Rain catcher, good idea?

[Cedar1974]

I am a DIY kind of person and i was thinking of making some rain funnels to catch rain while on my hike, is this a good idea?

[TNhiker]

what would be the purpose?

if ya need water----just hit up a spring or a stream........

[TomN]

I had a couple guys who were out of water catch rain off my hammock fly one time, just put their cups under the corners.

[Slo-go'en]

I guess it depends. Lets say your in PA where the water is usually way down a steep hill. If you set up a tarp to funnel rain water into a bottle at night, if it happened to rain over night, you'd not have to go down that hill in the morning for more water.

[Kerosene]

If you are looking to capture a few liters of water, then you're going to need a very steady rainfall and/or large connector funnels. If it were me, I'd either capture it off of a lean-to's gutter (been there, done that, just treat it) or take my 2 sq ft of aluminum foil that I use as a windscreen/pot gripper/pot lid and fashion a funnel into my water bottle. Frankly, I don't think that it is worth the trouble given how rarely you would use something special. I'd be more inclined to bring a 4L water bladder (about 4 oz) to avoid multiple walks to a water source; this works especially well when you have 2-3 hikers in your group.

[Starchild]

I used the catch in off the shelter's roof method also, when it's raining you really don't want to go the the spring.

There can be a use for a rain catchment system in some unusual circumstances but I don't believe it is all that practical but give it a try and let us know.

[Five Tango]

FWIW,Hennessy sells a rain fly water catching funnel that weighs next to nothing,screws onto your standard water bottle or Sawyer/Evernew/Platy bag and serves as a great funnel should you need one.So light and so cheap one would think they would be in high demand.......

[Traveler]

Rain catching might be useful in arid terrain like desert hikes or stretches of trail with mile between reliable water sources. On the AT I'm not sure its going to be a routine practice, but I can see it being useful at times. It sure beats having to fetch water during a heavy rain event.

[Kerosene]

FWIW,Hennessy sells a rain fly water catching funnel that weighs next to nothing.......Weighing "next to nothing" doesn't help anyone if they don't have context. What is nothing to you may be superfluous to me. I was able to locate the Hennessey product on their website here (http://hennessyhammock.com/catalog/products/hh2o_water_collector_and_automagic_fly_tensioner_s ystem_m190/). Looks like it is a combination ridgeline tensioner that connects to a water bottle at a weight penalty of 0.85 ounces and a cost of $9.95. If you're not a hammocker it seems as if you could get the same result with a small funnel, but this product likely utilizes much of the hammock tarp to collect rainfall from a broader area.

[Alligator]

The accepted average rainwater collected is about 0.6 gallons per square foot per inch of rain. You could probably fill your container in most rain events if you are collecting off a tarp. But it doesn't rain every day, or more specifically, every night. Maybe 1/2 to 1/3 the time. For the weight of the collector you could increase the capacity of your water bottles and have water almost every time at known sources rather than hoping for rain. An ounce will get you an extra liter with a larger Platypus.

Guidebooks tell you where the water is on the AT, as does word of mouth from fellow hikers.

[Dogwood]

If "your hike" is on the AT than the AT has very reliable and rather consistent well documented water sources listed in the AT Thru-hikers Companion Data Book.

[Odd Man Out]

When I was a Boy Scout on a week long leadership training camp, a group of us were sent out from base camp on an overnight backpacking hike to a remote campsite. However the directions we were given were flawed and we couldn't find the designated site (which had a pump for water). Weather was looking bad, so we decided to set up camp rather than to keep looking. As we were short on water (and never found the pump) when it started to rain, we used our ropes to tie the four corners of a poncho to four trees. The kid whose poncho this was sat underneath and used a cooking pot to collect rainwater that was funneled though the hole in the middle. It rained very hard so we quickly filled all of our pots and canteens. We then made our instant meals (tasted a bit like poncho plastic) and crawled into our bags (warm and dry). A couple hours later, a group of adult leaders came by with flashlights. It seems they had organized a large search and rescue operation as we never showed up at the designated place (which as it turned out was only a couple hundred yards away). Of course we didn't really need to be rescued and had done all the right things to stay dry, fed, and hydrated. So just use a poncho tied to 4 trees. Doubles as rain gear.