Bad weather camping (long post)

[Curious Hound]

This past weekend, I did some foul weather camping and I thought I'd pass along a few observations, tips, hints, etc. In case they might help someone in the future. I knew ahead of time that the weather would not be ideal. But carried on anyway, for 2 reasons.

One; I pay attention to the weather forecasts. But I don't trust them 100%. If you always pessimistically believe things will be the worst and cancel any time conditions are forecast to be less than ideal, you will miss out on a lot of great experiences. Don't foolishly take chances with hurricanes, tornados and lightning. But don't cancel due to a little rain, either. It is also common for the weather to change quickly on the coast. It could turn in your favor and give you a great trip.

Two; I needed to find out what I could handle and test my gear. I knew I would be in good company with the group I was traveling with. I wanted to see the area. And I had planned enough vacation time for contingencies.

The trip was supposed to be to the Outer Banks, NC. First night at Cedar Island Ranch. Day two; ferry to Ocracoke Island, NC, play on the beach and camp there. Day three; ferry to Hatteras, visit lighthouses, Wright Brothers Memorial, Kittyhawk and drive half way home. Weather forecast changed several times each day for the full week leading up to the trip. But it always included heavy rain and wind on Saturday. It turns out that the rain started Friday afternoon before I got there. Increased rain and winds through the night into Saturday with gusts reaching 45mph. The ferries were cancelled due to weather. Several in our group had poor tent placements Friday night and were soaked. The organizer called the event and everyone bugged out before lunch on Saturday. Everyone except me.

I was also traveling with a bad head cold. I felt miserable and didn't want to drive 8 hrs home again on Saturday. So I hunkered down and stuck it out another night. There was about a 3 hour reprieve mid day with no rain or wind. I repositioned one loose tent stake and moved the truck to what had been the windward side, hoping to block some of the wind. The rain returned and I took a much welcomed nap through the afternoon. The noise the first night had wakened me at around 3:00am, so I was tired. The rain stopped late in the afternoon. But the wind came back with a vengeance, gusts upward of 50mph or more and it remained that way until after I broke camp and left Sunday morning.

Thoughts;
1. Prepare for it. Proper packing is essential. Make sure you have ways to keep your stuff dry and tied down. Earlier in the week, I had ordered some plastic screw-styled tent stakes that I thought would hold well in the sand at the beach. That turned out to be a very good move.
2. Practice packing your gear and loading the truck. This, I failed at, this time. I changed a few things in my load out and had a lot of wasted nooks and crannies and had to carry more things in the cramped cab of my little Ranger. It worked because I didn't have the dog on this trip. But there was no room for her when I left the house. That needs improvement. Plan your packing containers and their placement so you know where everything g goes and you know it all fits. Then USE YOUR PLAN.
3. Meals; in bad weather, you may not get big windows of opportunity to cook elaborate meals. If you know the weather will be sketchy, plan stove. And plan things that can be cooked several different ways. I planned 2 evening meals. One was chicken kabobs and the other was sausages. Either could be cooked on a campfire, or charcoal grill or in a skillet on a single burner stove. None if that happened. I never even got a chance to boil water for oatmeal and coffee. I had also packed breakfast bars, bananas, cheese and crackers and sausage sticks and pudding cups. These were things I could grab quickly and munch on while hunkered down inside the tent. Always plan alternatives. Trail mix is always a good thing to have along. Saturday morning, several of us actually drove a mile down the road to a little store that had coffee and frozen breakfast foods and a microwave. It was fun mingling with a few if the locals and the store owner.
4. Be ready to change your plans. Accept change as part of the adventure. We were at the mercy of the weather and the ferry schedule. If they had run the afternoon ferry and gotten us to Ocracoke Island, We would have been stuck there until Monday because the winds got worse on Sunday and ferries were cancelled again. Highway 12, which runs up and down the Outer Banks got flooded and closed. Anyone needing to be at work on Monday would not have made it. So make contingency plans for extra vacation time in case something like that happens.
5. Buy good quality gear. This was a case where a RTT would have been nice. It gets you off the ground when things are soggy. I had chosen a good tent placement and I stayed dry. Never pitch your tent in a low spot. Always pick a high spot, hopefully with just a little bit of slope to drain water way from your camp. We had one person pitch their tent in a depression and get soaked. One party pitched their tend on a slight rise, just the size of the tent. They woke up dry. But the water was lapping at the tent on all sides. One guy slept in a covered hammock. He stayed pretty dry. But jumped out into ankle deep rainwater. E-Z-Up style canopies do not handle wind well. Mine was destroyed 2 years ago in high wind. The man with the hammock this weekend had to take the cover off his in the middle if the night. Another party had strung up a tarp attached to their truck and a tree, a pole and just staked down. It did not do well with heavy rain and wind. My Gazelle tent did well. I was impressed. I stayed completely dry and secure. I should have added a one or two extra staked cords off the sides on the windward side. But it held. Video below. The noise was incredible. It woke me up both nights. Do, be prepared to lose sleep even if all your gear works well.

