Thanks cougar....good advice. I think I will blow $55 on the double layer to get a firmer sleep and have the thing be a tank. I'll try my pads in there without hoping for too much.
Thanks cougar....good advice. I think I will blow $55 on the double layer to get a firmer sleep and have the thing be a tank. I'll try my pads in there without hoping for too much.
As someone entering the hammock fray, these posts are instructive. As a canoe camper, I'm leaning towards double layer for the pad option and extra layer of bug protection.
A second hammock layer will provide an extra barrier - but only if it is a third fabric layer, with your clothes being the first layer. If your bare skin is in contact with the hammock, mosquitoes can and will get through to you if they're hungry enough. Better hang an UQP under your hammock for best protection. Or use a zippered net sock.
my first hammock was double layered so i could use a pad, because wow, sticker shock.
i have a nice collection of quilts now, and a couple more hammocks, but for hard winter or heavy bugs, i still get out that first hammock even though it is twice as heavy.
I’ve never used a pad, always an UQ. But I’d buy another double layer DH Sparrow with no reservations if I needed.
My nightly hang for the past two years is a Dutchware extra wide, single layer. I don’t mind the stretch but the Sparrow is a better sleep for me. I save it for trips, no need for the bugnet indoors.
I'm leaning toward the double layer xlc. Having not sampled many hammocks, it's hard for me to understand the stretch or other considerations of a single vs double (besides the obvious weight difference). Anyway, as a canoer in bug country, it feels like the lightweight double layer xlc is a good compromise for me....
The whole idea of the double layer is to trap your sleeping mat to make sure it doesn’t move around as much.
I used a sleeping mat for a while with my WBBB XLC and then converted to the Wookie UQ.
Worked fine with the mat but the UQ is so much better.
I’m told the double layer also works better to stop mosquitos getting you through the fabric, but I’ve never noticed that.
I've also never had a mosquito bite thru the hammock material, not even Hexon 1.0 single layer.
I'd share my secret but I don't know what it is.
Five Basic Principles of Going Lighter (not me... the great Cam Honan of OZ)
“If everybody is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking.” ~ Gen. George S Patton
tom-o, I think people seldom have an actual single layer, even with a single layer hammock. Because you also have a pad, or an UQ, or an underquilt protector. I could imagine that a person’s arms might avoid the extra protection of the UQ or UQP, but, in my case, I wear a long sleeve PJ top because I don’t like the feel of nylon against my skin. So it’s never just a single layer between me and the skeeter. In truth, I am seldom in a “bug” environment, but if I were, I’d be inspired to use a full external net. Because it’s not only the bite - it’s also the sound next to my ear - that I want to avoid.
I’ve posted before that I make a lot of use out of my minimalist HUG net. But again, that’s because I’m in a minimalist bug environment. It just takes one obnoxious skeeter to ruin a night’s sleep - so I always have something - just in case (You pack your fears, etc.).
if you know you will have occasion to go-to-ground, then you’ll have a pad and a DL wrangles the pad better than having it in the hammock bed. If I were use the DL hammock as a ground bivi, I’d take the pad out of the sleeve and put it between the hammock bottom and the ground sheet. That way, it will protect the hammock bottom too.
In order to see what few have seen, you must go where few have gone. And DO what few have done.
I am planning on camping in serious mosquito and blackfly country, so it seems like the more layers the better! Good point about the pad/shirt/underquilt, etc. as additional layers. I have spent a total of three nights in hammocks, not in mosquito season. With the xlc I was shocked at how close the bug net was from my ear, and was wondering about summer use and if I'd be protected from bugs only to have the steady drone of mosquitos fighting to get in keeping me awake....Given the number of hammock campers I see in the BWCA, it must not be too much of an issue.
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