Thought you all might be amused by a report about my just-completed Smoky Mountains AT trip. Includes some “look how smart I am” as well as “what an idiot I am” moments.
I was afraid I might have to sleep on the platforms in the shelters, so I planned to get through the smokies in 3 nights. The backcountry reservations guy did try to discourage me from hammocking, saying if others saw me doing it, they would want to also!!! He couldn’t find a regulation forbidding it, so…. Mostly, they just really seem to want you to be inside the shelters.
Starting at Fontana Dam, I spent my first night at Spence Field, second night at Double Springs, third night at Pecks Corner, fourth night just out of the park at Standing Bear Hostel, and fifth night at Max Patch road, farther to the north of the Park.
I brought a new Neoair to act as my only bottom insulation – either in my ultralight travel hammock if able to use it, or on the shelter platform – thinking I’d come up with a flexible and light solution to deal with forced ground sleeping. Fortunately, I was able to hang my hammock in each of the shelters. A typical hang was between a front eating area post and the main roof support beam, with the head end tight to the post. With a mostly full shelter at Double Springs no one seemed to mind – in fact, I think it helped to get me out of the platform hoard. I just waited to set up after everyone was done eating. On a night alone at Pecks I was able to hang from the roof joists – really, a perfect situation – as long as you have enough line.
The neoair was pretty comfortable. Just had the standard “how do I pivot my butt on this surface to get into place” problem. Worked it out more or less the same as on a piece of foam. My neoair is a size small, and fit fine. It is narrow enough so that it didn’t deform too much because of the hammock pinch, and with night temps above 50 it was all I needed. Would love thoughts on the butt-pivot sticky surface question… Also, I do wonder what would happen if I combined my neoair with my JRB torso length UQ for winter use – would they work well together? I am really impressed with the weight and feel of the neoair… but would normally use just an UQ except maybe in extreme conditions.
The funniest night was the last – It was almost as if I’d forgotten how to use my hammock since I’d been in the shelters for a while. It was raining quite hard, and I was both wet and tired. I set my hammock and fly up perfectly, just a little worried that one of the trees was too flexible… and, well, it was. So, there I was with my fly and hammock set up, starting to get really cold, and trying to figure out the easiest way to recover… oh, and being a weight freak, I use the HH lashing for my hammock, and a slip knot for a separate fly. I did manage to pivot the whole thing on the larger tree, and rehang from another tree without getting everything completely soaked. I climbed into the hammock, and noticed that the coverage from my HH stock fly seemed worse than I remembered it, but just slept on less of a diagonal than I normally would. In the morning, I noticed that I had hung the assym fly – exactly the wrong way from the diagonal I was sleeping on!!! And for a midnight last straw, I’ve been practicing the “pee from the hammock” move, and managed to pee into my trail runners!
You know, I had a wonderful time, as I always do, but wanted to share the laugh.
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Originally Posted by lazarus
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