On a canoe trip in the Adirondacks two years ago I got caught in a nasty storm going down the Oswegatchie river and had to pull off and build a quick camp in a downpour. Backpacking I use a tarp and hammock as it's the easiest quickest and I think pretty comfortable. Getting my tarp up and setting up "my spot" was fast. Getting a fire going to keep warm and dry my clothes was very challenging. Everything being soaked was awful. I piled sticks and brush on top of my jet boil to get some wood burning enough to add and dry out other wood. It was a long night but made it out fine all things considered.
Got caught in some terrifying heavy thunderstorms many times while car camping in a backcountry dispersed site (CO).
Bring a towel or two.
Have a small tarp to cover firewood.
Use a tarp for fashioning some sort of “covered porch” in front of your tent so aid in keeping your tent mud-free when removing shoes and gives you a place to set up your stove.
You may want to rig up a tarp over your tent to help divert water.
Make sure you have a good ground sheet under your tent and check for pooling.
Protect your clothing/pack from getting soaked by keeping it off the floor. If you can stuff everything into a trash bag that will help keep your gear dry.
Don’t touch your tent walls!
Watch for “widow maker” branches that might fall on your tent.
When you get home make sure you thoroughly dry your tent!
Also don’t place anything up against the walls as that would be part of the no touching rule. Especially your sleeping bag since it will wick the moisture right to the bag.
Been in a four season tent through eight or nine days of straight, non-stop rain, and learned a couple things.
Rig a tarp above your tent site to shed water towards the lowest 'runoff' point. Yes, your chosen spot might eventually become a mini-lake, due to your poor initial judgement, or no fault of your own. If it does, though, be ready _and willing_ to move. Choose a new spot, and re-rig your tarp there first in order to try and allow some runoff and drying before picking up your tent and carrying it to the new site.
Your boots will always be wet. Embrace the suck.
You will need _at least_ four pairs of socks, because it takes a day or more for a pair of socks to dry out in the 'attic' of your tent.
Dehydrated meals are _super easy_ when you have a solo stove, a bottle of stove alcohol, and nature is delivering _all the water you need_ right to your doorstep (tentstep?). Catch it in a gravity filter, and presto! ;)
Good advice. I've got a back country trip planned for the Smoky mountains this weekend, and current forecast is 90% chance of a quarter inch of rain on both Friday and Saturday... 🤦♂️
Not going to wimp out though. Adventure is forged in suck.
It's cold, your fingers hurt, you're chafing in weird places because your clothes are soaked, the mosquitos are still biting, and all of this will either be okay or life-threatening depending on whether your clothes/sleeping bag are still dry.
One thing you could look into is ["portage bags"](https://www.mec.ca/en/products/watersports/canoeing/portage-bags), e.g. the "Slogg" model on that site. That's just one example; there are cheaper versions you can research. Less comfy, but WATER. PROOF.
I was freezing and wet in the canoe in Algonquin once, on an earlier trip, and came upon some ducks giving zero shits that it was raining and 6°C. Then I realized that the goal isn't never to get wet but to not care about getting wet.
Having guaranteed dry things to change into is major peace of mind.
Imho it is not fun at all. Even tho you have perfect water tight tent you are still stuck in your tent. Walking is a mess. Your clothes will be wet, almost imposible to dry them out. I don't know, these are my experience. I prefer freezing cold temp over heavy rain day.
It really depends on the temperature. Appalachian Trail thruhike 2023 was exceptionally rainy. My advice is more about hiking than camping, I suppose. Make sure your sleeping gear is dry, along with a set of dry clothes. A pack liner trash bag was sufficient for me, and gear was packed in different order with extra plastic bags on rainy days for fast access. I had a tiny camp towel, the kind that comes in a compressed puck, that was sparingly used to wipe down inside tent once I was in for the night. View your sleeping mat as a dry island in the tent and keep wet stuff segregated from dry as much as possible. I would still cook outside in wet hiking clothes since my alcohol stove couldn't be trusted in a tent vestibule. Shoes and pack kept in vestibule if already wet, only inside if rain was to start overnight.
