.
That being said, Pan does offer a much better deal on shipping for single items than froggtoggs.com. I'm sure his mods work better than my modless one.

That being said, I hope to get a test in at the global testing center here in East Tennessee next weekend when the temps are projected to drop into the 40's. No rain is projected, but I would like to get a feel for how well the "two ponchos as a sock" deals with condensation. I'm pretty confident that it will keep outside moisture away. I am most curious to see if it breathes well enough to let the condensation out. It sure would be nice to avoid wetted out quilts when hanging in clouds, fog or mist.

[MedicineMan]

help my again memory...remember the original super-shelter by hennessey? seems like it was sil-nyl and didn't breath at all ?????

[wisenber]

help my again memory...remember the original super-shelter by hennessey? seems like it was sil-nyl and didn't breath at all ?????

Yep, I've been down the sil-nyl and the coated polyester path before. It does a great job of keeping wind and water out, but leaves the interior wet from perspiration/respiration. I've spent too many night on Bob's bald and Big Frog freezing from clouds, mist and perspiration having wetted my down. I've tried other solutions involving clothing filled trash bags and such for insulation, but I'd like to find a way to stay warm and dry for a week while winter backpacking.

DriDucks is supposed to breath as well in both high humidity and low humidity environments. This differs from eVent and Gore-Tex.

[wisenber]

FWIW, it finally got cool enough to try the two ponchos out Saturday night ( 46F). I thought I'd try to get a feel for how much warmth I might expect before trying it with insulation. So my set up was me Speer hammock, Carhartt pant, midweight wool socks, 200 weight fleece jacket, 200 weight fleece blanket and a nylon bag stuffed for a pillow. I can normally sleep down to about 60-62 with no further insulation.

I took two DriDucks ponchos and snapped them together with the side snaps. I draped the ponchos over the ridgeline of the Speer to give me room on top. With this set up, there was ample room underneath for an UQ (which was not used this time). I did note that the full length of poncho would either leave my head or my feet in a draft with no modification.

Short story long, it was about 58 when I retired to my backyard hammock testing grounds around 23:00. It started off cool inside, but my body heat warmed up the "taco" after a few minutes. I was able to go to sleep without the fleece blanket with no problem. A bit later I woke up with an overall chill. I looked at my watch and the thermometer outside my hammock, it was 53F at 01:30. I slid the fleece blanket under me and pulled the rest on top and was able to go back to sleep. So far so good. Without the taco, I would normally need the blanket by 60F. A few hours after that, I was chilled again. I looked over at the thermometer and noted it was 46F at 06:00. At this point, both me and my bladder were chilled enough so I went inside.

My conclusion on insulation is that I was probably good down to 50F before I became cold. At 46F it was too cold. Still, that's not too bad with no headwear and a light fleece blanket. It would appear that I get about 10-12 degrees of warmth with the DriDucks taco. Further, with just 7 feet of length, end to end rain coverage is not going to happen, so this is not a "no-tarp solution".

And now we wait... My actual goal is to find something to keep my down dry in heavy fog or mist when it cold. Since cold mist and perspiration can both wet out the down, I want to find an inexpensive breathable weathershield that will keep the mist out while letting the perspiration and respiration out. While JRB has a solution of weathershield and bivy using DriDucks ponchos, I would like to take advantage of the dead air above me for more warmth with the taco. Now I'll need to wait for some frostier condition to use an underquilt in conjunction with the taco. If I can keep my quilts or peapod dry from both the outside and the inside, I'll probably look at modifying two ponchos to connect better than with the snaps alone.

[wisenber]

After a couple of weekends out using the two driducks as a hammock sock, it seems that they function great. The fabric breathes rather well, and the "white side" tends to wick condensation fairly well too. The down side is that you need two of them to work as a sock, and that comes out to quite a bit of bulk as well as about a pound of pack weight. I'll probably keep using this set up for now, but I do have my eye on some Pertex.