Hiked a chunk of the Ouachita Trail last week. My BA air mattress failed the first night. I also had an Oware 40" x 60" x 3/16" pad. The first couple and last couple of nights were warm (40s-50s), so no problems, but it got down to freezing a couple of nights in the middle. I improvised a Garlington insulator from my poncho, filled it with leaves, and was actually warm down to 32F.
Had a great time. Spent part of a night on a shelter floor since I had the shelter to myself. Woke up around 10:00, staggered stiffly out of the shelter, put up the hammock by headlamp, threw in pad then bag and crawled in. What was I thinking? Leaves were at peak color, daytime temps were between 50 and 70, night time temps between 30 and 50.
Hammock-related notes: Need about 3 feet of 1" tubular nylon webbing to pad ropes at trees. Probably need to break down and get an underquilt before I do this again; they don't spring hard-to-find leaks.
Here are some photos of a couple of campsites. The tarp's up in the first one just to protect me from falling leaves and acorns. The second shows the insulator in place and stuffed. The last one shows the leaves in the detached poncho.
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