View Full Version : Best way to dry stuff
tucker0104
03-06-2008, 14:53
What is the best way to dry your hiking clothes at night after you put on your camp clothes? Give scenarios for cold weather and hot weather.
Generally I just resign myself to putting the wet clothes back on in the AM. Personally, I don't like the idea of using and risking my dry sleeping bag as a clothes dryer. I know many people swear by this, but I don't.
In warm weather, it generally isn't an issue, just hang your damp clothes in a protected area. This is where tarps are nice.
First thing in the morning, after a wet hike the day before is pretty miserable, but only lasts for a few minutes, then becomes perfectly bearable, especially if the rain has stopped. If it hasn't, then it won't matter if you dried them the night before or not.
The Weasel
03-06-2008, 15:48
It depends on the clothes; my approach is to have clothes that either don't need to be dried to be fully useful, such as wool, clothes that hold moisture at all due to coatings, and clothes that shed moisture fast, like polyester/polypro/etc.
I do put socks in my bag at night if it is very cold.
TW
lyle I agree with you. Thats usally what I did. If the sun was out I carried large safty pins and I would pin them to my pack and just keep hiking.
Blissful
03-06-2008, 16:23
Most stuff do not dry out too well at night. Too much humidity (though my rain gear tended to dry okay). I tried the synthetic sleeping bag method for drying and it didn't work for me. Best bet is to put your wet socks on the outside of your pack in the sun and let it dry while you hike.
I found my wet clothes dried nicely just on me. :)
Time To Fly 97
03-06-2008, 16:57
Breathable clothes like capalene, polypro, thin polar fleece, wrung out socks, etc. can be worn (on you) inside a synthetic bag and they will dry overnight. The warmer you sleep, the better. Goretex, windblock nylon, etc. will not work for this. I put mittens/gloves in my bag, but don't wear them (end up sweating in them).
Silkweight Capalene will dry even on a rainy day by just hanging it up to dry (amazing stuff).
Putting on wet clothes in the morning isn't that big a deal - they warm up quickly. This is kind of a fact of life with hiking and why it is important to select clothes that stay warm when wet.
I hang wet clothes (socks) on the outside of my pack while hiking on a dry day. If it is just drizzling, I will still hang my clothes on my pack and put my pack cover over them but attach the pack cover very loosly at the bottom (so air circulates). This is like drying on half speed.
If it is raining for days on end, I try to wear the same wet clothes every day and keep a dry set for camping. The only exception is I switch out socks frequently. Even though they may be damp, they are better than wet - and therefore better for preventing blisters.
When is is dryer out, I will put clothes on the top of my tarp to dry. With my hammock, this is much easier - just attach wet clothes to the ridgeline under the rainfly.
THe more you hike, the more wearing wet clothes doesn't bother you.
Happy hiking!
Time To Fly 97
taildragger
03-06-2008, 18:05
Either wear or hang them on the pack, or hang them in your tent. That should work for most hiking fabrics in warmer weather.
I do hike in hot weather with a cotton vented fishing shirt (and hot damn, cotton and I'm still alive), and that thing can be a bugger to get absolutely dry. Last weekend on the OT it would get to about the 30-40's at night, and the damned thing wouldn't dry out, but it didn't matter, I'd wear my driclime till I was ready to hike.
Jason of the Woods
03-06-2008, 18:21
I woke up this morning to frozen shoelaces. The temps fell to around 20 and I walked into camp about a half a hour after my last creek crossing. My other pair of socks had been hanging on my pack all day yesterday and on the tree the night before and were still wet. I don't think that there is a way to dry socks........
I will put wet clothes between my sleep pad and groundcloth on my tarp. Some body warmth some compression.
envirodiver
03-07-2008, 01:27
Build a fire (if allowed) and find branches that have fallen off of trees, that have a lot of small limbs. Otherwise that have some structure to them. Place them near the fire and put your wet clothing on the tree limbs. keep an eye on the clothes and turn them when the fire side is dry. Works great if you don't mind the smoke smell, which IMO is better than the mildew smell.
fiddlehead
03-07-2008, 01:45
I will put wet clothes between my sleep pad and groundcloth on my tarp. Some body warmth some compression.
Best answer so far.
In the East (AT) it's hard sometimes to dry your stuff out. Putting it below your pad is the best way to make it comfortable in the morning getting back into it.
Out west, it's easy, just hang things off your pack. they dry in an hour.
Kicking into frozen shoes is something you should be good at by the end of the hike. it's not a big deal. just keep dry socks for sleeping and your bag as dry as you can.
THe more you hike, the more wearing wet clothes doesn't bother you.Well, at least you come to expect it :D
What is the best way to dry your hiking clothes at night after you put on your camp clothes? Give scenarios for cold weather and hot weather.
My hiking clothes in cooler climes are my camp clothes as well as my sleeping clothes and I use a rain jacket with pit zips for sweat vapor venting to keep them dry.
tucker0104
03-07-2008, 10:05
How often can you make fires on the AT?
Johnny Swank
03-07-2008, 10:16
I will put wet clothes between my sleep pad and groundcloth on my tarp. Some body warmth some compression.
I do the same thing. With the humidity levels in the east, I've hung clothes up at night only to find them damper then when they were hung up.
In the summer, I don't really care, and if anything else, my clothes could use some time to just air out some of the accumulated funk. I rarely wear a shirt during the summer, so that helps some too.