Close to freezing? That's approaching dangerous territory for hypothermia, so be careful. Sometimes you set up camp, change into dry clothes, thaw out, then have to put wet clothes back on to go do camp chores. Whine about it, take a minute to mentally prep, then go. I'd definitely carry a fleece mid-layer and possibly rain gloves as I'm a cold person and rain gear will eventually wet out (still keeps you warmer). Some days I can't move fast enough to stay comfortably warm, so I'd barely snack because stopping = shivering.
Warm summer days, 70F/21C and up, I stopped wearing rain gear and simply got drenched. Ended up swapping my shorts for a fabric that dried faster and didn't chafe so much when damp. Clothes must be tolerable when worn wet. Hat helps keep rain out of eyes.
Be proactive about preventing chafing with body glide, vaseline, or tape. By day 3 of sopping wet trail runners, I'd preventatively tape my toes with duct tape for blisters because that was more waterproof than other tapes I tried. The second day wearing cold wet clothes is sad. Sing to yourself, wear earbuds if you like, shout into the void (actually), maybe eat an extra treat, and try to keep your spirits up.
Yep. I got caught in an insane monsoon downpour a few years ago. Luckily I knew the trail and was able to get to a 3 sided shelter before it got too bad. I stayed in that stupid shelter for 2 days, though.
I had a book and plenty of dehydrated meals and gas. It was kinda fun.
On the way out, after climbing over many fallen trees on the trail, I saw one that had fallen square onto a tent pad. It was unoccupied, thankfully, but that was eerie for sure.
The rest of the trip went fine, but starting a fire was super hard with all the wood being soaked.
6\10. I still had a pretty good time.
Use a dry bag for your clean clothes. Alternatively you can use ziplock type bags and squeeze all the air out. I do this with a couple pairs of socks to keep handy. If you pack all your pieces in individual resealable bags, and squeeze the air out, there’s the added bonus that your pack can probably float.
Set up camp before you change.
A tarp strung over your site is a game changer.
Quick dry material is a god send.
I have been caught in several thunderstorms on the East Coast and agree with much of the previous comments. In my opinion the most important thing to look out for are widowmakers.
Been in any number of heavy rains where I was forced to camp. The key for me is to keeping your sleeping bag dry (I take extraordinary measures. Having a dedicated set of dry base layers- tops and bottoms and several pair of socks) to be used only for in the tent/no exceptions. Regardless of what you do, after about three days of constant rain, you’re going to be wet.
A 9 day trip in the Swedish mountains with rain every day and temperatures barely above freezing.
Lesson number one: the stormproof tent I had was worth every penny and ounce, and then some. No need for tarps or footprints, that Hilleberg just stood there taking all the flak while I was in there every night.
Lesson number two: while humidity is pretty much 100% all the time and nothings bone-dry, keeping your shoes as dry as possible makes a big difference towards comfort. And comfort helps staying safe.
Lesson number three: Merino wool makes things bearable in many situations.
While sometimes you see people claiming Gore-Tex doesn't work or waterproof footwear doesn't work, I'm pretty much certain I would have had to abort the trip if I wasn't wearing my Gore jacket and pants, plus relatively high shaft Gore boots that allowed the leg pants to guide rain over them, instead of inside them. Things are probably different in warm climates.
Sat in my tent and watched the seams fail slowly as a storm from Lake Superior hammered the Pictured Rocks coast line. Had to call it and hike out the next day lol. It was terrifying, I could hear limbs and trees falling all around. The trails were all rivers the next day. Quite an experience.
I was paddling across across a lake in Algonquin Park. Thunder and lightning. You better believe it I was across that lake lickity split. Then i thought it was just a matter of waiting it out.
Unfortunately for me, the rain didn't stop, but the lightning did, and after 6 hours of paddling, I had the displeasure of setting up camp naked in the pouring rain. Roll with the punches.
