When I was a boy scout on a hike in the Olympic Peninsula of Washington state, we got a brilliant idea. Rather than put a tent up, we'd just sleep underneath our plastic tarp. We draped it over ourselves and went to sleep. When we woke up our bags were soaked, even though it hadn't rained. We figured our tarp had trapped every bit of moisture - from the ground, from our breath, etc. Everyone else in the troop was ready to go after minimal dew-drying, but there wasn't time for ours to get even close to dry, so we had to carry them like that all day. Since then I've been leery of bivies - even Goretex. I have a Goretex bicycling suit, but discovered on a trip through Oregon that it wasn't capable of allowing all the perspiration I was producing to evaporate, and I ended up soaked to the skin. I think Goretex is great, but not perfect. Of course, a paddling buddy of mine always camps in his Goretex bivy, and he seems to stay dry. I admit, I'm sometimes jealous when I see how small it packs, and how quick it "sets up" and "takes down" compared to my backpacking tent. Maybe someday I'll try one. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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