I recently rode Scott Morris's Gila River Ramble route connecting passages 15 and 16 of the AZT with brutal and at times sublime 4×4 double tracks.
3 days, 80 miles and 10K of climbing ended with the roller-coaster of Ripsey ridge.
Great trip, except that dry and clear Arizona winter nights with a higher dew point, a few days after a soaking storm, left my sleep system soaking wet in the morning. The ground and vegetation had no visible surface moisture (dew) in the morning. 38 degrees felt coldish (high of 70 later on). My m90 borah bivy was soaking wet on the surface by 9 pm (before i climbed into it; not wetted from perspiration) the shell of the dwr 850 enigma quilt (30f) was thoroughly saturated by morning). 2 more nights brought the same moisture dump in the dew. A polycro 7×4 tarp buffeted the soaking a bit the following nights but the breezes still let the dew creep under the tarp wetting the shell. I slept without the bivy the following 2 nights , but under the polycro set like a lean-to
I guess I learned a lesson in emissivity when the bivy and quilt fabrics were soaked yet the polycryo hanging over it was still bone dry when heading to bed a couple hours after dark-fall?!?
Or was I just schooled in dew management?
