Well last week I received my 3 season Crowsnest and MacCat Standard tarp. That meant this weekend was my first test run overnight. I arrived at the campground just after daylight to check which sites might work for me. I left and drove up the rode abotu 15 miles to Calhoun Falls State Park and looked around there as well. They have a 13 site primitive tent loop. I decided I liked HKSP better so I went back.

I unloaded and built a fire first thing to get a feel for the wind. I chose a spot opposite the smoke and hung my hamm ock. That was the easy part. Then I started with the tarp. Unlike my hammock, I had never hung the tarp. I had a general idea of how it needed to go and proceeded to tie it out to the trees. It was then that I noticed it was hitting the whoopie sling and would not hang right. TIme for plan B. I decided to go for the V method and let the whoopie sling ride between tarp line. It still did not work the way I wanted it to, but made it through the night, including a lot a wind and rain. Talk about a first night out. My tarp issue had me hanging my hammock lower than I wanted and my Crowsnest was almost to the ground.

I didn't get wet, but it was touch and go. I think the MacCat standard will end up being a summer tarp and I will end up with a bigger one for winter.

I just need to experiment more with my lines and knots and different methods of attaching the tarp in relation to the hammock. Here are the pics.