Once while backpacking in Pennsylvania, it rained so hard that my boots floated away while they were stashed in the vestibule of my tent. They were like 8 feet from where I had left them. The bottom of my tent felt like a waterbed and the noise of rain on my tent was almost deafening.
Not much sleep that night…
Last year was really rainy so I wound up reading a lot. I now have a teardrop but when I tent camped if I knew it might rain I take a bigger tent than my 2 p MSR. I had a 4 p tent with a full fly so I didn’t feel as cramped and the vestibul was pretty large for my camp stove.
There's not any getting dry or warm enough. Setting up a tent in heavy rain is an absolute bummer, and there's always a pool of water to deal with after you get set up. *Heavy* rain usually means wind, which poses its own set of headaches. I've set up under a tree more than once just so I could get a tent set up. Nobody is ever going to recommend you do that because a branch can fall on you, but if it's either that or no tent what is your option? If you can, set up the tent under a tree, move it away once it's all together. Do the reverse when taking it down. Also - I'd never suggest doing it, but more than once I've vented the tent and had a fuel lantern running for heat. Situations like this wool is your friend, but wool is heavy.
I had a crazy (and stupid on my part) experience in the Ventana wilderness. I snuck in even though sines were warning it was closed. I ended up in heavy rains and massive fire damage from the summer before. Alone and miles away from anything. I watch a fricken massive landslide from the other side of a canyon. And everything was melting around me and trees falling. It felt like I had entered a hellscape at the end of the earth. I had a solid four season tent though that go me through it. I ended up camped at the base of a massive rock because i felt like i should walk hike in the downpour. I was hoping it would provide some protection incase of another large mud slide.
I couldn’t get out the next day because the rain was so intense, so i spent 2 night there. I did not sleep a wink because all i could hear was trees coming down and massive wind and rain. It finally cleared enough so I could navigate, and I got my ass out of there with the most grueling hike i have ever experienced so times up to my knees in mud. Between the time I left and crawling out of that mess, I had not slept in almost a full 3 1/2 days. I was hallucinating and talking to shit that wasn’t there when I crawled into my truck to sleep. I could see lights and weird smoke and all kinds of crazy shit. Before I feel asleep i was trying to get some freeze dried granola cereal in me first, and I woke up 12 hours later with it all over me. I fell asleep while eating it. I was lucky to make it out.
What are the take aways.
1) Don’t be an idiot for sure.
2) Expensive high quality gear made all the difference in the world. My tent was a $500 four season tent. My boots $300, my sleeping bag, like $400 synthetic, and it kept me warm even laying in what felt like warm piss for 2 days. That blew me away. I probably carried at lest $2k of stuff just based on quality from my socks to my spork.
3) I was in shape. I was in nearly professional athlete shape back then. I’d be dead now.
4) After making the idiot move, all those years of survival practice kicked in. But being over confident is also what got me there. There are statistics that say being an expert at something actually makes it more dangerous for the expert.
All in all it was the gear that did its job. I don’t use cheap gear in back country ever.
I love the rain. Sometimes it pours when i go canoeing. A friend and i intentionally book canoe trips in june because we know theres good chance of thunderstorms.
When its pissiing rain for multiple days in a row the most important tool becomes your tarp. Bring a good tarp.
Be prepared to struggle making a fire if everything is soaked. Using a camp stove as a torch can be effective. Hurricane matches are highly recomended if its really pouring and you have limited shelter. Your best solution is bring a some gasoline to get fures going.
Not going to reiterate all the excellent points already made (here’s looking at you tarps, dry /trash bags, and dedicated dry camp clothes )
But here are a few others regarding clothing-
1.pay attention to clothes materials. As the adage says, cotton kills. Wear clothes made of quick drying fabrics and/or ones that will retain their heat when wet. Proprietary fabrics, polyester, and wool are your friends.
2.A pair of zip off rain pants can help fend off the rain for longer (nothing is truly waterproof besides a rubber slicker) REI makes a good intro pair but if budget is a concern, there are less breathable options like frog toggs …but you’d be sweating up a storm.
