Prolonged rain in hammock

[oms121]

Keep your mind occupied...check for water ingress/drip lines, adjust your tarp, write your thoughts, read a ebook, play phone games, take some photos/video, study the topo map or gps, sketch, whittle wood, cook food, capture some of that rain for cooking, scratch some drainage ditches so the water channels away/around your dry spot under your tarp, if your near water check your rod/handline...

Vary your position...sitting, lying, stretch, walk around when the weather let's up, walk around while its raining, naked, use it as a shower...

...or if your totally spent, let your body recuperate & sleep the sleep of the damned...and let the weather do it's worst.

If there's a deadline, prepare to walk out or let others know (if you can) that your hunkered down an extra day.

Thanks. Great tips.

[Grumpy Squatch]

I see you are in the Whites. Is hammock camping allowed throughout or is it restricted to certain areas? I’ve only done one hike in the Whites (Pemi loop) and I was ground camping then but that terrain seemed perfect for hammocks given how rocky and how little flat ground there was in some portions of the loop.

Thanks

Always in a hammock in the Whites. In fact, that is what tipped me away from tents. There's no place to pitch them, except a few controlled spots, which are tent platforms. You can hammock camp anywhere in the Whites except a very few designated wilderness areas and not close to roads.

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I've been hiking the Whites for more than 25 years and I"d add only 1 caveat: while hammocking (and camping) is permitted in areas not under special restriction (like in the krummholz and above treeline), the reality is that much of the White Mountain National Forest was logged flat through the 50s, 60s, and 70s and can be a dense boggy mess packed with tiny trees. I've hammocked exclusively there for the last 6 years, and frankly, I find it more difficult to find suitable dispersed hammocking sites than tent sites. I've never not found one, but I"ve spent far more time looking for one than I ever did for a suitable tent site.

There is almost nothing I won't backpack in, however, so I can't remember the last time I was stuck in a tent or hammock because of any weather. Maybe in the 90s in Wyoming... I"ve hked through days of cold 40-degree rain. Love it. But as others have said, especially in the Whites where the ground is often saturated and can start running anytime it rains, I"d take a hammock any day over a tent.

[Spogatz]

I use a camp stool that I carry over the top of my backpack.
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[dakotaross]

...As much as I love my hammock, I’m not sure being confined in one for 24 hours or more would be “fun” or comfortable.

Has anyone been forced or chosen to stay in their hammock for a prolonged period? Did you just vary your position in the hammock or did you “go to ground” for some part of the time so you could move more and not feel locked in a burrito? Any tips to make that more tolerable would be appreciated.

As opposed to sitting crosslegged, or worse, laid out on your back or stomach on a tent floor? Egads. Yeah, I'd much rather be laying back in a hammock all day.

What I would offer though is that if this is a concern, get a big tarp so that you don't have to be in the hammock while its raining, assuming you have something to sit on. Put the tarp in porch mode and sit in the hammock, or on a piece of tyvek or a chair and watch it rain. Tons better than being couped up in a tent.

[WalksIn2Trees]

as long as you have all the kinks worked out of your hammocking system (no leaks in the ridge-line seam; no water running down your ridge-line dripping onto your quilt; no water running down your suspension then down the back of your hammock and into your underquilt) chilling out in the hammock through heavy rain is very enjoyable.

usually, though, the first heavy rain is when you find out the deficiencies of your system. You think everything is good, because it was ok in lighter rains, but then the heavy rain comes and suddenly you have a drip from above... is it a leak? is it running down your ridge-line? Meanwhile your quilts are getting soaked, and finally you take a dirty pair of socks and tie them at each end of your Ridgeline just outside of your tarp and the drip stops. whew... but now your quilt is soaked with no way to dry it except to climb in and dry it with body heat.

but there after you make sure your ridge-line is level and tight enough, or you switch to not going under your tarp, and you put drip-lines on your suspension.

generally, I'll read, or even just sleep through the rain. I don't usually want to get out and walk around, but I can see sitting under the tarp and carving if that's what your into.

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[Crazytown3]

I put the tarp in porch mode and take a nap (or 2). If I get too bored, I put on my rain gear and take a walk. If I'm in a fishing area, I go fishing, the best fishing is usually in the rain.

[oldpappy]

usually, though, the first heavy rain is when you find out the deficiencies of your system. You think everything is good, because it was ok in lighter rains, but then the heavy rain comes and suddenly you have a drip from above... is it a leak? is it running down your ridge-line? Meanwhile your quilts are getting soaked, and finally you take a dirty pair of socks and tie them at each end of your Ridgeline just outside of your tarp and the drip stops. whew... but now your quilt is soaked with no way to dry it except to climb in and dry it with body heat.

How true this is.
I mostly fair weather camp, but the few time I got 'socked in' I packed my insulation away in my pack/rain cover/plastic compactor bag to keep dry. My hammock was used as a chair did experience some drip line overflow, but the hammock nylon was just damp and not an issue.

[scrope]

I use a Tyvek sheet but when it's really raining and the ground is very muddy I just give up. Then I'll just keep everything in my hammock (love thee RR pockets) or my pack and they only things that touch the ground are my boots and tarp stakes.

If it's rain but mostly straight down you don't need to hunker down like a thunderstorm where your tarp is 6" above your face, so in those instances I set the tarp and high as I can reach and spread it wide, or better yet, in porch mode. Much, much better and more options than a tent.