Wet Tents

[Tortoise]

Hello Folks-

I've been visiting so many sites and taking in so much info that I don't remember where I saw this ( an FAQ page, gear site maybe), but it said never pack your tent wet as it will mildew and once that happens, it cannot be gotten rid of and will damage the material. Now, most of the journals I've read have at least one mention of packing up a wet tent, sometimes for several days on end. What's the story?


Tortoise

[ganj]

Tortoise-----Your tent will get wet and when you hike you will rarely wait until noon for it to dry out before hiking. There is nothing wrong with packing a wet tent (except it is heavier), just shake as much water off before packing it up and when you get to your destination for the night, set it up if possible to allow it to dry out then.

You will get mildew if you store a wet tent for awhile, but packing up a wet tent during the hike shouldn't cause any problems.

[Skyline]

Ditto to what Ganj said, with this piece of advice:

If you have a tent that has a rainfly, especially a full-coverage rainfly a la the SD Clip Flashlight, you will do much better on the Trail during a long hike if you use a separate stuff sack for the main tent body and a separate stuff sack for the rainfly. Your poles, ground stakes, ground cloth, etc. can go in the stuff sack with the fly.

When you pack up a wet tent, most of the water and condensation will be on the fly and by packing/carrying it separately, the main tent body will be relatively dry (or at least noticeably drier) when you get to camp that night. If you co-mingle everything in one stuff sack you can expect your main tent body to be much wetter.