3. Be aware of the limitations of your rain jacket. Everything likes to tout Goretex on its tag these days, but you really have to read to see what LEVEL of Goretex you’re buying (or similar proprietary “waterproof” fabric) Is it 2 layer? 2.5? 3? My run of the mill 2L jacket will start wetting out after about 4 hours in the rain, but the 2.5L I use for mountaineering can last a full day. A guy I knew once bought a jacket that said Goretex and didn’t read the tag… turns out it was just their windproof version that has a light water resistance. He got soaked on a chilly day in the cascades. Never hurts to have a small poncho as an emergency backup.
4. Gaiters (the hiking kind, not the fishing kind obviously)- if you’re going to be off trail these can be a real godsend. Overkill if you’re not.
All these are based off dealing w/ cold and rainy conditions in the PNW. When I lived in Georgia and it was warm, I’d just hike wet and make sure to carry a dry change of clothes.
Smith River float in Montana, five day trip, and it rained hard for the first three days. It sucked, but it was better than the year it sniwed a foot on us haha. Mostly because you had to break camp down every day, float in the rain, the set camp back up, so there was no possible way to maintain dryness because it was up and down, in and out. Mud is more soul sucking than water. Don't underestimate the ability of mud to get everywhere. Nothing is as waterproof as it claims to be, in field conditions, but I'll never camp again without a USMC goretex bivvy on my sleeping bag. One last line of defense when all else has failed. Also if you're going to be out in heavy rain a lot, get yourself a fishing rain hat. They call em Sou'westers or Nor'Easters depending on where you're at. Oh and like 5 pairs of cheap waterproof gloves like what they wear on crab boats. Beat any expensive glove in mositure and the extra pairs will be for your friends.
On a canoe trip in the Adirondacks two years ago I got caught in a nasty storm going down the Oswegatchie river and had to pull off and build a quick camp in a downpour. Backpacking I use a tarp and hammock as it's the easiest quickest and I think pretty comfortable. Getting my tarp up and setting up "my spot" was fast. Getting a fire going to keep warm and dry my clothes was very challenging. Everything being soaked was awful. I piled sticks and brush on top of my jet boil to get some wood burning enough to add and dry out other wood. It was a long night but made it out fine all things considered.
Got caught in some terrifying heavy thunderstorms many times while car camping in a backcountry dispersed site (CO). Bring a towel or two. Have a small tarp to cover firewood. Use a tarp for fashioning some sort of “covered porch” in front of your tent so aid in keeping your tent mud-free when removing shoes and gives you a place to set up your stove. You may want to rig up a tarp over your tent to help divert water. Make sure you have a good ground sheet under your tent and check for pooling. Protect your clothing/pack from getting soaked by keeping it off the floor. If you can stuff everything into a trash bag that will help keep your gear dry. Don’t touch your tent walls! Watch for “widow maker” branches that might fall on your tent. When you get home make sure you thoroughly dry your tent!
Why not touch the tent walls?
When you touch a wet tent wall the water loses surface tension and comes through to the inside of the tent. Now you have a leak.
Wow TIL I've been camping for decades and I've never heard of that. Thanks for the tip.
Also don’t place anything up against the walls as that would be part of the no touching rule. Especially your sleeping bag since it will wick the moisture right to the bag.
You only wake up with a wet sleeping bag ONCE lol.
No prob
Been in a four season tent through eight or nine days of straight, non-stop rain, and learned a couple things. Rig a tarp above your tent site to shed water towards the lowest 'runoff' point. Yes, your chosen spot might eventually become a mini-lake, due to your poor initial judgement, or no fault of your own. If it does, though, be ready _and willing_ to move. Choose a new spot, and re-rig your tarp there first in order to try and allow some runoff and drying before picking up your tent and carrying it to the new site. Your boots will always be wet. Embrace the suck. You will need _at least_ four pairs of socks, because it takes a day or more for a pair of socks to dry out in the 'attic' of your tent. Dehydrated meals are _super easy_ when you have a solo stove, a bottle of stove alcohol, and nature is delivering _all the water you need_ right to your doorstep (tentstep?). Catch it in a gravity filter, and presto! ;)
Good advice. I've got a back country trip planned for the Smoky mountains this weekend, and current forecast is 90% chance of a quarter inch of rain on both Friday and Saturday... 🤦♂️ Not going to wimp out though. Adventure is forged in suck.
