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  1. #1
    Senior Member spidennis's Avatar
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    blackbird/superfly as bivy?

    Has anyone successfully used the blackbird/superfly as a bivy?
    you know, having to sleep on the freakin' ground?!

    edit/update: Yes! I think this is going to work!
    I'm in the process of acquiring fabrics, materials, equipment
    in order to make my new mods.
    This will end up being the ULTIMATE blackbird!!



    I got some trips planned ......
    On my Colorado River Kayak trip I start out in the land of trees, but as I make my way to the coast and follow the ICW (the bay) south back home to south padre island, well, nothing to hang from, so I got to hit the ground.

    I could carry a tent, but then I'd have to buy one and that just doesn't seem right. I also had my crazy idea of a bug bivy that could be my bug net on my hammock but also convert to my ground based bug bivy but I haven't worked out all the details on that either.

    I've looked at the tarp tent setups, but the details of it all I can't see. like how do the support poles hold up the tarp section?

    I've got my superfly tarp setup in my living room to help me work out the details. I got some aluminum poles that I'm using that might work out for this. using carabiners on my tree straps I clipped it to the top of the pole and took in the slack so the hammock ends were up some but that gave me much slack in the ridge line so I put a couple of loops in the ridge line and clipped them together so that the ridge line was sorta tightened up and would keep the bug net up.

    this system seems to want to work out but I got more details to work out, including some backyard testing before I use this on my kayak expeditions.

    On my rio grande river/ big bend trip there's nothing to hang from so I got to be on the ground the whole time. Unless I can somehow hang from the rocks .....





    Last edited by spidennis; 12-27-2009 at 19:18.

  2. #2
    Senior Member spidennis's Avatar
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    a picture is worth a thousand words ......
    but are they the words you want to be hearing?

    here is my setup in my livingroom .....
    as much as I'd like this freestanding, it's not, bummer ....



    I've got to adjust the length of the pole to the perfect height.
    this is actually old windsurfing boom parts.
    one tube slides into the other.
    they do have to fit into the kayak somehow though
    see how the suspension straps are against the tarp?
    If both the tarp and strap went to the same point I'd not have this problem.
    also, if it rains, water will travel down the strap into .....
    so I'd need a cutoff drain thingy attached somehow .......



    with the ends of the hammock raised, and ridgeline shortened
    I'll have just enough room to crawl inside ....
    I'm 5'3" so I'm short enough that I got plenty of room at both ends.
    I plan on getting an exped 7 (?) dam pad for my bottom insulation for my hammock
    and that can also be used as my ground dwelling pad as well.
    as much as I'd like to have an underquilt instead of a dam
    the underquilt won't have much of a use when I'm on the ground.



    I had to use some kind of a knot to take up the slack in the ridgeline.
    this is one half of a trucker's hitch, the carabiner holding the 2 loops together
    this knot comes apart very easily and quickly.



    Last edited by spidennis; 12-26-2009 at 12:08.

  3. #3
    Senior Member OldMan's Avatar
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    I think you have the right idea. You will need to guy from the top of your poles to the ground, probably twice for each pole. If you tighten up the guy lines enough you should be able to remove the sag from the ridge line.

  4. #4
    Senior Member spidennis's Avatar
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    Yeah, double guylines for the poles should work, of course that's tough to simulate inside the house. I see a backyard test coming soon. the ground is wet and got plenty of mosquitoes and it's chilly, good conditions for testing!

    the top of the pole will have quite a bit of stuff tied to it and will have to figure out just how to make it quick and simple to attach all of that.

    also, I could either be on sand (at the bay) or rocks (on the river). I'd need a foot for the pole, and something as stakes. In the sand I could use deadman stakes, and in the rocks? hummm .......... the sand I can test out, got no gravel beds to test on here .........

  5. #5
    Senior Member OldMan's Avatar
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    If you used a single 20' piece of line to guy out each pole, you could throw a clove hitch in the middle and drop it around the top of the pole and then stake it out. Course the pole will likely fall down until you can also attach a ridge line connecting the two poles together. Unless of course the ground is soft enough to drive the pole in a bit first. Seems like using figure 9's, or something similar would make it easy to quickly adjust the tension on your guy lines and ridge line until they are all good and tight. Adding a clamp at the top of each pole would help to prevent the tendency of the guy lines from creeping down the pole.

    Sand or rock would make it challenging to drive stake though. Piling rocks or logs on the guy lines near the stakes would add some holding power.

  6. #6
    Senior Member spidennis's Avatar
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    I gave the blackbird a try this afternoon during a nice nap using the setup in my living room as seen in the above photos.

    I plan on getting an exped 7 (or 9) dlx as that would fit better thru the hatch in a kayak vs the el'cheapo self inflating walmart special (25"x72") but used this pad for my test on the floor.

    Because I am short I did fit length wise though the pad did curl up at each end a bit. I did not have the pad valve closed as the pad has a hole in it anyway. Anyone taller is gonna have a problem with this in being able to stretch out. while many folks made mention of using a hammock as a bivy, I hadn't found anyone that actually tried this. If you're 6' this isn't gonna be the plan for you!

    An hour nap is one thing, but how about for a week? I like my blackbird as a hammock, and it will work as a bug bivy for a short person but I'm still thinking that my "crazy idea" that I've posted still has merit.

    http://www.hammockforums.net/forum/s...ead.php?t=8506

    http://www.hammockforums.net/forum/s...ad.php?t=12269

  7. #7
    Senior Member Scottybdiving's Avatar
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    I have the same consideration on an upcoming rafting trip. I had also planned to use the BB as a bug bivy. My thoughts were to lay it flat on my pad and ground cloth and suspend the netting to my tarp's ridgeline, at least enoug to keep it off my face. I have a bug bivy that has a single pole at the head end for that purpose.

  8. #8
    Senior Member spidennis's Avatar
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    I've been also trying to figure out how to add some kind of a pole or hoop to raise the bug netting ridge line. I did however move my suspension system from the top of the end poles to about 1.5 ' from the bottom of the poles and that lets the pad lay much flatter but that puts a force on the pole that wants to pull the pole's base too much. back to the drawing board ......

  9. #9
    Senior Member Scottybdiving's Avatar
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    I have some of those wall clips that I am going to try. My intentions are to set up my tarp, using my trecking poles, which I have done many times before. Then I want to suspend the bug netting, via the wall clips, from the tarps ridgeline. I will let you know if I am successful.

  10. #10
    Senior Member spidennis's Avatar
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    you should see this thread:
    http://www.hammockforums.net/forum/s...ad.php?t=11470

    NOOOOOOOOOO.......... OUT OF STOCK!!!! darn .....
    I think I'm on to something here! .... time for plan B .....
    http://www.nemoequipment.com/parts2009
    Attached Images Attached Images
    Last edited by spidennis; 12-26-2009 at 22:46.

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