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Posted By: okhill Drying clothes - 06/01/12
What does everyone do to try to dry out clothes or gear if rained or snowed on while hunting? Do you just deal with it and wear them wet the next day? I'm running a SL3 with a small cylinder stove and looking for ideas for drying out at the end of the day.I usually am solo, so I have some room to spread clothes/gear out.
Posted By: Bushcraft Re: Drying clothes - 06/01/12
Well, assuming you are able to get your hands on some wood to burn, there shouldn't be any issue with regard to hanging your clothes up in the rafters of your shelter and drying them out.
Posted By: KC Re: Drying clothes - 06/01/12

I don't know about single-wall tents heated with a wood burning stove, but I do have experience drying clothes in a double-wall tent. Once myself and my son got blasted by a storm of snow, sleet, fog and high winds. We were on a glacier and couldn't see where we were going and we were concerned that we might ski into a crevasse. So we stopped and setup the tent, which was a North Face VE-25. We were also wet on the inside from sweat. Outside temperature was about 15�F not counting wind chill. As soon as we got inside the tent we started taking off clothes and hanging them on the clothesline to dry. We put on dry clothes while the storm continued to rage outside. I don't know what the interior temp of the tent was but in less than an hour our clothes were as dry as ever.

I suspect that a tent with a stove inside would work OK also. Single-wall tents do not ventilate very well if you have the walls staked tight to the ground. So things might not dry as quickly as in a well ventilated double-wall tent. I suspect that there will be people respond to your question who have had that experience.

KC

Posted By: okhill Re: Drying clothes - 06/05/12
Thanks KC and BC. I guess I wasn't clear enough. I was basically asking if you do set up a close line in a tent as small as an SL3? If so do you guy it down from the center pole? Or is a soaking wet hunting coat (possibly even wool coat
and pants) to heavy to hang from the top of a tent like an SL3?. I'm new to this game and luckily have never been thouroly soaked during hunting season. Thanks.


Posted By: snubbie Re: Drying clothes - 06/05/12
While I have no experience drying clothes in a tent, I have an SL3 and do not see a practical way to rig a clothes line to hang anything other than perhaps some lightweight baselayers. For a coat or wet wool pants I think a tarp rigged up with a clothesline underneath to air dry more practical. That will be my plan if needed.

My intent is to do everything in my power not to get soaked in the first place (ounce of prevention vs pound of cure) but when outdoors, sometimes stuff happens!
Posted By: Kevin_T Re: Drying clothes - 06/05/12
Put a prusik loop on the pole at the top. You can hang a couple things from that, or run some utility line down to the stake out points from the prusik. The SL3 is pretty small and doesn't have a lot of extra real estate.
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