First official Danish HF hang
The Danes aren’t overrepresented here on HF (only a total of 3-4 active members at the moment), and hammocking hasn’t hit main stream Denmark yet - we hope change that though!
Since we live relatively close to each other, Bomber and I decided to get together for the first Danish Hammock Forums hang. Bomber is a bit of a kayak geek (owner of 3 kayaks), so it was obvious that we would combine kayaking and hanging. I had previously only tried paddling canoes, so kayaking was totally new and exciting to me.
After packing and “launching” the kayaks, we headed for a location that according to Bomber was great for a hang.
To our surprise the location was already spoken for, by some guys owning the world biggest tarp!, so we had to paddle on and find a new spot. We finally found a suitable location, after having fought killer waves over a hundred mile distance (all right, the waves weren’t that big and the distance was more like three miles)
Shortly after we got the hammocks in place, it started raining quite heavily. We decided to postpone gathering firewood and kick back in the hammocks while waiting for the rain to stop… in spite of waiting, then waiting some more and then waiting even more, the rain never stopped at all. We realized that the weather forecast was somewhat imprecise and that we were stuck in the hammocks for the night.
Both Bomber and I are hopeless gear heads, so we quickly turned our attention to the hammocks, backpacks, knives and what-nots. Hammock-wise I’m a complete noob, so I was excited to see the much talked about whoopie slings and to learn a few tricks.
At one point the loud sound of the rain hitting the tarps made it nearly impossible having any kind of conversation, and at the same time the wind kept blowing the rain sideways under the tarps directly into my hammock – our first hang and there we were, smack in the middle of the most intense rain we had ever camped in.
Late in the evening the rain eventually settled and became somewhat tolerable. After a few beers, long philosophical discussions and sharing of life stories we called it a night. We both agreed that the insane amount of rain didn’t ruin the trip, but made it even more memorable and gave us a valuable lesson hanging in extreme weather conditions… True optimists? Oh yes we are!
We woke up late next morning, well-rested and hungry for some trail mix and oatmeal. We again had long discussions on the ultimate gear setup and future buys – really great to know a like-minded gear freak!
A few hours later we packed our gear and headed for the kayaks.
After the 3 mile paddle back across the lake in nice sunny weather, we had a well-deserved iced water before we ended the first Danish hang. We will definitely plan the next hang soon, and hope to meet the other Danes aboard HF too.
Note: Upon returning home, we learned that the entire area was hit by unexpected monsoon-like conditions with 100mm rain (4 inches), flooding both roads and residential areas. I truely wonder how meteorologists convince anyone to pay them. The authorities actually issued a warning advising people to stay off the roads, but they didn’t mention anything about hammocking though
Happy hanging to all.
/TheWild & Bomber
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Originally Posted by TheWild
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