Isaac and I are out on a camping trip right now. This was planned weeks ago. But at the beginning of this week, the big question on my mind was: How bad is the rain going to be?
You see, we do get fine days – and even sunny weeks here in Washington. But more often than not, it rains.
That said, the rain is usually light and sporadic. Usually you can ignore it and get on with your life. But when it comes to camping, the impact of the rain is quite notable. Handling rain means that you need a lot more gear and a lot more planning.
At the beginning of the week, the forecast for rain was 40%. At that stage I was debating whether we should take our chances and pack light. By the end of the week, the forecast was 80% and the debate was over. We were going to pack for rain.
We drove to the campsite on a lovely sunny Friday afternoon, and as we setup our large rain shelter, we joked about how all this effort would be wasted if it did not rain. We had a good nights sleep, and when we woke to blue skies, I wondered if maybe we had gotten lucky. But not 10 minutes later the clouds rolled over and the first drops of rain started to fall.
Not to fear.
Being experienced Washington campers meant that our shelter (a large tarp on wooden poles) is quite large. We quickly shuffled everything under cover and proceeded to make breakfast in the dry.
We will probably go for a hike shortly. It is still raining, and we will get wet, but that is all part of living in Washington!
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