bush buddy and dry wood

It is my understanding that waterproof breathable is relying on human body heat to keep turning liquid water into vapor. The tinder wouldn't get any more wet from wet gear in your pack, but I think all it would do is slowly equilibrate humidity with the surrounding air. If it's raining – the air is wet, the tinder is wet, the air both inside and outside the bag will be wet. Don't think it'll help you, but I'm sure someone will come along and correct me if I'm wrong.

But if there's any wood at all in the environment, finding some dry wood is almost always possible. And it's actually quite fun to learn where to look for it.

-Erin
http://www.groundtruthtrekking.org/WildCoast.php

This material is dark, so I was envisioning just having it tied to the top of the pack. Of course, never having hiked in the rain, I'm forgetting that when its raining, there's usually not much sun.

There's also the option of wearing it, say, like an albatross around your neck, and letting the body heat it like that. Anyway, just wondering what to do with this leftover fabric. I think gaiters might be the way to go.

Dwight

Dwight,
WB fabric needs some heat inside to drive water vapor out. A WB bag on top of your pack on a cloudy, rainy day will not get warm enough. On a clear, sunny day, the WB fabric would be worse than letting the vagrant zephyrs and sunlight dry the wood. And if the Bush Buddy works at all like other small, enclosed wood stoves, you can burn wood that is a little wet. It will smoke a lot, but it will burn. Some fire starter in the form of dry wood, pitch pine, or maybe a little alcohol doesn't hurt for getting it going. The best bet is to look for dry wood – which you can find even in rainy woods. The small branches on the lower trunks of conifers, twigs with loose bark that strips off easily, things like that. You only need a couple of hands full for a small, enclosed stove.

Yeah, use the extra fabric for gaiters.

Dwight,

I agree with the others. I don't think WPB would work for drying wood or a sleeping bag. I just used a small amount of goretex to make a really lightweight pair of shell mitts.

Check out my post:

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/xdpy/forum_thread/6921/index.html?skip_to_post=49262#49262

Hi Erin

> It is my understanding that waterproof breathable is relying on human body heat to keep turning liquid water into vapor. The tinder wouldn't get any more wet from wet gear in your pack, but I think all it would do is slowly equilibrate humidity with the surrounding air. If it's raining – the air is wet, the tinder is wet, the air both inside and outside the bag will be wet. Don't think it'll help you, but I'm sure someone will come along and correct me if I'm wrong.

You are not wrong. But you knew that. :-)