So Saturday night looked so beautiful that I couldn't resist sleeping in the back yard in my "new" (homemade) hammock described
here.
I don't have any of the fancy things like SPE's or UQ's so I was a little unsure what would work but I thought I had to try.
So I threw my standard 20" full length Thermarest into the hammock, put my down sleeping bag in there like a top quilt, then wrapped my Goretex/poly fill over bag around it all like a combination "sock" at the foot and top quilt/cover to keep the dew off....
I wore light weight long under wear top and bottom... Night temperatures dropped to 42... And I roasted. I ended up pushing the down bag down to about mid thigh and just using the overbag (rated to about 50) over my chest.
Even nearly full deflated the thermarest was warm enough, but a real PITA to sleep with and on. It also ruined some of the comfort level of the hammock, by limiting local body hugging conformance. It was too narrow to stay on easily and it took up a lot of fabric so the sides were lower and didn't hold the sleeping bag as well. Basically I've decided that the only way I'd consider a pad for long term is in a double layer hammock, but that a UQ seems like the best option.
The hooks shown
here, worked a charm all night with no back-up hitch, even with much struggling, bouncing and trying to get pads and quilts in the right places. No slipping sagging or anything. I'm really happy with them as a solution to quick light suspension adjusters.
As always you learn more by actually sleeping in the thing...
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