Got my first overnight hang in last night.
Temps got down to 35... I think colder by the look of the freezing water on the drainage ditch behind the house.
Set up in the dark. Stock HH Exped Asym. GossamerGear Thinlight 1/4" pad. Old ragged Kelty syntehtic 30? bag. Wearing my Sporthill XC ski pants, Ibex mid weight woolie, wool socks. I brought an extra fleece with me and a skull cap.
All in all a good night.
Tree huggers + biners + ring buckles to my stock susp rope worked great. Easy to set up, but lots of stretch in the HH system - hopefully this will work itself out. I bounced around alot getting situated. Took me quite awhile to figure out how to get in my bag and on top of the GG pad. Must have looked funny if anyone was watching - wrestling match going on in that thing. I got in and out 2-3 times throughout the night - 2 for nature calls, 1 to adjust some slipping. By the third time I figured out how to get comfy.
Managed to get my tarp relatively tight using some shock cord I made into tensioners. It flapped around a bit in the wind through the night - I'll have to work on this. (going to upgrade this with a DIY blackcat in the spring)
After reading about sliding into the exit, I ended up hanging my feet too high - but decided to live with it. I should have dropped it a few inches - I would have been more comfortable.
Was comfy with minimal gear to the 35*. Definitely frosty this morning where I was half on the narrow pad. (I thought I ordered the wide one... so I'll have to improve this a bit) Slept off and on from about 6-6:30 by rolling into a tight ball on my side to warm up. Worked well enough. Got up @ 7am and headed into the house for breakfast. Ended up needing the fleece and the hat after a nature call @ 2am. It was cold! Got snuggled back in and warmed up fine - was very comfortable!
I see where an UQ is a huge advantage - but glad to know I can go cold if I need to with limited gear and $$. Also see the advantage of the SS system or pockets under the hammock - would have made the pad (the GG is 'sticky' - so it stays put - not sure if that is good or bad) issue easier to deal with.
Tarp worked OK. No rain - but there was alot of open area. I thought about doing a storm pitch in the middle of the night to cut down on wind - but decided to get back inside. This would have kept me a bit warmer.
Going to do a S24O hike sometime this week up to Nebraska Notch. Planning on staying at the tenting sites or near the lodge in case I need to go to ground. (It's going to be colder up there...!) I'll take my thick thermarest pad which should add another 5-10* (if I can stay on it), add my Thermolite Reactor to my sleeping bag, and carry a ground cloth / space blanket I can rig for an undercover if needed. Confident I won't freeze...
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