From: "scoutmastercg.com" Subject: Keep Your Camping Gear Dry Date: September 4, 2014 at 12:06:34 PM EDT To: *|FNAME|* Reply-To: "scoutmastercg.com" View this email in your browser Keep Your Camping Gear Dry Sep 03, 2014 12:05 pm | clarkegreen@gmail.com (Clarke Green) If you think the advice in this infographic is nutty, heretical, or (to be charitable) merely inadvisable; so did I until I tried it.  I first read about this in Cliff Jacobson’s book Camping’s Top Secrets. Jacobson is an author, wilderness guide, Distinguished Eagle Scout, and a regular contributor to Scouting Magazine. When I interviewed Cliff on Scoutmaster Podcast 54 he mentioned that many people react negatively to this particular advice, they insist he’s wrong. He writes about this in this blog post for Piragis Northwoods Company: Old ideas die hard, and when it comes to camping, the hardest to die is that you should place a plastic groundcloth UNDER the floor of your tent. This is dead wrong, and akin to pitching the tent on a slab of concrete. Rainwater will flow between the impervious groundsheet and floor, pool there, and be pressure wicked by body weight into the sleeping compartment. Then, you’ll really have a sponge party! My five Cannondale Aroostook tents (no longer manufactured) have been used in commercial outfitting on rugged Canadian canoe trips for 35 years. Trips have lasted from one to four weeks. That’s more than two years of continuous service for each tent. We have always used an interior groundcloth in these tents. Damage? Only one tent got a hole in the floor. I might add that the interior waterproof coatings on these tents was long gone when I sold them at a garage sale a few years ago. After 35 years of heavy use only one tent had a hole in the floor! The idea that the groundcloth goes under the tent got started in the 1950’s when few tents had floors. You set a poncho or separate tarp inside the tent then placed your sleeping bag on top. … If you’ve ever pitched a floor-less tent you know it isn’t easy. Since there’s no floor to establish the shape, the tent usually goes up cockeyed. Getting it straight means pulling stakes, moving them around, looking at the tent then setting the stakes again. When I was a Boy Scout in the 1950’s, we took great pride in “getting it right” the first time around. But we were Boy Scouts and it was no big deal. But casual campers didn’t have the patience for this sort of thing. And that’s why manufacturers first put floors in tents—to make them easier to pitch, not to keep out water. Any water that gets inside a floored tent stays inside, and that’s why you need an interior groundcloth to keep that water away from you. With this, I rest my case!
Cliff Jacobson
www.cliff-jacobson.com I sent the infographic to Cliff for his approval and he replied; “You did a terrific job explaining the concept in an easy to understand visual form.  This is the best explanation I’ve seen. My hat is off to you.  I love it!” Keep Your Camping Gear Dry and over 40 more  infographics and helpful PDF documents Are included in the GET IT NOW BEFORE YOU CLICK THE DOWNLOAD BUTTON Join the growing number of Scouters who support producing and publishing resources like this. The PDF file of Keep Your Camping Gear Dry is
formatted for 8 1/2 x 11 paper.   The post Keep Your Camping Gear Dry appeared first on Scoutmastercg.com. comments | read more       Most recent posts at Scoutmastercg.com Scoutmaster Podcast 233 B.P.’s Blog – Education: Debts and Credits Take Your Scouts to Kandersteg in 2015 Six First Class Knots Scout Spirit as First Aid I'm always happy to hear from readers and listeners! If you have a question or comment please contact me via email Clarke Green is the author of the blog at Scoutmastercg.com and host of the Scoutmaster Podcast. Copyright © 2014 Scoutmastercg.com, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you subscribed at scoutmastercg.com (or for you old timers at scoutmaster.typepad.com) Our mailing address is: Scoutmastercg.com 228 Meredith Street Kennett Square, Pennsylvania 19348 Add us to your address book unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences