Illini John,

What I like to do to keep my tent dry on the inside is use sticks to raise the edge of my ground cloth up off the ground. I use a piece of plastic that is about a foot larger than the floor of my tent. With about a foot of plastic sticking out past the floor of my tent, I put sticks under the plastic and then roll the sticks under the tent so that any wind driven water will not reach the plastic tarp. Key point, I don't roll the sticks up on the tarp but under the tarp. this keeps the outside edge of your plastic tarp up off the ground one to two inches. The water has to get more than two inches deep to come between the plastic tarp and the bottom of your tent. This system has worked great for us. We have had running water under our tent at times and have stayed dry. Wet sleeping bags are hard to dry out and are not fun to sleep in!!!!! Case in point. One trip to the Knife Lake we had rain everyday for six days. I stayed dry in my tent and the guys in the other tents were wet and trying to sleep in wet sleeping bags. If it rains everyday , it's tough to dry out a sleeping bag!!!!

Have a great trip I am not as adventures as you to go in May. May you keep your feet warm and your sleeping bag dry.

Posted by Wally Walleye on April 12, 2001 at 22:28