Hi all
I am getting ready with my partner for our OT trip in February, the peak season. We just completed a short overnight hike (camping only) to test the gear we plan on bringing. Unfortunately, there was massive downpour followed by showers just as we arrived at our site and then rain on and off all night. Our new 2p tent took a soaking but didn’t leak thankfully. My partner erected a little tarp (that I had thrown in the backpack at the last minute) and made a shelter for us to cook and eat in and protect/dry our gear a bit. (I also learned we should have brought two little seating pads or similar for the porches, so we didn’t have to scramble out the doors of the tent straight on the wet grass.)
We will have eight nights on the OT, last night being at Narcissus and waiting there for the ferry. I go at a pretty slow pace, and am planning to tent it every night (as bunks in the hut will be taken before we get there I don’t doubt, also I like camping anyway). I am also planning to break up the 17 km day, Windermere to Pelion, by camping somewhere before Pelion (Frog Flats? Will pack Bushman's in case of mozzies etc.) I’m allowing for one rest day too, not sure when or where. So it looks like we will probably be camping away from the huts at least one night, and maybe two or even three nights.
My partner now thinks that we should pack our bigger DD tarp (I think it’s 4 x 4m and 500g) so we can comfortably survive in rain if away from the huts, along with the one tent.
Here are my questions:
1. Is packing this tarp a good idea? We will have four hiking poles to use with it, as well as paracord for attaching to trees. OTOH I am very motivated to keep the weight down.
2. Would a tarp also be useful even when camping next to the huts?
3. Should we also then bring a ground sheet. What is the lightest one that could be obtained soon, in Sydney? Our tent did come with a footprint, which we will definitely bring, so there’s already that. (Tent inner floor seems super thin though.)
4. What happens if our hiking tent is drenched when we pack up. Should we keep the fly separately in a plastic bag? (Besides the floor, the inner is all bugnet.)
5. Are there any problems with building a wet tent in the rain we should anticipate? (We are kind of noobs at overnight hiking and have always been lucky with the weather on previous excursions close to Sydney.)
6. Re backpacks: the two of us physically took up most of the 2p tent, and there was not much room for our big backpacks in the two porches (tent has two doors—so one each--on the long side). I had this idea of putting the emptied backpacks in plastic bags and leaving them outside the tent under the weather for the night, maybe under a tree or tied to a tree. Things that can wet, eg cookware, can sit in the rain while our clothes and food etc stay dry in the tent. Interested in anyone’s suggestions of how to handle this scenario—camping in rain away from the huts with no room to spare inside the tent. AFAIK we can definitely leave our packs in the hut even if it’s crowded. So this would only be a problem the few nights camping away from the huts, and if we didn’t bring the tarp. (Another variable is that, now we have an idea of probable volume, we are planning on buying new backpacks this week.)
We have about a three-week window at the moment to gather last minute supplies.
Thanks to anyone who can help with advice