Christmas was good to McRat this year, but 2012 hasn't been.

I've been pretty much fighting a nasty cold since Christmas and life has offered a mess of its little annoyances to keep me at home... as a collection of hammock goodies that would satisfy any gearhead piled up. That I couldn't use. Ugh.

Finally, last night, I made some plans to check out the new gear with a friend. I loaded up my regular backpack, and a smaller daypack with my spare rig for my bud to use. In keeping with poor luck, my daughter sprained an ankle and the evening simply didn't happen.

But I did load the spare pack into my car.

I was heading out to grab lunch when I realized it was in the back seat. Food can wait. Eight minutes later, pack was on and I wandered about in search of the right sort of trees.

I rigged up the new orange Eno Doublenest* using my old WBBB adj webbing straps (I switched to Whoopie slings* and Dutch Buckles*), attached the 0° Incubator*, Hammockgear down pillow*, and tossed in the 20°F burrow (since the 0°F Burrow* was in my other pack). I then added the Lazy Slug Tube*s over the ends and couldn't resist it any longer.

I got in and quickly found myself too warm in the 35°F weather. Excellent! Within five minutes, I had convinced myself that this might be my best lunch break ever.

While I love my Blackbird, I was really enjoying the open view and lack of bugs above. I haven't even done much tweaking with it, but found it rather comfortable.

The hardest part of the next half hour was trying not to fall asleep. I would say getting out and packing up was hard, but I'd be lying. Pulled the Lazy Slugs down, cinched 'em, and stuffed the whole mass in the pack. Very quick and satisfying breaking of camp.

Grabbed a quick photo, and figured I'd share this quick TR - Thanks, HammockForums, for helping me start this rewarding addiction.



* New stuff finally used! (gearhead dance)