I've only got about a dozen nights in a hammock now, but all of them have been at or below freezing...our low has been around the mid-teens F.
On our last night in hammocks in Southern Utah last week (Little Creek Mesa not too far from Zion) my wife and I were out in the hammocks and the boys were going to sleep in the car (lots of coyotes that night, spooked them a bit).
The day was really warm (in the 60s) and the night forecast in the nearest town was predicted to be 40F. Piece of cake, I thought...Since the boys were in the car, I grabbed one of their 4 season incubators....I thought at 40, I'd be a bit hot (Exped 650 unzipped as TQ) so I took off my fleece "sleeping suit" (actually a scuba diving undergarment for drysuit diving) and wore some thin thermal polypro liners and a fleece jacket.
Well, I woke up sometime in the middle of the night chilled from every direction. I reached out to adjust the incubator side to side (it was good) felt down to make sure it wasn't sagging (seemed good). I felt the inside bottom of the hammock with my hand and it was ice cold...first time I've felt that.
I reluctantly got out and suited up into my fleece suit and climbed back in. that did the trick, but I had lost some core temp, so I got behind the curve and never really warmed up to where I usually am...
I don't know how cold it actually got...certainly a lot colder than 40...when we drove away in the morning around 8am, it was still 30F...maybe it went down to 20F...?
I've never gotten cold like that when camping (except once w/o a bottom pad on the ground in Tibet...long story), this last night really shook my confidence...in my bag?, my UQ? my setup?... just the thermals...?
Maybe the thermal bottoms are way weaker and a much poorer choice than I had imagined...and the dip caught me by surprise...fair enough
My wife slept fine that night, and she's very sensitive to cold (also had a 4 season incubator, but wearing fleece sleepers)...
So, I'm left pondering...
1. What do folks usually wear to sleep...My fleece suit is great, but way bulky to bring on an overnight pack, which I hope to start doing with the boys...
2. The UQ looked properly snugged up...could I have done something wrong to have caused that much cold to migrate up through the bottom like that...? I was really surprised when I touched the bottom and felt that much cold. I tied an extra knot at one end of the bungee to take up some UQ suspension slack and made sure I had the head and feet oriented correctly...
Picture attached of our rigs on that night...thought hard to tell fit w/o a person in it, I know..
Happy to hear any musings offered on related experiences...
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