Garbage bag rain shirt, keeps heat in, MLD mitten covers, keep walking....
Nice to have some chemical heat packs such as Toasty Toes, Grabbers, etc at times like these as well. Placing one in each glove/mitt or hand pocket on my shell and one in each shoe can help stay comfortable enough. Just don't let the packets leak or rip, which they are designed not to, as they can stain gear. This is based on always making note of weather before and during a hike which I find a necessity.
Option 1): Stay in shelter or tent, if possible, and wait it out.
Option 2): Set up tent ASAP and wait it out. No glory here IMO, unless a life threatening situation requires you to hike.
In addition to a lot of good tips already given, when you stop for your break you can make a warm cup of liquid Jello. In addition to being something warm in your belly, the sugar and gelatin will kickstart your metabolism and create internal heat.
remain hydrated, eat carbs, I like tee shirt (merino), rain gear, fleece cap, event gloves and keep moving. Layer up at breaks. Prefer cold to HOT
lots n lots of good advice. one thing ive learned the hard way after hiking all day in rain up tomour butts n coming down so hard it hurt.... TARP TARP TARP!
we got to the leanto n it was full of pot smoking kids with a rip roaring fire. the fire was great but the number of people, you couldnt even sit down.
put the tarp up n you at least haveca place to setup your tent out of tge rain, and then after changing clothes, you have a place to sit!
Also, on a long hike, get a weather report and plan accordingly. If you know that cold and heavy rain will be coming in in a few days, that might be a good time to be in a town.
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All good points---overkill bag as yes a fluffed up down bag at home will never be as dry and as warm when in the field, therefore having a low temp buffer is nice. And it amazes me at times to be sitting in my tent during a winter rainstorm when the temps feel absolutely frigid but dangit it's still raining out there and not snowing.Originally Posted by Sarcasm the elf
Bigcranky more or less covered it all.
I just want to throw in that this is why I carry a 20 degree sleeping bag in the spring/summer/fall. When I'm hiking in all day rain, knowing that i'm only a mistake or two away from hypothermia I want to be sure that I have a tent and bag that will get me warm when I need it to. On top of that, it is inevitable that one's sleeping bag is going to get damp to some extent and lose some of it's insulating ability as a result, so having a bag that is rated for lower than the expected temperature builds in a buffer for these situations.
PS, if you think 35 and raining is fun, try 25 and rainingI've had the pleasure of hiking at times where the rain was freezing after it tell and covering myself and my pack in a layer of ice. It was the sort of situation that builds character.
Every backpacker should study the case of David Decareaux and his two sons who perished on a dayhike in the Ozarks in January 2013. See---
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/01/14...uri-trail.html
I have thought about the incident in some detail as he encountered what I now call the Decareaux Cycle---
THE DECAREAUX CYCLE
** Stage 1 is 50F-60F in January/February whenever with nice weather. It lures out the dayhikers.
** Stage 2 is a cold rain at between 35F and 45F---a storm system that usually lasts at least a day or night.
** Stage 3 is when the rain ends and temps drop drastically into the 20Fs or teens under crystal clear skies.
** Stage 4 is when the cold air dissipates and temps return to 50Fs and 60Fs back to Stage 1.
This cycle is only relevant to the Southeast mountains and can occur any month of the year but most especially between November and March. For unprepared dayhikers it's a one-two punch of cold soaked clothing followed by frozen clothing and hypothermia and sometimes death.
The reason I am so preoccupied with this Cycle is because I spend so much of my winter backpacking caught in these cycles.
Bailing to a town?? No thanks. Miss Nature offers us a full meal and we should eat each bite.
I said "on a long hike". Like a thru-hike. On a long hike you periodically stay in towns
And it's best if you check the weather reports and figure out when the bad weather is coming in, and try to plan your stays in towns with bad weather. I know you can't always do that, but you can sometimes adjust your schedule that way.
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The scenario is not relegated to the southeast though. I've experienced it or seen it happen to others in British Columbia, Cali, Colorado, Montana, New Hampshire, Utah, and Vermont for example under even initially warmer temps, although not always in Jan /Feb which is why when I hear to let oneself get soaked in 75* weather in a downpour or rain gear is no good at all I say whoa, not so fast. Weather gets more fickle based on seasons, at the higher elevations, when the hike enters into lowland protected valleys than heads back up to ridge lines, coastline hikes, etc.
Last winter a friend and I intentionally went out to test gear in weather predicted to be like the above mentioned cycle. Now, I said it was intentional but, we were not stupid. The car was 1/4 mile away from the end of the hike if things got messy and we felt it would be better to bail.
We hiked around with our (always present) dogs all day, when it got late afternoon we chose the trees for our hammocks and proceeded to spend a lot of time gathering wood for a fire and storing it under the hammock tarp. She and I generally backpack together so we planned to share the same tarp for extra heat under the tarp. The tarp was a bit longer than the hammock so we had room to hang wet clothes once we got to that stage.
Our method was pretty much the same as above. Get dry and eat. The temps did plummet even further than expected and I woke up to see that we had both pulled our dogs into the hammocks with us. Other than ice coating everything. All was well.
I feel like my post is all over the place bc I'm half asleep but my point is that bc we hike a lot. We knew we were bound to come into the scenario and wanted to have experience in dealing with it. Also, her family happened to have their RV in the same state park's campground.
We ended up being glad for the practice as we ended up needing it on a later kayaking trip. we felt the temps dropping and felt the first drops of rain. We immediately started looking for a good campsite well above the creek but we got wet and just dealt with it bc we had safely tested ourselves and our gear.
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Had the situation a few days back, rain and wind and temps dropping close to freezing, so I was stuck high up in the valley I was. Proceeding over the pass at 2.400m was out of question with my minimalist rain gear, backing out down into civilisation neither.
So I setup the tent at 1.700m, rationed my food, launched the Kindle app and spent a full day dry and warm in the tent.
Next morning, freezing cold and freshly white capped peaks around, blue sky and all was OK, actually one of the greatest hiking days I ever had.
When the conditions go bad, I highly recommend to not push yor luck too hard, always leave a margin for possible failure, injury or other error.
Much better to sit out the bad weather in a tent if there is any chance for better weather ahead.
You will not starve to death that easy, but you can easily get into serious trouble when beeing soaked through and by bad luck get injured or otherwise immobilized on a bad spot.
Boy Scout Motto......"Be Prepared".....Don't skimp on gear....Wool & more Wool....Head to Toe.....Gore-Tex Rain Gear & Shell Mittens....Umbrellas are cool.....Fire Building Skills are a must......Hot Coca with Ramen noodles.....Practice string up & breaking camp in the Rain..... Practice building a fire in the rain
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