Date: 2015-11-30
To: Gonna be cold, cold, cold.....
Miles today: 0.0

Now that I have my venison jerky raw materials I can get back to updating my journal. In between hunting and work I have recently gone on a gear shuffling binge upon trying out items I bought early on in the planning as well as some Information uncovered on the Internet.Perhaps the biggest realization was a question I asked on Whiteblazes.net about gloves and an April start. Unanimous the replies were, CARRY GLOVES! Although there were varying degrees of the decree, I took the hint and have since purchases gloves by Manzella. They are basically liners and weigh no more than 2 ounces. Not sure if this is my final choice, but I will carry some type of gloves.The whole glove thing made me consider some of the extreme temperatures that I will encounter early on. Hey, I live in Houston where we call anything lower than 45 extreme! The reality is there will be cold nights and some cold days. I have been told expect lows as far as mid 20's? For whatever reason this hunting season has been rainy here in Texas. The reality is cold is one thing, but wet and cold is another. That being the case I am returning my XXL Marmot Precip and going to a XXXL. The XXL just felt too restrictive and I never felt settled with it since I bought it.I feel I am good pretty well covered for hiking in colder temps and I believe I have the sleeping arrangements dialed in as well. But I am sure I will continue to make changes.To get my sleeping arrangements finalized, I recently exchanged my REI Flash sleeping pad for a Sea to Summitt Comfort Light pad. The exchange cost me about 4 additional ounces but the increase in comfort seems 5X.Over the Thanksgiving weekend I set my Double Rainbow TarpTent up so that I could finally seal the seams. The tent comes with a bottle of sealant that is clearly marked "Use as Soon As Possible" which having bought the tent 6 months ago I didn't. But being that I had the tent up, the foam brush in hand and rain on the horizon, I went for it.I did a neat job with the sealant and felt good that I covered all relevant seams. I left the tent up for the next two days as a test. And man did we have rain!! After two days and nights of on and off deluges I was surprised at how dry the inside was (keeping in mind I was NOT actually sleeping in it). I did notice a few tiny "puddles" of water. That has me concerned, but then again... It rained relentlessly.When I went to take down the tent I noticed the sealant still felt ever so slightly sticky. I am hoping this is a delay in drying due to humidity and not because I used 6 month old sealant. I plan to call TarpTent to get the official verdict.One thing else that happened was the realization that a wet tent (wet on the outside) does not dry easily. I took down the tent and tried to shake off as much water as possible. It's clear that a wet tent morning (which I am sure there are many) will be a pain and no doubt shaking out and drying a tent is an art form. Based on the rain and humidity in my parts this weekend, there was no chance in hell that tent was drying. So I am thinking and rethinking every possible way to stay dry and warm.