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Personally I normally use my Old Man Winter tarp so I have doors most of the time.
We as leaders setup as a patrol, so we are normally away from the boys and possibly have a roped off site.
Dunno how it'll be when we try our first backpack trip this spring
My personal snapping point was when I was putting 4 people and a dog in my Subaru AND pulling a loaded trailer. Tents, cots, dutch ovens, propane tanks, coolers. It was madness! We still do those kinds of trips, but since my hammock epiphany, I've dialed it way back. I'm still working on getting the wife into a hammock, but she's a much harder sell. Hopefully by next summer we'll both be hanging and can ditch the tent and cots completely.Quote:
Originally Posted by bdaabat
As for my next hammock, I just picked up two Grand Trunk Ultralights for $12 each at Green Life Outfitters, so I'm going to rig one up and see how I like it. At that price, it was a total impulse buy. The fabric for a DIY one would cost me more than that!
Since I doubt I'll be camping again until January, I've got a bit of time to mess around with it before I take it out on a trip. My goal is to change the suspension over whoopies, and a ridge line, and find a lighter silnylon tarp. I might find a bug net too depending on how motivated I am over the winter.
My goal is to spend around $150-175 and for the whole rig and to be at or less than 3lbs. The Safari clocks in at over 5lbs and takes up way too much pack space for my liking. It's a great hammock, but it's just not for backpacking. I'm debating selling it to fund the new one(s), but it does make a good car camper...plus I'd need another 40+ posts to sell it on here!
The GTUL's arrive Friday, so I'm going to do a quick basement hang w/ some ratchet straps as suspension and see how it feels. Hopefully it's what I'm looking for.
-Dave
Wow, I remember watching my scout leader struggle, not with a hammock but a tent in the same way when I was younger.
For the group, I am asking cause I am new too, I see ENO makes an underbelly Gear Sling. Would this be somewhat useful to keep your stuff off the ground?, especially if you are using a hex tarp or even something that runs lower to the ground. I don't want to call them gimmicky since I have never used one, but I would expect that once you have your hammock set up, in reality there is no room underneath. Is it just easier to use a ridge line and hang the basics and just garbage bag your back pack and hang it from a tree hugger line? I don't want to hijack this experience, but I think I am. sorry
Bdaabat, good job on troop safety!!! Well done!
Glad you made it through...
I'd say it depends on the type of tarp you have at the size. I use a 12' x 10' BlackCat with DIY grizbeaks and I run a loose ridgeline underneath the tarp to hang light gear from (mostly the stuffsacks and toilet kit). I find that I can tuck my pack up underneath my head or feet (depending on the prevailing wind) and haven't had a problem getting things wet. If the weather's looking bad, I'd pack the bag up with all of the loose gear and put on the rain cover. In dry or slightly moist weather, you can get away with hanging it from a tree and again using the raincover.Quote:
Originally Posted by cdnrogue
Finally, it's nice to have a small plastic footmat to keep your feet/socks clean of dirt/twigs/pine needles before either going to bed or putting your shoes on. A good trick is to duct tape one corner and peg it to the ground so it doesn't blow away. You'll have a great chance to check out hammock rigs next month.
Glad to hear you survived the storms. Where were you camping?
I was hunting just a little south of the Mason-Dixon in Baltimore Co. and I'm sitting there in my stand when I start to hear drops on the leaves. I thought to myself, "I don't remember hearing about rain tonight, maybe its the wind blowing drops around from this morning". NOPE! All of a sudden the lightning and thunder starts and it's pouring down rain, and I decided that a metal stand in a tree was not the best place to be, and hunting was done for the evening. My Uncle got a deer before the storm started, so I had to help him drag it out and we both got drenched, and I caught a cold. Sounds like you fared better.
