I saw Dave Canterbury 's video on using a wool blanket to make a hammock in the margin of a video I was watching so I clicked on it lol. In the margin of that vid were several of Shugs hanging for beginners series , so I watched them all and was instantly hooked ( like a lot of us lol). After several years of " collecting " gear and knowledge, I've now started my own channel to maybe one day inspire or help someone else.
" The best pace is a suicide pace, and today looks like a good day to die." ~ Steve Prefontaine
Several years ago I foolishly hammocked on a warm summer night with only a sleeping bag and woke up miserable with an icy cold butt. I swore off hammocks. But then I got into backpacking. And as I'm sure many of you can empathize with, I have just never truly gotten a great night's rest on the ground. Then I learned about underquilts and randomly got hold of a starter netted hammock and the rest is history.
I did a test sleep on my back patio with a blanket slung up underneath it, borrowed a friend's real underquilt, and had amazingly restful nights hammock backpacking for the first time. I also have always enjoyed utility knots and DIY, so it was fun to put that to use. Just spliced my first whoopie sling for a zing-it ridgeline and my hands are pretty sore. I installed load rated anchors in my bedroom and I often sleep in my hammock indoors, which I think means I may be officially obsessed with hammocks.
I'd also like to note that the entire last paragraph has taken place in the span of the last three weeks, but I've been very busy either researching HammockForums and ogling Dutchware supplies, or backpacking in the mountains for much of that time
I was looking in a Dollar Store for trinkets to put in geocaches. I saw these woven nylon hammocks with wooden dowels at the ends. Looked like it might be fun for hanging out on a hike or kayak paddle. I first used them on a northern Vargas Island beach. Worked great.
Does it get any better than this?
FirstHammock.jpg
I was wearing sun screen. Looks more intense because of color filtration.
Then, on an overnight paddle at Waldo Lake, I thought to myself, “Self, you could probably sleep in this.” Note that the “hammock” was probably 24 inches wide and 7 ft long (or smaller) - but hey, it was a bridge (I didn’t know the term back then). It was okay, not great - a little cold on the bottom (no UQ, just a sleeping bag).
Time passes. I’m on kayak trip to Doe Island in the San Juans. Because another group had arrived first, we had to scramble for flat space. My shelter was more a bivi bag with a footprint not much larger than myself. As I set it up, I saw a woman rig up this nylon thing between two scrawny trees. It had a tarp like a tent, a bug net it’s full length, and was off the ground. She said it was a HH Expedition and asked if I’d like to sit in it … Time passes.
After picking up an HH Expedition when REI had a 20% off sale, during anohter kayak trip to Orcas Island I set it up at the campsite, with my solo tent a few feet away - just in case. The first night I tried the hammock (still no UQ but I had a ¾ length Therm-a-rest). It felt a little weird but I did sleep well. I figured I’d go back to the tent my second night. When it was time to turn in that second night, I walked towards my solo tent but when I reached it, my body decided to keep going and continued to the hammock. It did not want to spend another night on the ground. And as the years passed, I could probably count the number of times I’ve had to “ground-dwell” on one hand. Except I’m old and can’t remember.
Last edited by cougarmeat; 08-12-2020 at 18:48.
In order to see what few have seen, you must go where few have gone. And DO what few have done.
I forget how I found out about hammock camping a couple of years ago. But as I do in typical fashion, I started picking up a piece here and there and researched the hell out of it before ultimately deciding it was time to legitimately give it a try for the first time.
Unfortunately I don't have some great exciting story to share about my first hang experience. It was a matter of no other choice...
I was attending a Bushcraft event, I ran out of time the first night after arrival, check-in, and setting up my vendor booth to setup the hammock, so I quickly threw up the tent. While moving the tent the next morning, the polls snapped. So I had no choice, the hammock went up. Granted that was the plan anyway and the tent was the just in case backup. Well now I no longer had my backup plan. Luckily I had several great people who were experienced hammock campers to help me with hanging the hammock for the first time. Those 2 nights were some of the best sleep I have gotten whilst camping.
So since September of last year I've been hooked and have done a couple more nights in it since. Now I'm slowly tweaking my setup as my tiny budget allows me to do.
Last edited by SirDonB; 08-15-2020 at 18:11.
If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.
I went down to Havasupai at the bottom of the Grand Canyon and it was too hot to sleep in my tent. It was trapping all the heat. Slept in an ENO i brought with me and had the best camp sleep of my life. I've never looked back.
After recently re-igniting a long dormant love for hiking (I hiked and backpacked most of my teen and early college years) I was tubing on YouTube (as one does) through hiking and camping gear reviews and the algorithms eventually started presenting me unusual camping devices presenting me with such oddities as https://youtu.be/4DKLVzzeDR0 and https://youtu.be/cI2yU2t2DM0 ... eventually leading me to more conventional gathered end hammock and tarp videos. After discussing this with a friend, he mentioned that he had a cheap Amazon purchased hammock ($50 ETROL BAT 9') that I could borrow. The 9' hammock was a little tight (even for me as a 5'5", 130lb male) but it was still amazingly comfortable. I was delighted at the idea of camping again without making my aging spine angry at me. I've since researched a bunch and am currently running on some fairly budget but decent quality gear and am loving it.
TL;DR: YouTube introduced me to hammock camping.
... which is not /entirely/ true. I did hammock camp once when I was 19 (an unspecified number of decades ago) on a 24hr solo as part of a camp training program. Each person was given water, food, knife, flashlight, whistle, sleeping bag, several lengths of paracord and a blue poly tarp (9x12?). Most people set up a lean-to tarp shelter but I decided I wanted to be dry and more comfortable so I improvised what turns out to be a gathered end hammock by running the paracord through 3/4ths of the grommets along each end (and then wrapping the cord around the gathered bunch to not pull the grommets out), using the remaining length of the tarp as a rain flap (which came in handy when a storm rolled through that night). At the end of the 24hr solo, I was the only one who was dry and slept through the night. I will admit - the tarp did not breath at all so it was pretty stuffy but that's still better than being soaked.
Never a dull moment with hammocks its always been fun
Its a good day to be out in the woods no matter the weather.Mist One..
What got me started in hanging was the open feeling of a lean-to, but sore the next day from such a hard floor! I loved the ability to pack light, and to be able to be separate from others, but still together by just looking over the edge of a hammock. I have done several hammocking trips in various conditions and I can say that I am NEVER going back!
For me, I invested so much money in pads to try and get a good nights sleep (+6 hours) on the ground while also being Ultralight. I was also convinced that I needed my own private space that a tent provided. After a trip last summer in which I was stuck in my Duplex for 2 days with bad condensation, I knew I needed to find a better way. I love rainstorms if I can stay dry and saw YouTube videos of people comfortably waiting out storms from the comfort of their Hammocks and knew I had to give it a try. The first night I stayed in a Hammock, even with the learning curve, I got 10 hours of sleep and it was game over for ground camping.
I have now outfitted my family of 4 with Hammocks and this has got my wife to enjoy camping again.
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