Born Again Hammock Camper

**thorlac** · 08-17-2019, 00:03

Hi all -

I'm a life-long pacific northwesterner, newbie hanger, not long time lurker here on the forum. New questions coming up all the time!

I've had a few losses of friends in the last couple of years, and grief seems to just send me out into the woods. Like I need more space for it or something. I've long wanted to go backpacking but it's been many years since I could sleep on the ground. I just know if I tried, I would be immobile the next day. I had pretty much given up on overnight hiking. We did a road trip vacation to the Southwest (Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce Canyon, etc.) this year, and it really inspired me to think about backpacking again. I stumbled across a youtuber who was backpacking with a hammock setup and I've been devouring everything I could find on the subject. I'm turning 50 this year, and the last time I was backpacking I was probably 14, and my pack was probably 30-40 pounds. All this ultralight stuff is crazy.

Got the husband involved and we quite spontaneously went and bought the a pair of the Kammok Mantis hammocks, a couple of HG underquilts, and went out car camping with them to see if we could actually sleep in the things. It took us about 2 hours to figure out the right trees (I am NOT good at eyeballing distances), and I'm pretty sure my feet were too low, but generally speaking.. I was no more stiff and sore in the morning than I am after sleeping in my own bed, so that's a win. I actually believe I could be a backpacker again.. That's HUGE.

Had I found this forum before buying the Kammoks, we might have gone a different way, but overall we're not unhappy with what we have. Not that we know any better.

Love the HG Incubators too.

20190803_192856.jpg

**SilvrSurfr** · 08-17-2019, 00:14

Welcome from the Jersey Shore. I also discovered hammock camping when I was 50. A friend asked me to come on a canoe trip and I told him my days of painfully sleeping on the ground in tents were over. He told me he had bought a camping hammock and my ears perked up! I've been hammocking ever since.

**sidneyhornblower** · 08-17-2019, 03:40

Welcome to Hammock Forums, thorlac. Plenty of folks around here in your age group. I'm 56 myself and also have no plans to ever sleep on the ground again. Thanks for posting a photo in your intro as well. Nice to be able to see other folks' gear.
Cheers.

**TrailSlug** · 08-17-2019, 12:06

Welcome to the forums. Keep an eye on the for sale forums as many of these nicer cottage vendor hammocks will come along because if you can tolerate your current hammock the comfort get infinitely better with these longer hammocks.

**ecologito** · 08-18-2019, 07:13

Welcome to the forum! Now you have bitten by "The Bug". HG makes some awesome gear, I have an incubator as well and I sleep super warm with it.

Happy Trails!

**tangara** · 08-21-2019, 05:54

Welcome to the forum. You probably did pretty well for your first "accidental" hammock choices. You've probably skipped a lot of the learning curve. The big one is going right to any kind of underquilt. That makes the hammocking life so much easier. I used a pad until I got around to making an underquilt and it was just a pain. What you've got should satisfy you for a while.

**thorlac** · 08-21-2019, 21:31

I am a pretty cold sleeper so I knew I wanted to be as cozy as possible and the underqulit seemed like the best way to go. I'm using my ancient old mummy bag in the hammock, and it works fine for car camping, but I wouldn't want to carry it backpacking (so heavy). I will probably invest in a top quilt for that down the road. Camping in general had become such a chore with everything I had to bring just to sleep on the ground. Such a simple thing but the hammock has made it fun again.

**MuadDale** · 08-22-2019, 06:31

50 must be the magic age for discovering backpacking with a hammock! I never thought I could backpack again because of my back and sleeping on a pad. Then I found hammocking is a thing and am getting geared up after 30 years to try it again.

edit: Weird forum thing, thorlac has two posts in this thread but the postcount is at 0. Odd.

**Tyroler Holzhacker** · 08-22-2019, 07:34

Welcome to the hammock club. I too didn't discover hammock camping until mid life...was a tenter in my youth, but stopped doing that in my thirties. Got into backpacking to lose weight off of my body, and then discovered UL backpacking and bikepacking. Also started out mostly car camping, so eased into UL gear over time (it is expensive). Now that you have gotten into hammocking, and appreciate the comfort, there are many roads you can take in the cottage vendor hammock world. As others have said, you can sometimes find great deals on the for sale section of the forums, if you are on often and get lucky on the bidding. Choice items go super fast if the price is right..just my observation. Many vendors to choose from and many have sales, especially as the seasons get colder. Presently, Dutch is having a 15% off sale on his chameleon hammock and accessories if you buy one by Saturday, August 24th! Welcome again to the forum. I envy your weather on the west coast...the low humidity is so nice. Here on the Maryland East Coast, the dew point rarely goes below 73 F, so the mugginess makes being outside miserable. I usually can't even deal with being outside here in Southern Maryland until we get the rare Canadian cold front bringing cool crisp air to our part of the country.

**cmoulder** · 08-22-2019, 08:18

Welcome to hammocks and to UL backpacking. I didn't get my first hammock until age 61 so I was a really late bloomer!

There are some good online guides these days for UL backpacking, but I find AdventureAlan (Alan Dixon, longtime UL advocate) to be well organized. He even has a review of the Kammock that might interest you.