First night w/ UQ and Blackbird, cold, uncomfortable knees?

I had a leadership retreat this weekend at a beautiful facility on the river. No way I was sleeping in doors! I just got my 20F Incubator (long!) in a few days before, so it was perfect timing.

I didn't sleep well though. I had to setup everything in the dark, but took my time, readjusting as needed. It was 20F w/ a strong wind (perpendicular to my ridgeline), and I was about 15 feet from the river. I pitched my Superfly low to the ground, but still had about 6" in the center that was off the ground.

I'm just using a 20F Northface Cat's Meow (Polarguard) as a top quilt until I can swing a Burrow.

So, my feet and my upper body were fantastically warm, but by knees and upper calf were slightly cold, but also uncomfortable. For some reason, the hammock material seemed extra bunched up, so I had a pressure point there. I moved and wiggled around a lot, but never was able to fully alleviate it. I haven't noticed that before, but I've only have the Blackbird for a month or so.

I took my cook kit with me to boil some water for a hot water bottle, but it was so cold my fuel canister was freezing. I'll be taking my alcohol stove next time it's below freezing!

Any thoughts as to why my knees were cold? Around 3 am, I got some shock cord out and added a line around the ridgeline to the attachment loops on the quilt, but didn't seem to notice that making a difference. Was the cold spot related to the hammock bunching up?

I was worried the quilt would move around to much, but it stayed in place perfectly (and I loved how the Blackbird shelf still worked with the quilt on!)

It was a fun experience, just a little bummed I can't post that I "slept like a baby". WAY better than using pads though! Let me know if I'm forgetting some info!

I'm interested in the bunching up issue. My ENO dn does this too and it isn't very fun. Maybe laying more on a diagonal would stretch the material out.

I have found in the WBBB that with my head right over near the zipper and feet in the box is the best. The ridge under your legs would have moved the UQ away from the hammock so that wouldnt have help.

Do you have a partial length quilt and use a foot pad?
If so, perhaps there was a gap between where the quilt ended and the foot pad began. That would be near the knees. This has happened to me before.

Also, with my Blackbird it's important to make sure that the quilt suspension line runs over the top of the footbox.

Another thing generally true with most hammocks, but particularly with the Blackbird, is that the foot end needs to be hung several inches higher than the head end. I know this is hard to discern in the dark.

As mentioned, hanging the head end lower is a big help. I sturggled with this for several weeks before getting it right. Now it seems that I get a perfect hang every time out, so it's just a matter of trial and error and a little practice.

Here's a link to the thread I started back then and a lot of good responses:

http://www.hammockforums.net/forum/s...409#post713409

Could it have been that you had simply reached the max of its 20 degree rating? Such warmth ratings are guess-timations and not always exact in my experience.

When I took my gear to 20F recently, I also had some issues at the beginning. I also had to set up in the dark with only my headlight and didn't realize that I mixed up head/foot sides on the UQ. In the middle of the night I switched head/foot sides and was fine.

The incubator has a specific cut from the legs downwards - if you sleep the wrong way round the UQ will be loose at the legs and too tight around the shoulders.

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Originally Posted by Womble

When I took my gear to 20F recently, I also had some issues at the beginning. I also had to set up in the dark with only my headlight and didn't realize that I mixed up head/foot sides on the UQ. In the middle of the night I switched head/foot sides and was fine.

The incubator has a specific cut from the legs downwards - if you sleep the wrong way round the UQ will be loose at the legs and too tight around the shoulders.

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Thanks for the thought, I double checked that before I climbed in, making sure the label was by my head.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mort

Could it have been that you had simply reached the max of its 20 degree rating? Such warmth ratings are guess-timations and not always exact in my experience.

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Perhaps, but seems odd that it would just be my knees that were cold, when I was quite warm everywhere else? My feet in the past have been the FIRST thing to go cold.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by markr6

As mentioned, hanging the head end lower is a big help. I sturggled with this for several weeks before getting it right. Now it seems that I get a perfect hang every time out, so it's just a matter of trial and error and a little practice.

Here's a link to the thread I started back then and a lot of good responses:

http://www.hammockforums.net/forum/s...409#post713409

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Thanks for the link. I'll try this for sure. I kept wiggling my body around in the hammock, which helped, but there still seemed to be pressure on my knees!

I'll experiment with the foot end higher. I remember reading about this now.