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  1. #61
    New Member Habitat's Avatar
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    Going from a pad to an underquilt was godsend! Slept through a severe storm in Devils Lake, WI with my hammock gear 0* incubator and woke up sweating at one point in the mid 40's...unbelievable...i also have a bad back and sleeping in the hammock has been great!

  2. #62
    Senior Member BillyBob58's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Oms View Post
    I too started with thicker and thicker pads until discovering hammocks. The first thing I liked about the change was that it's solo . No more sharing tents with others who didn't have their own tent. Smelly breath, socks and shoes . Midnight runs that wake the other person or me up.
    As for upgrades from the start of hanging to now I'd have to say a larger tarp. Started out with a stock Hennessy. It's not as much for rain coverage, but more for wind. It has the ability to catch more wind in warm weather and block more in cold. Of course a great place to cook during a rain storm is really nice too. With the creation of cuben it can be light as well .
    The absolute best thing is the people I have met through the years. What a great bunch of folks on this forum
    Now there you go, the snores and stink are from small distance to far distance away, but definitely not confined with me in a small nylon space! That is a big one!

    I started out cold turkey for a week long trip ( never even one hour in a hammock prior to that= DUMB!) with early Sept lows of 22F in an HH Super Shelter, so I can't say getting off of pads was the next big improvement. But since I had to abandon the hammock for a pad on the ground after waking up shivering that first night, I guess just learning how to get in a sleeping bag in a hammock or to use them as a quilt or finally using actual TQs or how the SS actually worked, these were big ones.

    And the concept of uncompressed insulation under me. IOW, the idea that, assuming a warm enough bag/TQ for conditions, I might actually be better off with my fleece jacket under my hammock in the HHSS than wearing it. Or fluffing puffy jackets/vests on top of me inside a Pea Pod rather than wearing them. IOW again, both previous paragraphs = just learning all the many tricks to maximizing warmth inside a hammock has led to big improvements in comfort! Nothing hard, but you do need to know what is different.

    What every one has already said about not needing a flat, root and puddle free spot, instead always being high and dry off the wet ground is a big one. Especially after an exhausting all day hike and it is getting dark, and looking for 2 usable trees vs flat, dry root/rock free ground. I did not realize the advantages of this when I ordered my HH, but after the 2nd trip where 2 hammock hangers were with 2 others in one tent, this benefit - as well as having a hammock to sit and lounge in vs a rock or log or ground- became obvious to all concerned. My biggest problem usually was finding enough good trees for the hammock hangers but at the same camp that is acceptable to the tenters who were with us.

    Learning how to get a tight, quiet tarp pitch and/or the pros of a larger tarp- including friends gathering under that big tarp- though I will sometimes still choose the smaller tarp. On that 1st trip, I had no idea how to minimize the loose, floopy, noisy tarp that happened after the HH sagged and the tarp sagged with it. So I spent one night under the most unbearable noise. Kept me awake for a while, but then didn't matter after I finally passed out and slept straight through to bright daylight and the noise of my fellow hikers who were already up and packed an wanted to get out of that cold, windy place, now! But for maybe an hour or so, that noise was miserable. If I thought that was going to be a constant, I'd almost choose a tent!

    So which of those is the biggest improvement discovered after trying a hammock for increased comfort? Hmmmmmmm. Very hard to say, but maybe I still vote with Oms on all of his choices, but especially the solo sleep part. On my 2nd night of hammocking after the abandoned hammock the 1st night, when I was still very undecided about the entire hammock concept, I could hear my friends snoring in the distance. And I knew that I was VERY glad not to be just a few inches away from them.
    Last edited by BillyBob58; 09-20-2012 at 11:08.

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