In late fall or winter, wet clothes go under the pad.
hammock engineer
03-07-2008, 12:17
Definitly depends on the temp and how cold I am.
If they are soaking, I strain out all the water I can.
If it is warm I try to wear them dry.
If it is cooler, I wear them dry by putting more clothes on overtop.
If I am cold I take them off and deal with it in the morning. If the clothes are wet and it is freezing they go in a stuff sack in the sleeping bag with me to deal with in the morning.
If I can try to build I fire to dry things over.
Sometimes it can't be helpded but I try to only have my socks and maybe shorts/pants get wet when it is super cold. That way there is less to worry about freezing over night.
If it is still raining, you can try and hang them in the shelter. It is more of a mental thing than anything else. As was said, I haven't had any dry in this way.
Hanging in the sun the next day or later on that day is always the best. Shelter roofs are money and by far the best place to dry anything on the trail on a sunny day.
When in camp, if it's dry, I jab my hiking poles in the ground and put my socks over the handles. If there's a fire, I do that nearer to the fire.
Shelter roofs are money and by far the best place to dry anything on the trail on a sunny day.
Excellent observation.
scout005
03-07-2008, 21:41
In cold weather, if there's a fire going, find some small rocks and warm them by the fire for a few hours. WARM not hot. Take the insoles out of your shoes and throw some of the warm rocks in and lay socks on top of shoes. Stick the shoes in your tent overnight. The rocks stay warm for hours and drives some of the moisture out.
I usually try to wear my hiking clothes around camp while setting up. They dry partially from the fact that my body is still warm and not sweating as copiously. I try not to change into sleeping clothes until right before I turn in. Sometimes my clothes are dry enough by bedtime that I can wear them overnight. Saves the shock of getting back into them the next day. Of course if they're muddy I won't wear them to bed. ;)
I wear medium or heavy wool as my main insulating layer and try to keep it on always. This helps to keep it dry and conserves the heat I would lose if I kept taking it on and off with the other layers. This also makes the other layers alot more packable, even if the total weight is practically the same. This medium or heavy wool layer allows the other layers to be lighter weight and less water absorbing and so they are not so much of a problem coming on or off, even in cold wet weather. On most days this means hiking with just the main wool layer with the wind blowing through it, since the other layers including the skin layer extra layer and wind layer are for more extreme weather that might be encountered on that trip and so be default are not needed on most hiking days, which tends to keep it dried out. There are still some issues at night however, if it was a particularly wet and cold day, deep wet snow, freezing rain, freezing fog etc., perhaps followed by a night of falling thermometer and high winds. Sometimes you can't dry stuff out till the next day, so you really need to go into such nights as dry as possible to begin with, and with most all your clothes on and your energy conserved, and a full belly of food.
CrumbSnatcher
03-08-2008, 17:04
What is the best way to dry your hiking clothes at night after you put on your camp clothes? Give scenarios for cold weather and hot weather.
sometimes late in the hiker season people would still hang up their wet clothes to dry(like they would in the summer) but they would be wetter in the morning,i was the only one going to bed in my wet/damp clothes (which sucked til you fell asleep)but completely dry in the morning(and warm) while everyone else was putting on wet crap.
I liked that post about warming and squeezing the wet clothes between your sleeping pad and your ground sheet. Perhaps the best argument I have heard yet for a ground sheet. I have used two blue foam pads in winter, and now I am thinking this might be the way to go during wet spring weather.
Re: Going to bed with clammy wet clothes and walking up dry. I find that works well with light merino sweaters in summer, or skin layers other times of the year. The more wet clothing you have on the more likely you are to wake up just as wet I think. You don't want to bite off more than you can chew so to speak. Sometimes you have to throw everything on and suck it up and ride it out even if it means waking up more soaked than you started. It takes alot of practice and experimenting to figure out what is the likely result of going to bed one way versus another, and I am more often surprised than re-assured, sometimes pleasantly, just as often not so pleasantly, but ever fascinated.
Wool and leather are particularly good options when a small drying fire is an option. I prefer to start with a hot drink and/or hot meal first, using my Kelly Kettle or hobbo stove or whatever, then use the coals to build the fire just a little bigger to do what's gotta be done. The Kelly Kettle must be removed so that it won't melt, but it is an excellent way to start a fire. A Hobo stove is a little tougher to get going in the first place but probably better for drying stuff once its going, as long as its not to small of a can. I think colder wetter conditions need bigger cans. A little ceramic wool insulation might help, particularly on icy wet ground, but I haven't experimented enough in really tough conditions to know what's best. I have gone back to using the Kelly Kettle more, but ideally I still need some sort of a hobo to go with it in winter I think, for stuff like melting snow and drying clothes.
I think the best way to dry wool clothing with a small fire is while wearing them. I work from the outside in, mitts and socks first, then sweater, then any wool skin layer I might have on, switching them back to front and inside out as I go and removing them once they are dry. If my wool skin layer is dry to begin with I won't have it on when drying my wool sweater. If it is very cold I will weat extra clothing elsewhere but just the sweater on my upper body when drying that. It is similar in a way to having a snow bath when its really cold, just one body part at a time. As when drying in the sun darker wool dries better than light coloured wool. The best conditions for drying with a fire is when it is a cold dry night, which usually means some wind, but you need to be out of the wind. If there is rain or snow a fire might keep you warm but might not be great for drying things out unless it is pretty big. I try and keep fires small. It is important to keep in practice but if you can make a small fire you can always make a bigger one but not the other way around.