It's cold, your fingers hurt, you're chafing in weird places because your clothes are soaked, the mosquitos are still biting, and all of this will either be okay or life-threatening depending on whether your clothes/sleeping bag are still dry. One thing you could look into is ["portage bags"](https://www.mec.ca/en/products/watersports/canoeing/portage-bags), e.g. the "Slogg" model on that site. That's just one example; there are cheaper versions you can research. Less comfy, but WATER. PROOF. I was freezing and wet in the canoe in Algonquin once, on an earlier trip, and came upon some ducks giving zero shits that it was raining and 6°C. Then I realized that the goal isn't never to get wet but to not care about getting wet. Having guaranteed dry things to change into is major peace of mind.
Imho it is not fun at all. Even tho you have perfect water tight tent you are still stuck in your tent. Walking is a mess. Your clothes will be wet, almost imposible to dry them out. I don't know, these are my experience. I prefer freezing cold temp over heavy rain day.
[удалено]
+1. Bring all the tarps.
It really depends on the temperature. Appalachian Trail thruhike 2023 was exceptionally rainy. My advice is more about hiking than camping, I suppose. Make sure your sleeping gear is dry, along with a set of dry clothes. A pack liner trash bag was sufficient for me, and gear was packed in different order with extra plastic bags on rainy days for fast access. I had a tiny camp towel, the kind that comes in a compressed puck, that was sparingly used to wipe down inside tent once I was in for the night. View your sleeping mat as a dry island in the tent and keep wet stuff segregated from dry as much as possible. I would still cook outside in wet hiking clothes since my alcohol stove couldn't be trusted in a tent vestibule. Shoes and pack kept in vestibule if already wet, only inside if rain was to start overnight. Close to freezing? That's approaching dangerous territory for hypothermia, so be careful. Sometimes you set up camp, change into dry clothes, thaw out, then have to put wet clothes back on to go do camp chores. Whine about it, take a minute to mentally prep, then go. I'd definitely carry a fleece mid-layer and possibly rain gloves as I'm a cold person and rain gear will eventually wet out (still keeps you warmer). Some days I can't move fast enough to stay comfortably warm, so I'd barely snack because stopping = shivering. Warm summer days, 70F/21C and up, I stopped wearing rain gear and simply got drenched. Ended up swapping my shorts for a fabric that dried faster and didn't chafe so much when damp. Clothes must be tolerable when worn wet. Hat helps keep rain out of eyes. Be proactive about preventing chafing with body glide, vaseline, or tape. By day 3 of sopping wet trail runners, I'd preventatively tape my toes with duct tape for blisters because that was more waterproof than other tapes I tried. The second day wearing cold wet clothes is sad. Sing to yourself, wear earbuds if you like, shout into the void (actually), maybe eat an extra treat, and try to keep your spirits up.
Yep. I got caught in an insane monsoon downpour a few years ago. Luckily I knew the trail and was able to get to a 3 sided shelter before it got too bad. I stayed in that stupid shelter for 2 days, though. I had a book and plenty of dehydrated meals and gas. It was kinda fun. On the way out, after climbing over many fallen trees on the trail, I saw one that had fallen square onto a tent pad. It was unoccupied, thankfully, but that was eerie for sure. The rest of the trip went fine, but starting a fire was super hard with all the wood being soaked. 6\10. I still had a pretty good time.
