What made you a "hanger"?

[Oneway]

I was checking out alcohol stove designs and ran across some of Shug’s videos which led me to his hammock videos. That got the thought process rolling. The next backpacking trip I took was with a few people I didn’t know well and one of them had a hammock setup. Out of the entire group only I and my son along with the hammock user stayed warm and dry. Needless to say I was intrigued and he was gracious enough to answer some of my questions. That was a few years ago. Now I can hardly stomach the thought of tent camping. For me, I don’t sleep real well anywhere, but at least I can have increased predictability using a hammock which is a huge benefit. The mother lode of all changes for me was the underquilt. Just awesome.

[Tpatter]

I was checking out alcohol stove designs and ran across some of Shug’s videos which led me to his hammock videos. That got the thought process rolling. The next backpacking trip I took was with a few people I didn’t know well and one of them had a hammock setup. Out of the entire group only I and my son along with the hammock user stayed warm and dry. Needless to say I was intrigued and he was gracious enough to answer some of my questions. That was a few years ago. Now I can hardly stomach the thought of tent camping. For me, I don’t sleep real well anywhere, but at least I can have increased predictability using a hammock which is a huge benefit. The mother lode of all changes for me was the underquilt. Just awesome.

Welcome!

An UQ is just magical. The first time I took my wife hammock camping and she got in her hammock when the sun fell and it started to get a bit chilly, she immediately said Mmmm this is amazing - it feels like I have a heater on under me.

[taraH]

I got into hanging when I pbserved many friends hanging while we were studying in Tanzania, East Africa and I was jealous of laying a blanket on the thorny grass as they got to take advantage of the breeze! And at college other friends would hammock and boast about their CBS, to which I would ask what that was, and they would explain, "well a cold butt silly!"

[karbo]

Ground hard, ground cold, ground wet when rain. Hammock soft, hammock warm, hammock dry when rain. Me like.......TARZAN

[luvmehat]

Backpacking around Arizona you begin to notice the ground is hard as...well you know. My bones started to ache, and I began to spend less time in the woods. Devistating to my psyche.
I would just sit, staring and drooling out the window (the one facing the mountain) pining for the trees. Longing for the days of trotting thru the meadows and sun beams bouncing off my face. So, I bought a hammock and went frolicking around the hills of Tucson.
Long story short I love my hammock.

Sent from my SM-N981U using Tapatalk

[LowTech]

Backpacking around Arizona you begin to notice the ground is hard as...well you know. My bones started to ache, and I began to spend less time in the woods. Devistating to my psyche.
I would just sit, staring and drooling out the window (the one facing the mountain) pining for the trees. Longing for the days of trotting thru the meadows and sun beams bouncing off my face. So, I bought a hammock and went frolicking around the hills of Tucson.
Long story short I love my hammock.

Sent from my SM-N981U using Tapatalk

Another desert hanger. We just came back down from Mt Lemmon doing an overnight.
Now we're off to kayak camp part of the Verde river.

[dakota2117]

My sophomore year of college is ending and I only have $120 to live between semesters (3 or so months).

Fortunately, my graduating friend needed space to move, so he gave me his hammock right before the semester ended. My other friend had a spare room for me to stay in. I just needed a bed. Or did I? I totally forgot I had the hammock in my dorm closet. I set up the hammock in my new place and I lived the rest of the summer exclusively eating rice n beans and sleeping in my hammock. I ended up getting back to college with ~$15 lmao.

After this, every time I was between semesters I slept in a hammock (mostly money reasons). Then during my final semester, the time came that my hammock broke (it was used before me). I moved into my new place and borrowed a buddies mattress. At first it was fine, but about 1 month in, I was laying there, staring at my ceiling trying to sleep. All of a sudden, out of the blue, I just thought "****, I wish I had my hammock." This was a sign. So I did some research, found the hammockforums, bought my 11' dutchware with whoopies, carabiners, etc... , screwed eye hooks into the studs of my walls, and set up. I've been sleeping in it ever since. It's only been a month and a half, but I know from sleeping on them for several months on end previously, that I can do this for a very long time.

A lot of people I know think this is odd, and I guess it is, but I just tell them at least I'm honest with myself. Out of the blue, I felt I needed the hammock, so I listened to myself. I feel I was right.
It's also very nice to just have. I have already 'benchmarked' it with a weekend out camping in the Adirondacks. It was nice.

[mistone]

Watched a shug video years ago and was hooked on hammocks

[Africanintexas]

Always hated tents. Sleeping in them, sweating in them and most especially taking them down! Hammocks just answer all the tent issues I had. Comfort, coolness and so easy to put up and take down!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Ko the Crow]

just copying from my intro post:

How did I end up in a hammock?
part 1: "hammock = bad for your back"
When I was 16 my group had a summer camp where we either made simple individual shelters for the week or slept in hammocks. I figured hammocks would be bad for one's back (banana shape and all) so I opted for a shelter. The guy I made a shelter with was "not very good" at it so he got a shelter after 3 hours and I ultimately had to put my canvas/tarp next to someone's else's tarp, fold it back to the ground and sleep under that.
I was laying on top of a tree root, and as soon as it started to rain there was a big pool of water 5cm from my face. Needless to say I did not sleep at all, my back hurt a lot and my canvas was wasted.

Part 2: good to be proven wrong
Luckily there was a shop at this camp site, I went there, bought the cheapest hammock I could find and after some trouble I hung this between 2 trees. Guess what, I slept great for the rest of the week.
The next summers I used this hammock with very good results, but later on I became a leader of the girl cub scouts and there I could not use it.

However, during my study I lived in Sofia (BG) for half a year and when I entered my apartment for the first time I immediately saw 2 big hooks, across the room from eachother. Landlord used to have a hammock there.. So I asked the first friend who visited me to bring my hammock along.