Hey all, been a hammock forums viewer for awhile but finally made a profile this week. Just wanted to introduce myself, I am fairly new to hammock backpacking. I backpacked a fair amount in my late teens early 20s but thought I didn't have much time for it. Now I'm getting pretty close to my 30's with 2 kids and another on the way and I've been looking for an adult hobby (man they are expensive to get into.). I've tried archery, golf and other random things. Didn't really catch. So late 2016 I stumbled upon Shug, sintax77, Outdoor gear review, and Outdoor adventures with Frozen. I got the itch to backpack again on top of that also to try this hammock camping out.
So as I assume most of you can relate or can remember being a young family, gear came in slowly but surely. I went the route of budget gear just in case this hobby fell through! Well it hasn't yet I've slept out side a fair few times and i've really enjoyed it!
I live in SE Nebraska and there aren't a ton of trails for backpacking near me but there are a few that work for shake down hikes. I am really lucky to have great in-laws up in the twin city area so there are a ton of selection up there as well. My wife got me a HG Quilt and UQ for Christmas and finished up my essentials and gear list just recently.
So this is my experience I really want to share with you all, mainly for a good laugh and encouragement for any more noobs like me! I went out this last week for a 10 mile overnighter about an 1 hour away from home. It was 54 for a high and 38 as a low with no chance for rain. (notice that was the extent of my weather research, noob mistake #1). So I went out and the trail was awesome it felt great, even with the mud and muck still had a blast hiking! Came across the first camp site at mile 2.5 and it was probably 1530 hours at this time. I thought man this view isn't the greatest and I bet I could hike to the next site before sunset. Now the trail map for this location was pretty poor, no mile markers and no topography, but i'm a runner and a day hiker I figured no matter what I could reach the next site before the light was gone. Well I got to where the sit was supposed to be but all I saw were burnt down trees. ( Turns out it was from a controlled burn). Well it was about 1700 hours now and I knew I wasn't going to make it to the next site. I hiked back about 5 minutes to a fork in the trail, one stayed on the trail i was on, another branched to another trail that led to the road (remember this trail for later!) the other led to adirondack. I headed to the the adirondack and set up camp. I heard from the ranger that I had the park completely to myself so I figured I wouldn't bother any adirondack hikers by setting up next to the shelter. Well this was an amazing spot, could see the Missouri river to the East and the sunset to the west. Well it was on the top of a decent hill(noob mistake #2). A fair amount of trees.
Well I am all set up and it was about 1800 hours and started boiling my water and poured it into a freezer bag of knorr pasta with a packet of chicken. Noob mistake #3 i didn't let it set long enough and so it was pretty crunchy still. Didn't have a pot cozy and it got pretty cool pretty quick. Well I was hungry enough I ate it anyways. Hung my food bag and crawled into the Bearbutt hammock with my HG econs keeping my warm! Started reading my book and as I was dozing off when the WIND picked up...The thing I didn't look at during weather research. Well I looked to see how long the wind was going to last and it was only increasing throughout the night. My noob self was on the top of a hill and my tarp and hammock were whipping around it was too loud to fall asleep! At 2100 hours I tore down the set up and moved into the adirondak. It looked like I wasn't the first hammocker to set up in there because there were lag eye bolts in the studs(similar to my basement were I hang my hammock). I set up in there and was cozy, fell asleep relatively quickly. About 3 hours later I felt my dog nudging my backside under my hammock, semi-conscious I gently swiped under my hammock 2 or 3 times not feeling anything... then it dawns on me.... my pups at home with the wife and kids. I still feel the nudging and I concluded that a shelter critter(definitely bigger than a mouse) has found a warm place to hang between my underquilt and my hammock! I flipped out of my hammock walked around the camp site real quick and decided I didn't want to share my sleep set up, so I tried in the wind to reset up outside again. With the wind going like it was and weather still clear of rain I left the tarp off. Wind was 30 mph and shooting some decent gusts at this time and I wasn't getting close to falling asleep again. Pulled out my trail map and looked at the previous fork and looked at the other trail and it was a straight shot out to the road which led back to my trustee little Honda Accord. Packed everything up and at 0130 hours I hiked my way back to my car. Had my head lamp on with a spare set of batteries and in less than an hour I unbuttoned my foot box of my quilt and laid down in the back seat of my car. I got my sunrise still just in the back of a little car.
I know I made a hand full of mistakes, and it wasn't the best first solo backpacking trip but I feel like I learned a lot about my gear and my current skill set and I'm excited to get back out and try it again. I will make a pot cozy, practice setting up my tarp in different ways and set up in a better sheltered spot next time! Funny enough the day after all this I watched a video of Shug's that said one of the best thing about hammocks is you can set yourself up out of the wind! Had to laugh at myself!
Hope you all enjoy this rather lengthy post!
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