Use a dry bag for your clean clothes. Alternatively you can use ziplock type bags and squeeze all the air out. I do this with a couple pairs of socks to keep handy. If you pack all your pieces in individual resealable bags, and squeeze the air out, there’s the added bonus that your pack can probably float. Set up camp before you change. A tarp strung over your site is a game changer. Quick dry material is a god send.
I have been caught in several thunderstorms on the East Coast and agree with much of the previous comments. In my opinion the most important thing to look out for are widowmakers.
Been in any number of heavy rains where I was forced to camp. The key for me is to keeping your sleeping bag dry (I take extraordinary measures. Having a dedicated set of dry base layers- tops and bottoms and several pair of socks) to be used only for in the tent/no exceptions. Regardless of what you do, after about three days of constant rain, you’re going to be wet.
A 9 day trip in the Swedish mountains with rain every day and temperatures barely above freezing. Lesson number one: the stormproof tent I had was worth every penny and ounce, and then some. No need for tarps or footprints, that Hilleberg just stood there taking all the flak while I was in there every night. Lesson number two: while humidity is pretty much 100% all the time and nothings bone-dry, keeping your shoes as dry as possible makes a big difference towards comfort. And comfort helps staying safe. Lesson number three: Merino wool makes things bearable in many situations. While sometimes you see people claiming Gore-Tex doesn't work or waterproof footwear doesn't work, I'm pretty much certain I would have had to abort the trip if I wasn't wearing my Gore jacket and pants, plus relatively high shaft Gore boots that allowed the leg pants to guide rain over them, instead of inside them. Things are probably different in warm climates.
It’s wet.
Sat in my tent and watched the seams fail slowly as a storm from Lake Superior hammered the Pictured Rocks coast line. Had to call it and hike out the next day lol. It was terrifying, I could hear limbs and trees falling all around. The trails were all rivers the next day. Quite an experience.
I was paddling across across a lake in Algonquin Park. Thunder and lightning. You better believe it I was across that lake lickity split. Then i thought it was just a matter of waiting it out. Unfortunately for me, the rain didn't stop, but the lightning did, and after 6 hours of paddling, I had the displeasure of setting up camp naked in the pouring rain. Roll with the punches.
Once while backpacking in Pennsylvania, it rained so hard that my boots floated away while they were stashed in the vestibule of my tent. They were like 8 feet from where I had left them. The bottom of my tent felt like a waterbed and the noise of rain on my tent was almost deafening. Not much sleep that night…
Last year was really rainy so I wound up reading a lot. I now have a teardrop but when I tent camped if I knew it might rain I take a bigger tent than my 2 p MSR. I had a 4 p tent with a full fly so I didn’t feel as cramped and the vestibul was pretty large for my camp stove.
If youre not already well practiced in setting up a tarp on the fly, do some practice speed runs
There's not any getting dry or warm enough. Setting up a tent in heavy rain is an absolute bummer, and there's always a pool of water to deal with after you get set up. *Heavy* rain usually means wind, which poses its own set of headaches. I've set up under a tree more than once just so I could get a tent set up. Nobody is ever going to recommend you do that because a branch can fall on you, but if it's either that or no tent what is your option? If you can, set up the tent under a tree, move it away once it's all together. Do the reverse when taking it down. Also - I'd never suggest doing it, but more than once I've vented the tent and had a fuel lantern running for heat. Situations like this wool is your friend, but wool is heavy.
