So my wait was finally over when the postman came today. My first hammock had finally arrived! I promptly opened the box and hung the hammock in my living room. Unfortunately, my mount points were a book case and the fireplace mantle... neither of which I would trust with my weight.
So, off I went to my uncles partially wooded property. I walked for about 3 minutes before I found some trees I thought might work.
WBBB, WL Tadpole, Yeti UQ.
Took about 15 minutes to set up. It's a bit different doing it outside. I had to make an effort to keep everything off the ground because it was muddy as heck back there.
So, the WBBB:
First, good lord this thing is comfortable. Sooo much better than being on the ground.
I quickly discovered the "Calf Ridge" everyone talks about. Remembering Brandon's suggestion to move more towards the head end completely eliminated it though. I'm definitely going to have to practice the setup some more because my ridge line was guitar string tight and my head was a little higher than I think it should have been. For my first time I think I did well though. I had about 6" under the UQ before the ground when I was in the hammock.
Now for the Yeti (20*)...
Truth be told, this was where I was most skeptical. I just couldn't quite wrap my head around this device possibly being as warm as everyone said it was. Boy was I mistaken. It was a nice 38* and sunny when I did my setup and after getting the quilt situated, WOW. That thing is toasty. Lucky for me, I'm short so despite it being a torso length it covers from shoulder to halfway down my calf. It was interesting to move it to different places to see how it affected my overall warmth. With the quilt in the correct spot I was perfectly warm without any kind of top layer. I did know exactly where the quilt ended and can see how cold feet become an issue. I'm not much for camping in cold weather (below 40 during the night was my limit) but this might push me to start venturing out of my normal temperature range.
Overall, I couldn't be happier. The quality of the items is fantastic and they were definitely worth the wait.
I didn't get a chance to try out the SF due to a time constraint and all my lines were on the tadpole. Hopefully I'll get a chance to hang that in the near future though.
Also, MSR Groundhogs, the little pull rope sucks, they have now been removed.
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