Look out of any window
Any morning, any evening, any day.
Maybe the sun is shining,
Birds are winging, or
Rain is falling from a heavy sky.
Grateful Dead
“Box of Rain”
I love the peaceful sound of rain on my tent fly at night. I am grateful to be warm and dry. I am convinced that by far the majority of rain falls at night. I am sure many brief showers occurring at night go completely unnoticed by those who sleep under more substantial roofs.
It is difficult to pack up my gear in the morning if it is raining. I usually just wait for it to stop raining before taking down my tent. Over the course of an entire year, I spend the day riding in the rain maybe half a dozen times. This usually occurs when it starts raining after my morning departure. Thunderstorms can be fierce but are usually brief. I do my best to wait out thunderstorms by seeking any nearby shelter.
My cell phone provides ample warning if a prolonged period of rainy weather is expected. If it is cold, I do my best to avoid riding in the rain. A few times each year, I stay at a hotel to avoid a rainy spell. On rare occasions, however, I am stuck in my tent for a couple of days waiting for the rain to stop. I spend the time reading and listening to music. Be sure to look along the bottom edge of your tent fly for areas with dripping water. Set your plastic cups or small pan under the drip points and you can catch a significant amount of water.
Once, I was camped along the Blue Ridge Parkway near Boone, North Carolina when a major tropical depression brought torrential rain for four solid days. I was completely fogged in high in the mountains. I read Charles Dickens’ “Great Expectations” from cover to cover during this rainy period. Dickens’ story has a lot of cold, wet, foggy scenes, especially at the beginning of the novel. Looking out my tent door at all the rain and fog provided the perfect setting for reading Dickens’ novel!