# Tent/wet gear storage



## paor (Apr 21, 2008)

I’ve been on a couple of overnight trips, but not many. We bought a raft last year and am hoping to do more. Anyhow, I’ve always wondered what folks do with their tent? On my previous trips, I put the rent in its own dry bag and put that inside my huge boundary pack. Fortunately, I never encountered rain. What do you all do if it does rain and you tent fly (or more is wet? Do you keep it out of the dry bags to avoid getting other things wet?

On another note, do you protect your raft when it’s on a trailer for long distances to avoid road grime and rocks?

Thanks.


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## MT4Runner (Apr 6, 2012)

Packing up in the morning and the tent/fly are wet? 
Pull your sleeping bag and pad, and shake the tent really hard while it's still set up/poles in it. You can often shake off 90% of the moisture. This also dumps sand/bugs/sticks out of the inside. Then roll/stuff it back in its sack damp and deal with it the next night. If it's still raining, repeat.

If you've shaken off the excess moisture, I don't think putting it in your boundary pack will be a problem..it's not likely to get anything else saturated, but if you leave it outside your drybag, a big wave could definitely get the tent wetter...then you're assembling a sponge.

If it dries out that day, unpack it, set it up, and set it in the sunshine ASAP. Don't put your bedroll inside until bedtime...get max airflow. Bonus points if you can set it over some driftwood on the beach to get airflow under the floor to dry out.


A couple of trash compactor bags are handy as temporary drybags...great for covering damp gear, or later in the trip to carry out trash or cans.






Trailering: a vertical plywood or aluminum wall. These suck for gas mileage but keep the grime and rocks off of your boat.


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## caverdan (Aug 27, 2004)

Many years ago I started putting my tent in a separate dry bag. Too often I would get up in the morning and need to get going. Even if it didn't rain, I usually find the inside of the fly to be wet. I let it all dry at the next camp, or pull it out as soon as I get home to let it dry. Now days on High School trips, we have a large dry bag just for their tents.

It's much easier to walk around looking for a place to pitch your tent with a small dry bag in hand. Bring up the rest of your dunnage once you found your spot. 

For any kind of long transport, I roll all the boats in their own tarps to protect them. We had a boat laying up against a rocket box on the ride from Flagstaff to Lee's ferry. That short drive wore a hole in the floor. Ever since then I've put tarps between the boats and everything else on the trailer.


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## paulster (May 27, 2011)

A separate tent dry bag works well for me. Many nights it stays on the boat and I sleep out. If it is soaking wet and raining, it won't get anything else wet and sleeping in a wet tent on a paco pad works fine. I've had it stay wet for many days but it always dries out eventually.


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## wildh2onriver (Jul 21, 2009)

I too, have a separate drybag for my tent and stuff everything in it like you would a nylon tent bag. I leave the manufacturers tent bag at home. If the fly and footprint are wet, a compactor bag works for that—but it still goes in the dry bag. Probably doesn’t matter that much as tents dry quickly.


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## Beer Waggin (Jul 8, 2016)

Mine go in individual dry bags, so nothing else gets moist with it. Your tent is certainly not going to grow mold over a day if it’s wrapped up wet. Tents typically dry out quickly with a little sun and a breeze. 
If my stuff is wet, I’ll throw it in the sun for a bit or put up a rope and hang it up.


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## griz (Sep 19, 2005)

Yeah, dude, shake it out and put it away. I just use a couple construction grade garbage bags for my sleeping bag and clothes for extra protection to a leaking dry bag. I never bother with bagging the tent though.

Just don’t store it long term at the end of the trip wet in some sealed bag. 

It’s not rocket science and ,yep, your gear might get dirty and wet! Oh my!!


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## Pigpen (Nov 8, 2017)

I have learned to take an extra tarp on trips for sheltering the tent when needed. It often goes unused, but when needed can keep the tent dry - or allow the tent to dry the following night while in camp, if an unforeseen rain comes up. It's a good way to keep the tent shaded and cool on layover days as well. 1" NRS straps work fine in tarp grommets. I use the heavy duty brown/ silver tarps. Blue tarps aren't worth the money you save buying them.


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## shappattack (Jul 17, 2008)

We seem to do a fair amount of trips in late winter/spring with lots of rain/snow potential.
One tip for packing up your tent when it may actually be pouring or snowing hard during camp break down, leave up your tent and kitchen tarp until last. Un-stake your tent and bring it over under the kitchen tarp. Now you can take off your soaked fly and stuff into a garbage sack. The fly is soaked so the garbage sack can just be wrapped up and stowed in the boat as is. Now you can pack up your actual tent underneath the kitchen tarp and put that in your tent dry bag. Packing your tent under the kitchen tarp shelters it from the down pour/snow that maybe happening during breakdown. The tent will probably be a little wettish. Put your ground sheet in a zip lock bag in the same dry bag as your tent (as it will likely be a little wet and muddy) to keep the ground sheet form soaking the tent. Once all the tents are broken down this way under the kitchen tarp, the kitchen tarp is then packed up. Keep the fly somewhat handy in the gear stack so that if you stop for lunch and the sun is out, you can string it out to start drying before reaching camp. Another thing we have done on some group trips is put all the wet tent flys in one bag with the kitchen tarp.


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## teletoes (Apr 16, 2005)

I keep the the tent poles with the camp chairs. That way, it's easier to smoosh the tent into it's drybag without worrying about breaking the poles.


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## FlyingDutchman (Mar 25, 2014)

I second leaving the kitchen tarp up and make a group effort to help each other pack personal stuff under the kitchen tarp in a some what clean fashion.

Here in New England it rains often . And shit don’t dry fast. I put most of my stuff in big ziplocks or in trash bags within my Bills Bag to keep it separate and clean. Then again, putting on wet and dirty clothes when getting off the river brings me back to the good ol’ days


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## Bigwaterforeveryone (Feb 7, 2018)

Yep, like others, we run an old dry bag as a tent bag. Sometimes we de-rig them under the kitchen tarp, sometimes we just pack them as-is into the tent dry bag and call it good. 

On non-rainy/snowy trips the tent bag doesn't get hauled up to camp since we're sleeping under the stars. 

As far as road grime on the boat when trailering, never worried about it.


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## paor (Apr 21, 2008)

Thanks for all the responses. I think I’ve got plenty of ideas...I love the idea of breaking down under the tarp if things are nasty out. Much appreciated.


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