Dry Sack or Rain Fly

BKhunter

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Joined
Oct 13, 2016
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373
Location
New York
When going out for extended periods, does everyone stuff their clothing and sleeping bag in a dry bag or just throw a rain fly over your pack when the weather turns? Trying to determine which is the best route to go.
 
Joined
Apr 22, 2012
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7,390
Location
Chugiak, Alaska
I do both. The areas where I do the majority of my backpack hunts tend to be pretty wet and I'm pretty anal about keeping things dry so, all my clothes go into a cuben fiber dry bag, and my quilt goes in another CF dry bag. Actually, for the most part, all my gear is pretty much divided up into CF dry bags, and if it's raining, I put a CF rain cover over my pack. When I'm spiking, which is at least 90% of the time on my mountain hunts, I always put the cover over my pack at night. I just don't like the idea of having a soaking wet backpack with the additional several pounds of water weight.


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Joined
May 9, 2012
Messages
1,232
Location
Bothell, Wa
The packs themselves are pretty darn water proof so I don't really do either. I do use stuff sacks, kifaru for clothes and the one that came with my sleeping bag, but that's more for organization than water proof ness. I do carry a 3 mil contractor bag and stuff it each night with whatever gear isn't going in the tent or under the tarp. This does keep things dry overnight but also helps keep mice and other critters from sniffing around camp and chewing up my gear.

I spend a lot of time in the rain and very rarely see pack covers, and when I do I tend to think, "rookie."
 

fngTony

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Jan 18, 2016
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5,033
Pack cover for me. Thinking about a dry bag as it could compress and save some space too. For really wet conditions I would use both.
 

Dameon

WKR
Joined
Mar 30, 2016
Messages
438
Location
St. Louis, MO
I use multiple sized dry bags to store all my gear in my pack. For your sleeping kit and clothes, I highly recommend the Granite Gear eVent compression dry sacks.
 

Matt21418

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Jan 28, 2016
Messages
269
Dry bag for down sleeping bag and other pieces of gear in my main bag. No rain cover, then the dry turns into my meat bag and will carry more meat than I want to and it keeps any blood off of the inside of the pack. I run the outdoor research heavy duty dry bag 55 liter. Once it becomes a meat bag I use my contractor bag for the down sleeping bag if needed.

Matt


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BKhunter

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Oct 13, 2016
Messages
373
Location
New York
Thanks everyone this has been helpful. Does this add a ton of weight? I never used them before.
 
Joined
Apr 22, 2012
Messages
7,390
Location
Chugiak, Alaska
Here are a couple pictures representing the various sizes of CF dry bags that I may bring on a mountain hunt. The growler of beer is for size comparison, I figure everybody probably knows how big a growler is. I don't necessarily use all of these on every hunt but I have used them all at one time or another. A lot of the things that I pack in them is done more so for organizational purposes then for waterproof reasons. I just figure that if I'm going to be organizing things out and placing them in separate bags, they may as well be UL dry bags. The CF pack cover I use, fits easily over my Sky7400 bag and weighs 1.5 oz.
494ab7665166be1259d9d716f6e784ce.jpg

7e520f12148926565fe95a90ad01f5fa.jpg



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BKhunter

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Oct 13, 2016
Messages
373
Location
New York
Can anyone recommend the different sizes they recommend? I am running a Kifaru Timberline roughly around 7200 CI and I am thinking I would want to put by sleeping bag, tent clothes in the try sacks. Not sure if there is anything else I am missing? Any advise on separating and what to store in the dry save would be a huge help. Does anyone else do what the member above does and put meat in them? I would think I would just pack the meat out and them put everything back into the dry sack after to not get it dirty. Thanks all for all the advise.

BK
 

duchntr

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Joined
Mar 31, 2013
Messages
752
Location
Anchorage,Ak
Can anyone recommend the different sizes they recommend? I am running a Kifaru Timberline roughly around 7200 CI and I am thinking I would want to put by sleeping bag, tent clothes in the try sacks. Not sure if there is anything else I am missing? Any advise on separating and what to store in the dry save would be a huge help. Does anyone else do what the member above does and put meat in them? I would think I would just pack the meat out and them put everything back into the dry sack after to not get it dirty. Thanks all for all the advise.

BK


I put all my camp at the bottom & towards the outside of my pack and put the meat in a contractor type garbage bag closest to my back, keeps everything clean that way. When I stop for a while Ill pull it out of my pack to let it breath or put everything in a creek (in the contractor bag) to rapidly cool if needed.
 
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