Waking up over water

**NFA** · 07-28-2010, 09:01

I have yet to purposefully set up my hammock over water (running or still), although it is a goal of mine sometime...I have, however, woken up over water on at least one occasion...

A couple of years ago, I was camping with some friends in/near the ghost town of Tahwaus in upstate NY in the early spring. There was still plenty of snow in the woods and on the hills, with warm days and frosty nights...

I setup my hammock over dry ground, at the base of a sheltering hill, not quite at the bottom of the valley (so as to, I hoped, avoid meltwater runoff)...

I woke up the first morning, and dropped out of my HH and down into about 3 inches of water, that had gathered in a depression hidden by the leaf litter in the area where I had set up my hammock...

I pulled my damp feet and scouted around for my gear and crocs...the gear was dry, hanging from a nearby tree, and my crocs were floating a couple of feet away from my splashdown location...

The spot drained by mid-morning, and refilled for the following morning, by which time I was ready for it...I didn't move because my gear and sleeping location were safe from the water, and I found it sort of cool to sleep over water...

Ever since that time, I've thought about setting up intentionally over water...I would love to hear your stories of hammock-camping over water...

Thanks,

Jamie - nfa

I would love to he

**TinaLouise** · 07-28-2010, 09:11

I haven't set up over water either but did set up one night next to the river. Had to get up during the night due to drinking to much water that evening. It was really dark so I only went to the edge of my tarp. The next morning when I got up and checked out the area, I found I had set up on the side of about a 20 foot drop down to the river. Sure was glad I didn't venture out beyond that side of my tarp that night.

**Hawk-eye** · 07-28-2010, 09:34

Well back in the spring of 03 my son and I camped along the Linville River near Devil's Hole. A spring storm came up that night ... I knew it could raise the river as much as four feet so we hung our hammocks on the knoll above the river campsite. You can see the whole thing in these pictures.

The water came up and it was slow enough to pack up and head up the trail ... but not before the lower camp was under water ... close but nothing alarming.

I did keep checking out of my hammock that night to eyeball the water level of the river!

**Barefoot Child** · 07-28-2010, 11:31

DANG son.....I was jest a wonderin' pal....can rats swim?

**Hawk-eye** · 07-28-2010, 12:31

Yeah but they scamper better!

**wirerat123** · 07-28-2010, 12:44

Originally Posted by Barefoot Child

DANG son.....I was jest a wonderin' pal....can rats swim?

Yessir, yessir they can! Take it from a rat, rats can swim.

**Mustardman** · 07-28-2010, 13:39

I've wanted to set up over water many times, but you have to balance that with the risk of flash floods - especially common in the mountains around here.

The closest I've come was a hammock hang in a torrential downpour, where a pretty significant river of runoff formed under my hammock - large enough that branches were flowing under me. That was pretty cool!

**pgibson** · 07-28-2010, 14:26

Someone in AZ posted some very cool pics in a trip report last summer where they hung over a wide deep part of a stream and had fish swimming around them, I think they had an ENO about 6-8 inches down in the water. Looked sooooo nice. I will try and find it.