Re: [Philmont]:  waterproof ground cloth

Two lines of reasoning I have encountered about ground cloths and tents.
Both make sense and each has ardent supporters.

Put the sheet under the tent - this protects the tent floor from abrasion
from small stones, etc. and then the tent floor is "water proof" which keeps out
the water. This is what I usually do since it prolongs the life of our troop
tents.

Put the sheet inside the tent under you so you and your gear stay dry as long
as the sheet has no holes, and wraps up around the sides of the tent a
little.

Of course no tent floor is really water proof!
Of course the sheet inside the tent will get pushed down, bunched up and have
holes in it.

In Florida we get some pretty heavy rains and most any tent will leak if
subjected to ground flooding due to eithre very heavy rain or poor tent
positioning.

I guess my philosophy on staying dry in rain is -- Sooner or later -
water will get you !!

As to weight - I have used everything from canabalized polyethelene, to
polastic drop cloth to tyvek (great) and even experimented with landscape ground
cover which is permeable but protects against abraision.

Probalbly the light weight drop sheet material is about the lightest/cheapest
combo unless you can get Tyvek pretty cheap. Contractors apparently don't
use tyvek in couthern florida - the humidity is too high for the breathability
to work I guess. The clerks in my Home Depot and Lowes down here had never
even herd of it. I had to order some from a kite making supply company.
Don Hall

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Received on Sat Jun 14 06:44:40 2003