Practice! Don't be afraid of the weather. Practice and plan for it. Sometimes, it turns bad without you knowing ahead of time.

This video was taken at 3:30am on Saturday. What else do you do when all this noise wakes you up?

These stakes worked well in the sand. I used 8 of these and 4 of the good quality spikes that Gazelle sells. 12 stakes to hold the tent down.

The orange tent is the one that got flooded badly. Probably less than 8inches of elevation difference between my setup and theirs. That made all the difference.

 

[Jazzer]

All good advice.

It's not just camping, it's an adventure!

Two year ago I was camped near Lake Roberts in New Mexico. Set camp with a tarp between four trees over the staked down tent.

Late afternoon I saw clouds building up to the northwest but wasn't too concerned, as the weather there usually moves to the northeast.

Then it got dark quickly and I realized it was a pop up style storm, and it rapidly spread over my area.

The wind picked up to approx. 70 mph gusts, heavy whipping rain and close lightning. I was in the truck by then and saw by lightning flashes my tarp and tent getting destroyed by the wind and periodic hail. The truck was rocking back and forth 3-4 inches.

After about 4 hours it was pitch black night and the storm lessened but I had no recourse but to try and sleep in the single cab Ranger.

At the first sign of light I surveyed the damage, the tent was ripped on one side, I had to pour water out of it. Everything outside the truck was drenched, and the tarp was still held by one tether.

I strung lines across trees and hung all my wet gear to dry, shuffling things around to keep them in the sun. It took until noon to get everything back in shape. Some duct tape temporarily patched the tent for the rest of the trip.

-Jazzer

 

[bhgl]

Love this post, lots of good advice here!

I've done my fair share of less than fair-weather camping here in Northern Ontario and all these things are stuff I had to learn the hard way.

Another thing bad weather camping has taught me, I HATE tents. Short of hike-in camping, I basically refuse to use a tent for camping anymore, after having a freak snow storm collapse my tent at 3:30 in the morning, I decided that if I'm driving to my campsite, I'm sleeping in the vehicle.

That's not always possible depending on the vehicle you've got, but with us Ranger folk, a solid bed cap and excellent organization/storage goes a long way to making a night in country a more fun and relaxing experience.

During the pandemic, I bought this 2006 Ford Freestar Cargo van, certified and on the road for just 1000$ CAD, I then took it from Toronto Ontario, all the way up to just a 40 or so KMs short of the Arctic Circle in Eagle Plains, Yukon, and about a hundred stops in between.

The journey was a little over 23 000 KMs in a few months, but every step of the way I was so grateful to not be sleeping in a tent. Whether that be because of bears, bad weather, or because I was boondocking! The only modifications I really had to do was screw some 2x4's and plywood together to create a bed platform, and I removed some interior pieces to make more room.

