Not getting enough time for more trips...
Not getting enough time for more trips...
Deciding whether to DIY it or custom buy it!
And then you decide to DIY it but don't have a sewing machine. Flash forward 5 yrs and you now have to move to a new place in order to fit your 3 industrial sewing machines, a 5'x10' cutting table, etc, etc.....
My least favorite part about hammock camping is the slippery slope.
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Be what Is to Become
Become what Is to Be
Make the Future
Given Thee...
About the only thing that bugs me is staking out my tarp. It is not hard, does not require an engineering degree, but it bugs me enough that from time to time I do minimal stake outs, which is fine unless a wind blown rain hits during the night. All in all I simply love to hammock camp, to the extent that I go a lot. I have a great indoor area to hang and air out all of my gear, so I'm ready for another trip. I'm planning to do around 17 or 18 nights in Oct., 8 or 10 in Nov., 6 or 8 in Jan. and I do all this even though tarp stakes bug me. I love my hammocks.
If you prepare for failure you will probably succeed.
Sometimes I fall asleep with my glasses on, and then they migrate into my quilts, and then I have to fish around for them in the morning.
I still haven’t found a pair of readers from my last trip. Maybe they fell on the ground.
That would be a shame, since they had leopard print frames and made me look like one of the ladies from the Far Side.
I sew things on youtube.
I don’t sew on commission, so please don’t ask. Thanks.
Definitely keeping all my stuff organized at camp. I hate how disorderly the area immediately under my hammock gets, especially when I'm making dinner (or I would, you know, if I were foolish enough to cook where I sleep...).
I've made progress changing the order in which I pack/unpack. Even so, there's always a lot of stuff sitting on my Tyvek sheet just waiting to get bumped and lost forever in the mess that is every forest floor.
Judicious use of my ridgeline organizer and peak loft has been somewhat helpful, but there's still only so much space. I think it's just a matter of doing more camping and getting more comfortable with it.
Few lessons learned over the years when it comes to DIY.
a) I always double or triple the budget I planned for (and assumed would save me money)
b) count your time. Your time is money and once you include it. Assume 4x or even 5x the budget
c) outside of sense of accomplishment, buying it will save you time, headaches and money (lots of money).
Packing my CPAP gear along. Sure it keeps me alive, but what a PITA. I dont mind putting on pants. Stand up and put them on. Don't look in my tarp if you don't want to see THINGS!
I would rather be in the woods... my dog would rather be in the pool. My wife thinks we are both nuts.
....Winter
I guess there are a few things specific to hammock camping that do cause me a little stress but nothing major for sure.
Site selection. Camping with others would be the big one. Sometimes others pick the general site and it leaves little for the two hammocks my wife and I hang in. The uncertainty of not knowing if you will be able to find a spot is not fun. This would also include going by ourselves to a new area we have not been to before, you never know what you will find on the other end.
We do tend to make repeat trips to areas we know well so it isn't a big deal but we live in Alberta and a trip south to some of the parks in Montana seems like something we would like to do. It is common to see stories here however of people discovering areas where hammocks are not welcome, all shelters must be over the provided tent pad or rules against attaching anything at all to the trees discourage any thoughts of going south of the boarder with our hammock gear. A lot of these issues can and do exist in Canada also but, at least in Alberta, we also have crown land where you can pretty much do what you want. Most of our trips are to these areas.
So the uncertainty of site selection leaves me with a bit of a feeling in my guy that has to be the worst hammock specific thing about the hobby for me.
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