Animals, Hammocks and you!

[Yukon Chuck]

New to hanging, but not new to tent camping. I'd like to hear some of your stories of things that went bump in the night.

[taylo]

I had a cow ant crawl down my suspension line and into my WB Traveler with detachable net the other night. It was pretty tricky getting out of there without him falling on me. He was pretty huge, they are actually wingless wasps.

[griesl]

I'm fairly new to hanging, so in my limited experience I've only had one incident where something bumped my rear. It woke me up, but by the time I cleared my fuzzy eyes it was gone. I had seen rabbits nearby in some tall grass nearby earlier that evening, so that's probably what it was. I used to worry about stuff having fairly unfettered access to me during the night -- not so much anymore.

[[email protected]]

My 50 lbs Pit bull mix bumps me and that's it!

[JaxHiker]

I usually hear but never see. Squirrels and bunnies are the only critters I've seen while in the hammock. I don't count the black bear because I wasn't in the hammock. Although I did just climb in and put my headphones on while he rummaged around. If I can hear 'em they ain't there.

[Lonely Raven]

Funny you brought this up, my fiance and I had a bump in the night up in Middle Wisconsin a couple weeks back.

We went on our first "backpacking" trip with friends. We typically car camp as a group, but we wanted to test out our bail-out-bags. The camp site was a 5.2 mile hike in through swamp, forest, rocky hills, sandy hills, and even more hills...and we did the hike in the dark!!

So we get to camp around 10:30, quick dinner from the jetboil, then stomp down some weeds and hang our two blackbirds in a V shape between three trees.

So fast forward to morning, and I had this really weird dream that there was an animal up in the tree staring down at me (no tarp due to clear skys) in the Blackbird trying to figure out what I am. In my dream, it's face kept changing, dog, bear, cat, bobcat, lion, bear, raccoon, opossum...it's like my brain couldn't put a face to it, but finally settled on Bobcat, probably because it was up in the tree looking down at me.

My fiance says to me, "so what bumped us last night?", and I"m like Huh? (just barely remembering my weird dream). She said that something bumped the underside of her hammock last night hard enough to take her up. We have a very large dog that likes to "shark the hammocks"...you know, he runs under it like Jaws did to that little boat, bumping us upwards with his shoulders to get our attention, and we tend to hang our hammock high, so that's about 26" off the ground. But we didn't have our dogs with us on this trip! She said that something sharked her, and she grumbled "go to bed Dee" and rolled over and back to sleep, just as she hears me grumble in my sleep about being bumped myself.

So something large enough to bump us 26" off the ground, and big enough to wake us...and we have no idea what it was. I so wish I had a game camera setup, just so I could see coyotes sniffin our butts, or maybe blackbears thinking we're a nice pair of burritos. I figure it was just raccoon, but Brianne insists it was big enough for her to mistake it for our 30" tall, 100+lb dog.

[Pipsissewa]

I had a cow ant crawl down my suspension line and into my WB Traveler with detachable net the other night. It was pretty tricky getting out of there without him falling on me. He was pretty huge, they are actually wingless wasps.

OK--I had to search Google Images for a cow ant. NW, I"M GING T HAVE NIGHTMARES!!!!

[Doctari]

I Think this is discussed elsewhere.

My "critter stories" are: a few years ago in my back yard, a squirrel used my ridgeline as a shortcut from tree to tree. He made it about 3/4 across when I scared him by saying "Hi!". He hasn't taken that shortcut since.
Same campsite the next year, Lets just say the mating noises of Possums is just as lovely as possums are. And they go at it: ALL NIGHT LONG!

No real critter stories in the wild, at least in relation to me being in a hammock.

[Law Dawg (ret)]

OK--I had to search Google Images for a cow ant. NW, I"M GING T HAVE NIGHTMARES!!!!

We called those Velvet ants and you sure do not want to be stung by one...it hurts. Worst sting ever DAMHIK.

Had a mouse on our picnic table recently but all it wanted was paper towel stuff for a nest.

[kayak karl]

at a hostel in NH hanging in the back yard. 1am i get woke up by scratching noices. put on headlamp and looked under hammock and i was nose to nose with a skunk. he wants into my pack which in on the ground. checked the glossary of my AT guide and the word "skunk" was not there. i tried to talk skunk to him; shu, shu; be gone; look, Pepe Le Pew; Pleeaaase go. finally left. i grabbed my pack and dashed across the back yard as the security lights went on 1 by 1 following a 6-4 pale white guy in his tighty whiteys full stride across the yard. i put my pack indoors and went back to sleep.
in morn i was first up. made coffee. Fat Chap came down for breakfast laughing. that was the funniest thing ive seen in a long time LOL. i guess you met the neighbors cat. CAT that was a skunk. He said "well his name is Kitty"