A few things I much prefer about car camping vs. tent/trailer camping.

1. The amount of time I was able to save and actually focus on the fun of camping! Set up was as simple as: Put vehicle in Park, pull out lawn chair, camp.
2. Security, both from the elements and animals, but also the piece of mind that comes with being able to lock up your camp, in your vehicle when you're away.
3. Better locations, tents are obvious, but in my little van set up, I was able to pull over most anywhere and set up camp for the evening, or just lay down in the back for a quick nap before I crushed some miles.

All the advice you gave still applies when your car camping, practice makes perfect, and by the time I got home I was able to set up my dark curtains, get a fire going, and have steak on the grill in 15 minutes flat.

Keep at it!

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

There are so many different ways to crack that nut.

One youtuber I follow out of Austrailia, he has a pop up angle tent thing on the top of his troop carrier. He also added a couch/second bed down below. Like you said in a storm the wind is terrible, plus with a RTT you catch extra wind to move the vehicle too. He says it is generally much better to sleep upstairs but when the wind is blowing etc it is better to sleep downstairs on the much smaller couch and leave the top down.

 

[bilbo]

Back in my Scouts days it seemed like we were always getting nailed by severe weather. We quickly learned how to pick a spot and how to correctly set up the tents.

I was camping that weekend as well, near Fort Pierce, FL. We got maybe 5 minutes of rain but the wind was crazy late Friday night and all day Saturday. We were on the South end of an island and the wind was out of the North, so we were sheltered and it was actually quite pleasant for camping. We tried to sail a little bit but it had whipped the water up bad and it was no fun.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Back in my Scouts days it seemed like we were always getting nailed by severe weather. We quickly learned how to pick a spot and how to correctly set up the tents.

I was camping that weekend as well, near Fort Pierce, FL. We got maybe 5 minutes of rain but the wind was crazy late Friday night and all day Saturday. We were on the South end of an island and the wind was out of the North, so we were sheltered and it was actually quite pleasant for camping. We tried to sail a little bit but it had whipped the water up bad and it was no fun.

View attachment 108050View attachment 108051

When we went to summer camp for boy scouts, we had canvas tents that always leaked that were set on wood platforms so getting washed out/flooded was less likely than your stuff getting wet.

110% guaranteed... it was going to be like 300 degrees with humidity you could cut with a knife until the tornado came. Then it would be like 85* for the rest of the week.

Every year out there we had a terrible storm with tornado warnings. For our "shelter" we were supposed to crawl under the tent platforms and hang out with the spiders and all the water that was running under our tents... so we just played cards in our tents.

 

[Shran]

I camped through a tornado one time... true story... my buddy, myself and my wife got totally shit face drunk one evening years ago. Started with beer, then a little bottle of blackberry brandy. We were having a great time until the wind came up and then it just absolutely poured rain for about 30 minutes. The three of us were drunkenly trying to hold the canopy from blowing away while we huddled under it and the dogs were going nuts in the tents. Abruptly it quit raining and the wind stopped so we polished off a bottle of wine...

I have never been so hung over in my life. It was terrible. So there I am, the next morning, almost dead in a 300 degree tent and I hear the forest service fire crew drive up and talk to my buddy... they said a tornado went over just maybe a couple hundred yards from the campground. Life lesson, don't drink & tornado.

 

[JoshT]

110% guaranteed... it was going to be like 300 degrees with humidity you could cut with a knife until the tornado came. Then it would be like 85* for the rest of the week.

I remember those days. About the same except instead of tornadoes, we had afternoon showers. Instead of cooling it off, it just made the evening more humid.

