Last summer I bought a $15 hammock with build in bug net (I live in Florida, must have bug net) from Groupon. This was my 1st venture into hammocks and on a week long kayak trip I packed it along as well as my usual Kelty Crestone 1 tent. I didn't really have any plan to spend the entire week using the hammock as my primary sleep system but that's what happened. Most sites just were not very tent friendly along the banks of the river and even the river camps I stayed at had hooks for hammocks. This year in anticipation of another week of kayak camping later this summer, I decided It would probably be a good idea to upgrade my sleep system if I was going to use a hammock for the entire week. I got lucky last year that it didn't rain since I did not have a tarp. My back up plan was the tent if it did. Well since then I recently purchased and tested a Hammock Bliss No Seeum No More hammock and a Eastern Ridge tarp. On the hammock I've modified the suspension system to regular straps with toggles and replaced the suspension rope with a pair of 7/64 amsteel woopie slings that I made with the help of a you tube video.The Eastern Ridge tarp came with end only dynemma ridgelines but I wasn't crazy about there length or trying to tie tauntline hitches in such a slick cord so I picked up 30' of dacron cord, added a small s binner to one end, prussic knots for tensioning the tarp and a figure 9 carabiner to tension the ridgeline. The extras really make setup fast and easy. This site and Shug's videos have been a great source of information and I look forward to "hanging" around. I did learn quite a few things on my little 2 day camping test especially about the importance of treating the hammock and tarp with Permethrin. I still have bug welts on my hinny from the skeeters biting through the bottom of the hammock and I should have brought a heavier sleeping bag. It was a cold restless night.
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