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  1. #1
    Senior Member Certain's Avatar
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    Six things I learned this weekend

    This may be stuff that you veteran hammockers don't even think about because it's second nature, but here's a few things I learned this past weekend that other newbies may not have thought about yet:

    1. If you're lying down inside your hammock (HH style) and you need to sit up to grab something or to get out (and let's say maybe you have a little more "belly" that can make gravity keep pulling you back down), put your feet through the HH slit and use it to anchor your feet (like using a sit-up bench at the gym) and it's much easier to sit up.

    2. When you pull your tarp stakes out of the ground to pack everything up, if they're coated w/mud or dirt, just use some leaves on the ground as a "cloth" to get the dirt/mud off if you can't just knock it off (which I couldn't this weekend).

    3. If you have a homemade stove windscreen (I use a catfood can stove and the thin aluminum sheet metal for my windscreen), the windscreen makes a kickass fan for nurturing a campfire and can prevent hyperventilation when blowing on the fire to fuel it w/oxygen

    4. I know this one is purely opinion, but I borrowed Sgt. Rock's idea of using my stock HH tree huggers and spectra for hanging, but I added a carabiner (Black Diamond Light D) into the mix. I attach the carabiner to the tree huggers and then tie my spectra to the carabiner. It was SUPER fast and MUCH easier to tie my figure 8 and keep the tension on the spectra around the biner than threading the spectra through the tree huggers every time. Also, when I tore down...I could skin my hammock, untie it from the biner, but the tree huggers/biners stayed hooked onto the trees, which prevented the huggers from falling on the ground and then me forgetting to pick them up. I will be using this combination for now on. Thanks Rock!

    5. It is SO nice to use my hammock as a lounger and just sit down to change in/out of clothes. I love my hammock so much I think I might marry it.

    6. I do not personally stay warm enough in cold temps if using my sleeping bag as a quilt. I had to finally get zipped up into my bag to retain enough body heat.
    Last edited by Certain; 11-29-2006 at 23:39.
    This is my signature.

  2. #2
    Senior Member titanium_hiker's Avatar
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    Good stuff, Michele-

    Re #6 - I have found this too- when I don't use an underquilt. It's amazing how your top can be toasty and your under freezing! It's so much more comfortable to just use the bag as a quilt though. Imagine taking your bag and splitting it in half, and putting half below the hammock, half above. That's what you do (kinda) with two quilts.

    TH
    my hammock gear weights total: 2430g (~86oz)
    Winter: total 2521 (~89oz)
    (see my profile for detailed weights)

    gram counter, not gram weenie!

  3. #3
    Senior Member SGT Rock's Avatar
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    Something you may want to try (I can't wait to try it myself when I get home) is a suggestion from Pan about not using the HH side tie outs when using an under-quilt. I never thought about it until he mentioned it and it just makes sense.

    72 and a wake up.
    NO SNIVELING!
    www.hikinghq.net - Hiking H.Q.
    www.bmtguide.com - the BMT Thru Hiker's Guide

  4. #4
    Senior Member SGT Rock's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by SGT Rock View Post
    I can't wait to try it myself when I get home.
    Come to think of it, I just can't wait to get home, period.
    NO SNIVELING!
    www.hikinghq.net - Hiking H.Q.
    www.bmtguide.com - the BMT Thru Hiker's Guide

  5. #5
    Senior Member titanium_hiker's Avatar
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    we're thinking of you, SGT Rock. Stay safe, and get home in one piece. How long you got to go?

    TH
    my hammock gear weights total: 2430g (~86oz)
    Winter: total 2521 (~89oz)
    (see my profile for detailed weights)

    gram counter, not gram weenie!

  6. #6
    slowhike's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by SGT Rock View Post
    Come to think of it, I just can't wait to get home, period.
    we appreciate GREATLY your commitment to serving our country... and all the others, including those who are serving here (like jeff), & those who have served (like pan).
    i know there are others among this group as well. ..tim
    I too will something make and joy in it's making

  7. #7
    Peter_pan's Avatar
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    Hey Rock.... We all really want you home too....Dixicritter is on the top of that list... Keep your head down.

    Pan
    Ounces to Grams.

    www.jacksrbetter.com ... Largest supplier of camping quilts and under quilts...Home of the Original Nest Under Quilt, and Bear Mountain Bridge Hammock. 800 595 0413

  8. #8
    Peter_pan's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Michele View Post
    6. I do not personally stay warm enough in cold temps if using my sleeping bag as a quilt. I had to finally get zipped up into my bag to retain enough body heat.
    Michele,

    You still need a better bottom insulation plan... then the open bag, a la quilt style, will be plenty warm... nice progress though...keep hanging.

    Pan
    Ounces to Grams.

    www.jacksrbetter.com ... Largest supplier of camping quilts and under quilts...Home of the Original Nest Under Quilt, and Bear Mountain Bridge Hammock. 800 595 0413

  9. #9
    Senior Member stoikurt's Avatar
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    Guide Gear UL Bag as an Underquilt

    Last week on Thanksgiving Eve I hung in the back yard. Temps got near 40. I had my HH with undercover and underpad. Previously I have added a 3/4 UL Thermarest pad on top of the underpad. To stay warm I had to get in my sleeping bag. This time I had the Guide Gear UL bag so I laid it in on top of the underpad so it became kind of an underquilt and worked with the underpad and undercover. I used my sleeping bag as a top quilt and was quite warm. I can't wait to use my new JRB Nest but it's still in the box and I won't even be able to look at it until Christmas.

    A thought about the GG UL bag. It's pretty cheap, airly light and compacts well for packing. You could probably make an underquilt from one without too much trouble and I bet it would be good into the 50's. It might be a good cheap underquilt option for some of the milder weather campers or campouts.
    Stoikurt
    "Work to Live...Don't Live to Work!"

  10. #10
    Senior Member Certain's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Peter_pan View Post
    Michele,

    You still need a better bottom insulation plan... then the open bag, a la quilt style, will be plenty warm... nice progress though...keep hanging.

    Pan
    Really? I'm using the Nest as an underquilt and a CCF pad inside the hammock. I don't know what else to add besides another CCF pad, but I'm not really willing to do that because it adds more weight/bulk. It's weird, I'm not horribly uncomfortable, it's just waves here and there of cold chills, but you must understand that when I lived in Hawaii, I'd be lying on the beach and when clouds went in front of the sun, I'd get cold chills then too. It doesn't take anything for me to get chilled.

    I learned that in the 40's...I'm good, in the 30's is when I need to start taking cold-weather measures. I could have pitched my tarp a bit closer to my hammock and I think that would have helped. My thermometer (inside of my hammock w/me) showed 35 degrees...so I'm thinking it was probably closer to 30-32 outside. I had ice/frost built up on the inside/outside of my tarp in the morning and there was frost on the ground too. I also had some condensation built up on the bug netting of my hammock...I kind of expected that though.

    Do you think more bottom insulation would help due to my heat being robbed by convection?
    This is my signature.

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