 

[Josh B]

My tent was a bit more rugged and portable. It was a 73 Ford Econoline E-300 One ton cargo Van, with the obligatory Ford Red factory paint. It was bare as hek inside, strictly cargo. I bought it from the original owner in 1978. It was soon outfitted with a padded chair right behind the drivers seat and a pad and small mattress on the floor, soon followed with a coffee maker and small TV

I think my first job was a power station in East Texas. Not a bad little drive. Upon first arrival late Sunday night I saw a narrow road pointed towards a lake and soon I was sawing logs, needing to be up by 6. Not a dream came by before someone banged on side the van, "Sherrif!!" I hand my ID out and he soon said, well, it's nice having people coming in from out of town and drove on. I soon dozed off and then another Bam bam! Highway Dept! :/ I finally made it through the night and went on to work, the next afternoon I toured the small lake by the plant and found a very old campground, all but closed but still had a coffee can hanging beside the gate. I never knew who ran it but I'd leave the money there every morning when I left. I think it was 3 dollars without electricity and 5 dollars with,

I soon moved on down around the coast, Corpus to New Orleans and beyond, spent a lot of time in Biloxi-Gulfport area. Had so many overtime parking tickets from Bourbon Street. Funny thing there was the N.O. Fire Dept had vans painted the same factory Ford Red!

I worked down along the coast several years, had an oil boom bust and soon found myself back in Oklahoma working on a ranch and never did go back to the coast. Wound up with a DUI and left it here on the farm, caught a greyhound to TN, spent the next 20 years in Nashville mostly doing commercial carpentry.
Eventually got my shoulder bunged up and began thinking of just going home, which I did in 2006 or so.

My van had been stolen by a scrapper, who eventually came by, packing along a maybe 5 year old boy, and asking about "that old man" still live here?

I just shook my head and he went on

 

[sgtsandman]

Love this post, lots of good advice here!

I've done my fair share of less than fair-weather camping here in Northern Ontario and all these things are stuff I had to learn the hard way.

Another thing bad weather camping has taught me, I HATE tents. Short of hike-in camping, I basically refuse to use a tent for camping anymore, after having a freak snow storm collapse my tent at 3:30 in the morning, I decided that if I'm driving to my campsite, I'm sleeping in the vehicle.

That's not always possible depending on the vehicle you've got, but with us Ranger folk, a solid bed cap and excellent organization/storage goes a long way to making a night in country a more fun and relaxing experience.

During the pandemic, I bought this 2006 Ford Freestar Cargo van, certified and on the road for just 1000$ CAD, I then took it from Toronto Ontario, all the way up to just a 40 or so KMs short of the Arctic Circle in Eagle Plains, Yukon, and about a hundred stops in between.
View attachment 108047
The journey was a little over 23 000 KMs in a few months, but every step of the way I was so grateful to not be sleeping in a tent. Whether that be because of bears, bad weather, or because I was boondocking! The only modifications I really had to do was screw some 2x4's and plywood together to create a bed platform, and I removed some interior pieces to make more room.
View attachment 108048

A few things I much prefer about car camping vs. tent/trailer camping.
View attachment 108049

1. The amount of time I was able to save and actually focus on the fun of camping! Set up was as simple as: Put vehicle in Park, pull out lawn chair, camp.
2. Security, both from the elements and animals, but also the piece of mind that comes with being able to lock up your camp, in your vehicle when you're away.
3. Better locations, tents are obvious, but in my little van set up, I was able to pull over most anywhere and set up camp for the evening, or just lay down in the back for a quick nap before I crushed some miles.

All the advice you gave still applies when your car camping, practice makes perfect, and by the time I got home I was able to set up my dark curtains, get a fire going, and have steak on the grill in 15 minutes flat.

Keep at it!

While you are not wrong, eric no longer has the factory bed. So a cap is no longer in the cards for him. He did build a very nice flat bed to replace it though.

 

[bhgl]

While you are not wrong, eric no longer has the factory bed. So a cap is no longer in the cards for him. He did build a very nice flat bed to replace it though.

I was looking at it in the photo he provided, and was trying to figure out if it was custom or not.

With that bed, you could probably put a monster of a custom cap!