I Love My Gear!
My Umbrella is a Rainy Day Room With a View
Yesterday, I walked on Cold Mountain, VA, in a cloud. Rain drizzled down and visibility was
about 20 feet. Yet, I was enjoying the walk, the view, and a visit to this magical place of beauty. As I walked, I realized that my umbrella played a big part in my ability to embrace this moment in comfort and joy.
When I first started backpacking, I thought that an umbrella would be about the dumbest thing I could bring. Wouldn’t it get caught in branches along the trail?, I thought. An umbrella is fragile and awkward! Umbrellas are for city streets, not trails! It’s just not right! An umbrella is bulky and hard to pack. My list of reasons to leave the umbrella at home was long.
Four years later, I’d walked the entire Appalachian Trail in plenty of rain, snow, and sun all without an umbrella. I’d walked along perfectly well with my poncho that covered me and my pack. My AT hiking partner even used an umbrella, but I wouldn’t cave in. Umbrellas were simply NOT for backpacking!
Fast forward to mile 4,479 of my backpacking career and I’m holding –an umbrella! And I’m loving it!
Snow was falling all around me in the North Cascade Mountains of Washington State and I had the feeling of being in a cozy room of my own with a beautiful view on a wondrous world. My upper body was dry. My hands were dry. My glasses were clear. A new world had opened before me. My initiation into the community of Umbrella Backpackers was complete. “Umbrella” was permanently on my packing list.
Here’s what I like about my umbrella on the trail:
- It’s lightweight rain gear
- It’s easy to pack
- It’s quick to pull out and put away
- It’s easy to replace when lost or broken
- It’s a good conversation starter
- It’s a windbreak for my outdoor kitchen
- It’s great for night-time toilet runs
It’s still true that an umbrella doesn’t work well in wind, so I still carry a poncho that doubles as a ground cloth. However, an umbrella can be turned against a light wind to create a wall to driving rain. If wind and rain are too heavy for my umbrella, however, that’s a good sign for me to get out of the weather and head for a shelter or set up my tarp and go inside.
Now I’m an umbrella advocate and I invite you to consider packing one for your next walk.
What do you think? Let me know by commenting below!
I would love to walk in the rain. So many bad storms here lately. However it is a good idea to have one handy!!!
We love our umbrellas. We didn’t carry them on our 2012 Appalachian trail thruhike…or on our first three Caminos. We finally tried them on our PCT attempt in 2016… with mixed results. We tried them again on this year’s Caminos, when it rained a number of days…and now we’re sold. It was a bit tricky to figure out how to attach them to our packs, but once that was solved, we love them!
I will be bring mine this coming June on the AT ( SOBO thru hike).