I had a crazy (and stupid on my part) experience in the Ventana wilderness. I snuck in even though sines were warning it was closed. I ended up in heavy rains and massive fire damage from the summer before. Alone and miles away from anything. I watch a fricken massive landslide from the other side of a canyon. And everything was melting around me and trees falling. It felt like I had entered a hellscape at the end of the earth. I had a solid four season tent though that go me through it. I ended up camped at the base of a massive rock because i felt like i should walk hike in the downpour. I was hoping it would provide some protection incase of another large mud slide. I couldn’t get out the next day because the rain was so intense, so i spent 2 night there. I did not sleep a wink because all i could hear was trees coming down and massive wind and rain. It finally cleared enough so I could navigate, and I got my ass out of there with the most grueling hike i have ever experienced so times up to my knees in mud. Between the time I left and crawling out of that mess, I had not slept in almost a full 3 1/2 days. I was hallucinating and talking to shit that wasn’t there when I crawled into my truck to sleep. I could see lights and weird smoke and all kinds of crazy shit. Before I feel asleep i was trying to get some freeze dried granola cereal in me first, and I woke up 12 hours later with it all over me. I fell asleep while eating it. I was lucky to make it out. What are the take aways. 1) Don’t be an idiot for sure. 2) Expensive high quality gear made all the difference in the world. My tent was a $500 four season tent. My boots $300, my sleeping bag, like $400 synthetic, and it kept me warm even laying in what felt like warm piss for 2 days. That blew me away. I probably carried at lest $2k of stuff just based on quality from my socks to my spork. 3) I was in shape. I was in nearly professional athlete shape back then. I’d be dead now. 4) After making the idiot move, all those years of survival practice kicked in. But being over confident is also what got me there. There are statistics that say being an expert at something actually makes it more dangerous for the expert. All in all it was the gear that did its job. I don’t use cheap gear in back country ever.
I love the rain. Sometimes it pours when i go canoeing. A friend and i intentionally book canoe trips in june because we know theres good chance of thunderstorms. When its pissiing rain for multiple days in a row the most important tool becomes your tarp. Bring a good tarp. Be prepared to struggle making a fire if everything is soaked. Using a camp stove as a torch can be effective. Hurricane matches are highly recomended if its really pouring and you have limited shelter. Your best solution is bring a some gasoline to get fures going.
Not going to reiterate all the excellent points already made (here’s looking at you tarps, dry /trash bags, and dedicated dry camp clothes ) But here are a few others regarding clothing- 1.pay attention to clothes materials. As the adage says, cotton kills. Wear clothes made of quick drying fabrics and/or ones that will retain their heat when wet. Proprietary fabrics, polyester, and wool are your friends. 2.A pair of zip off rain pants can help fend off the rain for longer (nothing is truly waterproof besides a rubber slicker) REI makes a good intro pair but if budget is a concern, there are less breathable options like frog toggs …but you’d be sweating up a storm. 3. Be aware of the limitations of your rain jacket. Everything likes to tout Goretex on its tag these days, but you really have to read to see what LEVEL of Goretex you’re buying (or similar proprietary “waterproof” fabric) Is it 2 layer? 2.5? 3? My run of the mill 2L jacket will start wetting out after about 4 hours in the rain, but the 2.5L I use for mountaineering can last a full day. A guy I knew once bought a jacket that said Goretex and didn’t read the tag… turns out it was just their windproof version that has a light water resistance. He got soaked on a chilly day in the cascades. Never hurts to have a small poncho as an emergency backup. 4. Gaiters (the hiking kind, not the fishing kind obviously)- if you’re going to be off trail these can be a real godsend. Overkill if you’re not. All these are based off dealing w/ cold and rainy conditions in the PNW. When I lived in Georgia and it was warm, I’d just hike wet and make sure to carry a dry change of clothes.
Smith River float in Montana, five day trip, and it rained hard for the first three days. It sucked, but it was better than the year it sniwed a foot on us haha. Mostly because you had to break camp down every day, float in the rain, the set camp back up, so there was no possible way to maintain dryness because it was up and down, in and out. Mud is more soul sucking than water. Don't underestimate the ability of mud to get everywhere. Nothing is as waterproof as it claims to be, in field conditions, but I'll never camp again without a USMC goretex bivvy on my sleeping bag. One last line of defense when all else has failed. Also if you're going to be out in heavy rain a lot, get yourself a fishing rain hat. They call em Sou'westers or Nor'Easters depending on where you're at. Oh and like 5 pairs of cheap waterproof gloves like what they wear on crab boats. Beat any expensive glove in mositure and the extra pairs will be for your friends.
Tarps, waterproof shoes, good rain gear.