I prefer the smallest trees I can get away with...usually about the size of my leg.
I prefer the smallest trees I can get away with...usually about the size of my leg.
Dave
"Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is the richness of self."~~~May Sarton
This guy gives a pretty basic run down
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] Be The light in Someone's Darkness - Change the World one Act of Compassion, One Act of Kindness at a Time - We are All Living on Borrowed Time
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfJ...XMJUMaraHGfzhA
I am like OneClick, I usually am absorbed with all kind of trifling considerations, like how's the view, if I will get a chance to be rocked by the wind with those trees I choose, etc. and 90% of the time entirely forget about checking dead branches overhead. Once me and my girlfriend were hanging off the same tree (in separate hammocks) and it cracked without notice in the middle of the night! We both fell like 2 feet. Thank god, my gf had her big pack under her hammock, something more like a suitcase full of cloths, so she ended up on it and that prevented us from hitting the ground and the tree from breaking entirely on us.
I just had to reset both hammocks in the middle of the night after a good fright of what could have happened, so am not a good example, but gained experience that time... The tree I had picked was not too large and already bending in our direction naturally, so the weight of both hammocks must have been tremendous for it. Probably if we would have hanged on the opposite side it was leaning to, it would have been fine.
Last edited by Rouskof; 09-03-2021 at 11:35.
As you get old, white whiskers and hair - if there is any hair - and have gathered a lifetime of experiences, that old joke about the guy in a flood praying for divine help and turning down the canoe and powerboat and helicopter can seem more real than fantasy as far as “help” showing up is concerned. After I set my hammock up with the usual size trees, the fellow, drunk, detectable from gait and smell, wandered over and said, “Just this afternoon a big branch fell from those trees; Just Say’n.” I thanked him and as he staggered back to his site, I was prepared to ignore his words. But then I thought of the canoe, and powerboat, and helicopter and decided to use two other trees. Fortunately, my adventure partner is not as ground adverse as I am. So I put up a tent for her and that gave me an extra set of daisy chain straps. They were necessary because those alternate trees were HUGE. No other branches came down while we were there. But that didn’t matter. We didn’t ignore “local” advice.
Looking up is now as natural as wearing a bike helmet or seatbelt - it feels funny if not done. In the case above, we arrived as it was getting dark and as mentioned in my initial posts, those PNW tree branches start way up there; and I didn’t see anything obvious. This was car camping at a site between Salem and Bend - big forest stuff. When I was (kayak) camping at Pirate’s Cove in Canada, the trees were smaller. I could clearly see a tangled good size branch, just waiting for the right breeze to bring it down. So that was avoided.
In short, IF you’ve taken reasonable precautions, it seems best to murmur, “Not today, not that way.”, or quote the litany of Fear from Dune, and go on living. Sort of like that line at the bottom of inspirational posters, “Ship are safe in the harbor, but that’s not why they are built.”
Litany of Fear: Dune
"I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."
Last edited by cougarmeat; 09-03-2021 at 16:35.
In order to see what few have seen, you must go where few have gone. And DO what few have done.
Thanks for the description of your friendly neighbour
On the one hand, I'm tempted to think if some branches came down recently, then you would probably be safe because the weak ones were gone. But I'm not knowledgeable on this subject.
This whole thread makes me wonder if a packable Tensa4 tensahedron stand should be standard equipment!
Rouskof - Teachers (and angels) come in all shapes and sizes. And degrees of sobriety. One just has to listen.
mmveets - I definitely thought of that. After all, the branch has already come down. But I weighed that logic against probability, even a very slight probability and the words of my old archery teacher came to mind. I was going to leave our arrows in the car the night before a tournament.. I brought the bows into the motel room because we didn’t want to subject the wood (recurve bow, FETA) to wide temperature variances but the aluminum arrows wouldn’t care so much. Merlin asked, “How much trouble would it be if we went out the car in the morning and the arrow were gone vs how much touble would it be to bring them into the room?"
I thought, “The wind has already brought a loose branch down. So the probability of another falling is pretty small. But how much trouble would it be to move the hammock to that other set of trees vs the problems that would incur if another branch dropped from 35 ft (or more).
A Tensa4 is definitely in my future.
Last edited by cougarmeat; 09-04-2021 at 11:44.
In order to see what few have seen, you must go where few have gone. And DO what few have done.
Guys, I do not need to buy a ticket for a show, I just have to come on your thread in the morning, haha
Last edited by Rouskof; 09-04-2021 at 06:47.
Speaking of arrows...
Some branches fall, heavy end first like an arrow.
I’ve seen them on my walks through the woods
Impaled into to forest floor—stuck into soft dirt remaining upright as if shot from a bow
>Impaled into to forest floor—stuck into soft dirt remaining upright as if shot from a bow
That’s why my tarps are ripstop, not polyester.Maybe I should consider Kevlar?
(accuracy note - I understand Kevlar deteriorates rapidly - or more rapid than other materials - in sunlight. My kevlar guylines for antenna masts are in a nylon or polyester sleeve that acts as a sun shield. So it would have to be a DL tarp with Kevlar on the bottom.
https://tinyurl.com/tnp7ksh8
Getting back to sites, there are some challenges with hammocks. Where the ground people can pitch their shelter in the open and have a great view of the sky, The hammock dweller might find herself under a canopy of tree branches. Also, when the sun comes out after a rain, those tents in the open start drying out while a person sheltered in the trees might have to deal the drip, drip, drip of rain water off the branches for another hour.
But if you are lucky to have trees far enough apart - and still be able to reach high enough for your suspension (further apart the trees, the higher the suspension for same hang angle) - or have something like a Ten$a4 stand, those issues could be minimal.
Overhead branches are just one concern. In my outings, wind exposure has played a larger part in the “not there” decisions.
Rouskof - Un billet pour la France serait plus divertissant qu'un billet pour ce forum. Bienvenue à bord.
Last edited by cougarmeat; 09-04-2021 at 12:29.
In order to see what few have seen, you must go where few have gone. And DO what few have done.
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