The wife was going out with friends for an evening at the theater. Fortunately I was not invited. The forecast was for mild temps and rain, so I decided to see what my rig would do in the wet, since I generally encounter rain quite a bit in the Olympics. This was also the first venture away from home with a hammock so it would be a little bit harder to run inside if it got too cold or wet.
Went to Scenic Beach SP overlooking the Hood Canal and found a site that had good trees where a hammock could be easily hung. My Siltarp 2 was in snakeskins and I got it stretched out first, although left it in the skins for a while since it wasn't currently raining. Then went ahead and hung the BB as well, using tree huggers and whoopie slings. I had left my hammock, sock, and both quilts 'assembled' and stuffed into an old sleeping bag stuff sack. That did simplify setup and teardown.
My tarp ridge line is 50' long (I haven't had the heart to cut it down yet), so I tried using the excess on either end to 'hang' my pack cover under the hammock. That seemed to work well and I put my pack and some other 'stuff' into it. It sagged down to the ground, but was dry and up close under the hammock; a very convenient, and out of the way, spot.
Got the tarp stretched out with a front porch set up, made dinner in the dark and then enjoyed the rain from under the tarp. Got about 11 hours of sack time and was lulled to sleep with the sound of giant rain drops accumulating and falling off the trees onto the tarp. Stayed dry and warm (temp just down to 40).
Still have a ways to go before I am really familiar with the new hammock stuff, but learned a lot and will be tweaking a bit. Had a friend out for a while last night. I suspect he has his BB ordered by now. All in all, a very good night out.
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Originally Posted by bhancock
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