Hey all,

I wasn't gonna post one of these, but i quickly noticed that I'm one of very few west coast hangers. Which is a disappointing thought. It isn't called the Great Pacific Northwest for no reason! Hiking over here is amazing but the vast mountain ranges can be hard on your back for multi-day trips. Its not terrible, but when backpacking with a group you can run out of tent space quickly.

I've been going on camping trips regularly since my mom got me started in Scouts when i was 9. I finally got my Eagle, right at the deadline of 18. But following that I did not hike or camp for a long time, until I realized how long it had been. I was so out of shape it was necessary to find a light-weight pack solution. I decided that Hammocks were the way to go.

I more or less stumbled on the idea myself and then found HH's online, and in the Cabela's catalog. These designs were far too simple to pay so much money for, so I went to a fabric store, which my single mother of 3 had dragged me through since i was little, and asked her to sew up my spear-type. I've used it 5 or 6 times. Now I'm working on v2 and a down-incorporating version, like JustJeff's downhammock, but my own design.

This is much longer than I wanted, but, just one more thing. I have noticed we over here have a huge problem, from the light weight perspective, that has two parts. They stem from differences between Seattle, and the ENTIRE East coast.
1) Its mostly flat over there, which means that you guys are less severely punished for your weight. You cannot but run into a mountain here, which makes weight that much more important. That much more worth attaining.
2) Your trees are TIIIIIIIINY. This has been a real problem for me. The average evergreen over here (which is what we run into most) are 5' around. And waaaay farther apart then your trees. Conservatively, 75% of the time both the support trees are gonna be 5'+ around. I'm sure you can see where I am going with this. That means I am carrying 12' just for webbing, which leaves no extra, most cases the ends barely meet.
Since the trees are so far apart, i need to span atleast 12' from tree to hammock end. If I expect rain, which NEVER happens here, thats another 20' minimum. Plus guy lines. So I'm already at 60' of suspension. Well 40 for suspension, 20 for a ridgeline.

I can't lose the idea of using a hammock. Its too awesome and free!!! But its getting hard to justify as a 'simple' solution.

Any thoughts on these difficulties would be helpful. I think about it all the time. Light strong rope is all I can see so far. Right now I am using something called Hercu-line. I got at my old jobsite. Left over from a utilities company. I think its 1/2'' polyp. I'm not sure there is anything to do.

Sorry for the length! I have been jealous of your trees for a while now. I can't stop puzzling over this problem.