Hello folks!
I started occasionally hanging about 9 years ago, when I bought my first leisure hammock chair from a street vendor on a vacation in Mexico. I started taking it with me on camping trips as as nice place to sit and read and just relax and take in the scenery. After going to a campground with a massive issue with horse flies, and red ants which wanted to crawl down the straps to take a bite of me I decided to look around for something with a bug net. Well, as luck would have it at the time Woot! (if any of you remember that website) had a Yukon Outfitters Mosquito Hammock XL on sale for $30!
Well, Life happened... and so I didn't get to use it much. Last year I started getting back out there and doing more camping, and became interested in trying this out again. Last weekend, I had an opportunity to go on a solo trip. Originally I was thinking I would just sleep in the SUV on a pad, but then I remembered my hammock and I got super excited - so I tried it out! The first night I didn't sleep well, I quickly learned that even in warm weather, you get a bit chilly at night with even the slightest breeze and I didn't quite have the angle on the hang just right, so after trying and failing to make adjustments in the dark I decided to abandon that for the car around 3AM -- which I found out was even less comfortable than a poorly hung hammock. The second night I got out my phone and used a level app to adjust the angle closer to 30 degrees, and to mitigate the chills used a sleeping bag as an underquilt inside the bag, put on my puffy vest, and use woobie blanket as a top cover. It was awesome! For the first time while out camping as an adult, I almost slept through the entire night without waking, and I slept much better than on the ground.
So here I am learning as much as I can to make the next trip even better. I am super excited to join the community! I've already discovered I definitely need an UQ (or maybe a supreme hammock with an integrated one... not really sure which way to go on this yet) and a lighter tarp than the heavy-duty hardware store tarp. I also should look at a new hammock, because the Yukon Outfitters Mosquito Hammock XL is just too short for me to get a great hang -- but Shug says it's a journey, so I am going to take my time and enjoy it.
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