When you THINK to see a pic of someone hanging a hammock...

[TominMN]

I'm guessing that the guy in the first post was simply shaking the debris out before packing up.

That young marten has obviously already been in a couple of scuffles, judging by the notches in that ear.

[Sean McC]

I do that to my tent to shake all the junk out of it.

But yeah. I see so many poorly hung hammocks it kills me. Too tight or too small of a space seem to be the most common. And of course almost no one has an UQ.

Hammocks do have the ‘learning curve’ which is a bit steeper than for a tent. And even then I see people do things with a tent that are a bad idea and those are relatively simple.

[cougarmeat]

cmoulder, on that food storage issue - remember, the hammocks I saw were around 6 feet off the ground. They were essentially using an ENO as a large "gear" hammock. On Jones Island, there were only deer - that would come right to your picnic table if you walked away - and raccoons. And somehow, the park service has made the raccoons "disappear".

My concern with "hanging" is I have twice seen hanging nylon food bags ripped open by birds (Raven, maybe owl). The Raven attack was on James Island - though many more camp islands have "Bandit" warnings now (bandit = raccoon and raven). The owl was a guess for the fate of a bag torn open at night (ravens operate in broad daylight), in Yellowstone, just before spring snowmelt.

I'll probably take advantage of REI's next sale and pick up an Ursa sack. It won't be a substitute for the bear barrel, but at times when it is more convenient to make a low hang - like stringing a line between two trees and hanging off that line - I'd hope the Ursa bag (without the aluminum sleeve insert) could thwart a raven pecking.

[Sean McC]

Totally off topic ——

Ravens are super cool. They mate for life and have a life span of up to 40yrs. They are smart birds. My partner buys beef fat from the local butcher to feed to the ravens that live by my home.

Though my router is called ‘ravendell’ because well, we are kind of nerds and well, ravens.

[cmoulder]

cmoulder, on that food storage issue - remember, the hammocks I saw were around 6 feet off the ground. They were essentially using an ENO as a large "gear" hammock. On Jones Island, there were only deer - that would come right to your picnic table if you walked away - and raccoons. And somehow, the park service has made the raccoons "disappear".

My concern with "hanging" is I have twice seen hanging nylon food bags ripped open by birds (Raven, maybe owl). The Raven attack was on James Island - though many more camp islands have "Bandit" warnings now (bandit = raccoon and raven). The owl was a guess for the fate of a bag torn open at night (ravens operate in broad daylight), in Yellowstone, just before spring snowmelt.

I'll probably take advantage of REI's next sale and pick up an Ursa sack. It won't be a substitute for the bear barrel, but at times when it is more convenient to make a low hang - like stringing a line between two trees and hanging off that line - I'd hope the Ursa bag (without the aluminum sleeve insert) could thwart a raven pecking.

Yes, there are so many other animals besides bears to worry about. A friend of mine once had a chipmunk drill a hole in her brand new Dana Designs pack, with a sense of smell so keen that it hit exactly the right spot to take a bag of snacks. And it did so within 10 minutes of our arrival at one of the campsites on Colden pond in the Adirondacks. Also, in Canada (Algonquin) we had flying squirrels easily reach a very well hung food bag that we were sure no creature could molest.