Originally Posted by
BillyBob58
During some of my seemingly endless experimentation, I have been trying out my Speer SPE and some pads. I have had this as a backup for over a year, but have never really used it. Last year on my Olympic mountain trip, at the last minute I nearly ditched my SuperShelter in favor of just the SPE and pads. On the theory that I was going to carry at least a minimal pad anyway in case I had to go to ground. So in a last-minute fit of ounce saving, I thought "well why don't I just take pads only?". Saving the weight of the SuperShelter. But at the last minute, after trying to compare things in the hot Mississippi August Sun, I decided there was still too much comfort in favor of the SuperShelter versus just pads. So I took both.
But lately I've been playing with the SPE some more, mainly because I've been using my top loading Speer hammock while testing the Peapod. So it just seemed an easy matter to drop the SPE and pad into the Speer and sit down on top of it, and then lie down. Then I decided to go ahead and try it without the Peapod, using various thickness of pads. It works pretty good. And it is easier to manage than with my bottom loading Hennessy hammock, although it seems more user friendly than I remembered from last summer even in the Hennessy. And so far anyway, I just don't seem to have any sweat issues. And after further experimentation, it really seems pretty comfortable -- just not that much of a change from the hammock by itself. As long as you don't count a bit of inconvenience from trying to get positioned on the pad in the first place, especially when using the Hennessy. But all of that seems to be improving with practice anyway. As for the comfort level, I'm wondering what I thought was the big difference last year when I decided I wouldn't be happy with the pads by themselves. Maybe it had something to do with how darn hot it was. I don't know, it just seems as though the difference is not as great as I thought it was at that time.
I did a little testing recently, for short periods of time. With a Ridgerest only, I would say that it was just barely okay at 32°. So if I had been out overnight for a full eight hours, it might have proved a little inadequate at that temperature. But that would match Speers "some observed temperatures with close cell pads", where I believe he has a 5/8" pad listed at 37°. But I've also read from other people that a 5/8" pad like a Ridgerest might not be quite as warm as a 5/8" pad that does not have the ridges in it. Anyway, it looks like it will be fine for me in the mid 30s, and maybe okay at 32°. Probably not okay below that temperature, at least not for a long night. But of course that's not a problem, because I think I remember last winter I did 18° with the same Ridgerest plus a Thermarest UltraLite 1-inch thick three-quarter length all inside the SPE. And I remember being very warm under those conditions, but I need to look up my test on that combo.
But here's my question. Though we are all aware of the many ways in which a pad decreases comfort in a hammock for a lot of people, is it possible that the pad actually increases comfort in some ways? I just wondered what the frequent pad users thought regarding this question. For one thing, the pad seems to give me somewhat of a flatter sleeping surface. And the pad inside the SPE with the wings pushing outward on the Hennessy sides gives me a sensation of more openness inside the hammock, solving any net related problems. And it seems to me that whether in the Hennessy or in the Speer, I am actually able to lie on my side a little better than without the pads. I'm assuming this is because of the aforementioned "flatter sleeping surface" -- or so it seems. I wouldn't say it was a big difference, but the difference seems to be there.
Has anybody else noticed anything like this, or am I just hallucinating again?
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