Tents & Tarps

Note that the "floor" in a typical tent is not waterproof; whereas it will
reduce the amount of moisture that seeps through, its primary purpose it to
keep dirt and bugs from seeping through. Also, a plastic ground cover will
only be waterproof the first time it is used, at which point it will start
to become perforated with lots ot tiny (and not so tiny) holes from rocks,
sticks, etc. So, yes, you are going to take up a certain amount of
moisture from the ground.

However, some (most?) of the moisture is also coming from the inside:
humans give off lots of moisture via breathing and perspiration and, unless
your tent is very well ventilated, this moisture will tend to condense
inside the tent on any "cool" surface. This would be the floor of the
tent, and the inside walls of the tent overnight as the outside air
temperature drops (think "dew"). I know that *I* give off huge amounts of
moisture: I can pitch on tinder-dry ground with a brand new piece of
plastic under the tent and *still* wake up with a puddle (well, not quite
*that* bad :-) under my foam sleeping pad. Another telling item is that
the top of the plastic ground cover will be wet, and the underside will be
relatively dry. "We have met the enemy, and he is us."

John A. Pershing Jr. <pershng@us.ibm.com>
WDL & Asst.CM, Pack 36, Westchester-Putnam (NY) Council

• Messages sorted by: [ date ][ thread ][ subject ][ author ]
• Next message
• Previous message
• Next in thread