Dave: I hear you with all the junk that goes along camping. I'm at the point of needing to purchase a truck just to haul the troop trailer and carry all of my gear. The troop has something like 70 boys. We generally pack in a lot of materiel for outings...8 - 10 propane tanks, two garages to provide cover for cooking, several large chuck boxes, bins for food, camp stoves, and, my new favorite, a 24" Discada . That Discada can cook a WHOLE bunch of food very quickly. We eat well. :D
For Webelos-O-Ree, our troop was responsible for one of the cooking demonstration stations. So, in addition to the usual cobblers that we used for demonstrations of cast iron cooking, we set up a whole hog over the fire pit. It's great marketing for incoming Cubs (and their parents!). Also did chili, mac n cheese (in box ovens), chicken and dumplings in a camp stove on a tripod, trash can turkey, tres leches cake, and deep fried s'mores. The deep fried s'mores and the chicken and dumplings won the camp Cast Iron Chef competition. :lol:
So, yeah, I'm gonna be a car/truck camper for the next several years.
Stormstaff: I've got a Kelty 12*12 at the moment. I need to figure out how to fold it up so that there are doors... both for the colder weather camping and to prevent scaring young eyes. :eek:
cpc1027: We were at Broad Creek Scout Reservation in Harford County for the big Webelos-O-Ree. BTW: Really glad to hear you made it down safely! That's got to be a pretty scary place to be when the weather rolls in.
Bruce
Shawnee District Cuboree Nov 1-3.Quote:
Originally Posted by bdaabat
I'll let them know you're coming. ;)
Bruce,
The first time I used my HH Expedition classic on a scout campout, we had a rain storm and I found out just how exact you need to stretch that little tarp it comes with. I woke to find a stream of water under my back. Yuk.
Now I have a large Hennessy tarp that well covers the area of the hammock. The tarp has its own ridge line, so I can tension it separately from the hammock. I use a 3 by 3 piece of Tyvek staked to the ground under the hammock in case I need to answer the call of nature in the night and I need to fumble with my boots, I will not get my bare feet dirty.
As for the privacy issue (which is a concern in the age of youth protection), I have been able to do this: If there is a latrine at the camp, I change for bed there just before I get into bed. I wear a poly T-shirt and gym shorts to bed, and I hang my pants on the ridge line. In the morning, I can reach the pants and put them on if necessary, or just walk back to the latrine and change for the day. I always teach my scouts to wear a separate set of clothes to bed. I am not concerned about boys seeing me in gym shorts and a t-shirt. It is good enough to jog in in the park. I can also pull the tarp down if needed to conceal my body, as others have stated.
You should also sleep away from the scouts. The adults should have their own corner of the camp site. Your patrol leaders should be able to handle stuff in their patrol site. I actually hang a bit outside the camp site, since I need the trees close together, and I am not bound by needing a flat clear place for a tent. I also snore (I use a CPAP at home) and my ASM strongly requests that I be out of earshot.
Keep up the good work with the troop. I hear one day it will bring dividends we can not yet imagine.
Since I'm still fairly new to this, here's a couple of thoughts.
One, maybe someone on here can explain or there's an illustration on here showing how to hang/fold your tarp to make "doors"
Two, take a 24" x 24" piece of cloth and hang it on a string and start folding it until you find "doors" then transfer to your tarp
Just a thought. Don't know if it'll work or not, hehe
Your thinking like a Scout. I still tend to do that myself when I'm not Camping with the Scouts. As far as a ground cloth I used the foot for my bivy 3x7 sheet of Tyvek. Small critters love to run across the stuff in the middle of the night.Quote:
Originally Posted by bdaabat
Lose the pillow. I packed an inflatable one for my hike and it never came out of the bag. I wound up using my jacket as a pillow. On your next scout trip, leave the extras in the car then determine what you are not using during the trip and shuffle that to the car as well.
Is the Kelty 12 x 12 an asym, catcut or rectangular tarp. Asym - not sure you can make doors, the more experience hangers here will know better than I. Catcut - consider making doors from tyvek. Rectangular you should be able to fold the corners in.
Check this thread http://www.hammockforums.net/forum/s...ad.php?t=52588