Hanging from Houston.

[DragonGuide]

Hello everyone!

I've been lurking around on the forum for a few months now, but here recently the hammock bug has given me an itch I just can't seem to scratch. So I figure it's about time for me to introduce myself properly and chat it up a bit. Perhaps becoming somewhat active here will help me get my hanging cravings fulfilled. Currently, my Hubby and I are more "Hammock admirers" rather than true hangers. We each own a Hennessey hammock, mine being a small classic, and his a Deluxe Explorer Asym. We both enjoy hiking and camping, but sadly because of Texas weather we don't get out very often. Before last year we hadn't been out in the hammocks at all, choosing to tent camp instead. In fact, the last time we tent camped was a fiasco I never hope to repeat. (Us having the bright idea of not setting up camp until half an hour before sunset, bringing a 10 person tent for 2 people, then trying to set it up on a beach with a 15mph gust. NEVER AGAIN.)

After that, the hammocks we already owned (for Bug-out purposes,) seemed like a much nicer option for our camping needs. But disaster had struck us again. The first time we really attempted to use the hammocks we were...let's say...unfortunate. The weather was a wonderful 75F during the day but dropped to a chilling 35 at night. We were aware that our butts would be quite cold without any sort of pad or underquilt....and we had fully intended to bring both a DIY UQ with us, and some pads for good measure......but both were accidentally left at home. Hubby still had his TQ, and I had a mummy bag, so we tried to camp it out anyway.

I ended up giving him my mummy to hang under his hammock. I wore every piece of clothing I had brought with me, choosing to sleep in a lawn chair next to the fire all night. We both froze, but were both too stubborn to tell the other "Let's go home." We won't be making that mistake again!

[johnspenn]

Welcome to the forums from Marietta GA. It sounds like y'all have had some adventures in your outdoors career!

My wife and I get out, hike, camp and hang together as well. You might like our blog, told from a his/her perspective. The link is in my signature.

Just chalk the experiences you've had thus far up to learning the ropes and move forward! At the very least you now have some really funny stories to tell! (We refer to that as second degree fun!)

Happy hanging!

[CharlieS]

I was checking out some of the introductory posts, and I ran across your introduction.
Your first experience hanging was very similar to mine, only my wife wasn't with me to share my misery.(cold)
I had taken the hammock out several times to parks and camping sites to check out my set up and also to get some practice setting it up, without making the commitment to spend the night in it. When I finally took it out camping for real, it set up great, but I froze my backside off as temps fell into the lower 50's. (I still spent almost 12 hours sleeping in the hammock!)
I bit the bullet and bought a very nice underquilt from Wilderness Logics. I just got back from camping with it last night, and what a difference it made. I was so comfortable. It wasn't cheap, but it's a beautiful piece of gear. I tried a Big Agnes inflatable insulated sleeping pad, but it didn't work so well for me in my hammock. The cool thing about the underquilt was that I could almost instantly feel when I had the underquilt adjusted right, and when I didn't. It was simple to move around and get right. I think the underquilt is kind of the price of admission to hanging in a hammock.
If you're willing to make the investment, it's worth giving it another try. I've never camped so comfortably.