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  1. #1
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    Second night out tonight...

    First night was severel weeks ago, first time in a hammock. Location was my wooded backyard, NW New Jersey. Started at about 25, ended at about 20.
    Lasted the night, got snowed on too. Equipment was an Eagle Creek Hammock with a nylon tarp just draped over all. I clipped a silver tarp to the bottom outside and put two ridge rests in the hammock sleeve next to one another. Slept in an ancient Sierra Designs synthetic bag, weighs about seven pounds. Stayed warm enough, but just. The RR's shuffled together like a deck of cards so my sides got cool/cold. Not a great night's sleep. (Coyotes or coy-dogs woke me several times yipping and howling...)

    So tonight it's supposed to snow about 10 t0 16 inches, temps should be a few degress cooler than last time. I'll be in a HH ultralight with the undercover and their open cell foam insulation. Probably put a thin space blanket in there too. In the hammock I'll be in a 20 degree down Marmot that's in a Big Agnes 40 degree synthetic. The BA has a RR closed cell in the bottom. Over it all is an 8x10 yard tarp. I'll be wearing some fleece and either a fleec or polarguard balaclava

    I don't look forward to wrestling into the bag(s) inside the hammock. Any suggestions there?

    Well any words of wisdom will be appreciated. Wish me luck....

    Jeff

  2. #2
    Senior Member blackbishop351's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by skeenut View Post
    I don't look forward to wrestling into the bag(s) inside the hammock. Any suggestions there?

    Jeff
    I think somebody answered this question on another thread, but some things bear repeating

    One thing to consider is that you're probably better off with the bag on top of you as a quilt. That'll let you actually USE all the insulation instead of compressing it. It also makes getting in easier - just get in, scoot your feet into the footbox, and drape the rest over you. Just a suggestion.

    As far as getting in the bag, start by putting a dry pad on the ground under the entry slit. Sit down in the slit like normal. Lift your feet off the ground and get them inside the footbox. Stand up (feet still inside) and wrap the bag around you. Zip it up to your waist. Sit back down and slide inside the HH. Zip the bag the rest of the way.
    "Physics is the only true science. All else is stamp collecting." - J. J. Thompson

  3. #3
    2Questions's Avatar
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    Thumbs up Getting into a bag inside a HH

    I've been camping out a good bit lately in my HH to test this cold weather as well as how different gear works in the hammock. I was out when it was 3 degrees and 15mph winds last week.
    I have a HH ULB asym with a MacCat deluxe over it. I used a Walmart 25" full length 3/8" CCF pad covered with a "Neatsheet". http://www.theneatsheet.com/ I also use another CCF pad just 36" long for under my back to neck slipped inside the neatsheet as well. I also use two 36" x 10" CCF wings for under my arms. I used a Marmot 0 degree down bag with a full length Right hand zipper.
    1. Place the CCF in the HH just like it should be when you will on it.
    2. With the bag zipped up insert it into the HH and center it over the CCF pad.
    3. Place the wings into position, one on the right , one on the left of the CCF pad
    4. Now unzip the bag 3/4 the way down and open it up. Push the top of the bag over to the side exposing inside the bag where you will want to sit.
    5. Turn around and sit inside the bag. I scoot back a little inside the bag, clip my shoes onto a biner hanging from the ridgeline, and stick my feet into the bag.
    6. I zip up the bag to above my waist.
    7. At this point, I place my feet inside the bag at the right spot on the CCF pad then push back on the pad.
    8. With a little wriggling, I zip up the bag, check the wings positions, set my pillow under my head, put the headlamp in my pocket and fall asleep.

    I can now quickly get into the bag without too much effort and center myself over the pad. The neatsheet on the pad works well. If the HH is inclined properly, which is slightly tilting down.. towards the head end.., I stay put without sliding and stay warm all night. The sleeping bag seals any drafts against the CCF pad, the wings keep my arms warm, the double CCF layer under my back keeps that warm as well.

    I was thinking of a under quilt, but have come to the conclusion I can handle the above system well without spending any more money. The CCF pads and wings can be removed according to weather requirements and all roll up into my Equinox Katahdin bag.

  4. #4
    Senior Member BillyBob58's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by TDWeaver View Post
    I've been camping out a good bit lately in my HH to test this cold weather as well as how different gear works in the hammock. I was out when it was 3 degrees and 15mph winds last week........ I also use two 36" x 10" CCF wings for under my arms....
    I was thinking of a under quilt, but have come to the conclusion I can handle the above system well without spending any more money. The CCF pads and wings can be removed according to weather requirements and all roll up into my Equinox Katahdin bag.
    Excellent report! Shows what can be done with just pads and for little money. Do you feel that comfort suffered much by using 2 pads compared to the hammock without any pads? I haven't found much decrease in comfort adding a Ridgerest in an SPE with wings to the SS. But I do notice a stout increase in warmth relative to the already useful SS. How did you keep the wings in place--- was that part of the neat sheet?

  5. #5
    Senior Member BillyBob58's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by skeenut View Post
    ..........

    So tonight it's supposed to snow about 10 t0 16 inches, temps should be a few degress cooler than last time. I'll be in a HH ultralight with the undercover and their open cell foam insulation. Probably put a thin space blanket in there too. In the hammock I'll be in a 20 degree down Marmot that's in a Big Agnes 40 degree synthetic. The BA has a RR closed cell in the bottom. Over it all is an 8x10 yard tarp. I'll be wearing some fleece and either a fleec or polarguard balaclava

    I don't look forward to wrestling into the bag(s) inside the hammock. Any suggestions there?

    Well any words of wisdom will be appreciated. Wish me luck....

    Jeff
    Skeenut,
    are you out there yet in the cold? The way that BlackBishop described getting in the bag pretty well covers it. If for some reason I don't want to put the foot of the bag on the ground or on the pad on the ground, then I concentrate on keeping the hood of the sleeping bag all the way to the top of the hammock before I sit back in the hammock. I can accomplish this now, but it's never easy. I'm not sure how that will work with the big Agnes and Ridgerest pad. It might make it easier or harder. It sounds like you've got plenty of sleeping bags though, so your top insulation ought to keep you pretty well covered! You might indeed be able to get by using them quilt style which is both easier to get into and more comfortable. But if it's cold enough that you would need the hood on the bag, well in my experience, nothing quite equals that for keeping warm. So that would mean getting in there and using the bag as it was originally intended, rather than as a quilt. Or, possibly using a separate hood. There's nothing quite like a thick hood cinched down to a breathing hole if you are desperate to keep warm. As opposed to a bunch of warm air escaping around your shoulders and neck.

    By all means use that space blanket over the Hennessy underpad. Although, with that Ridgerest inside a Super Shelter, I don't think you will have any trouble staying warm bottom insulation wise. If you weren't using the pad, other good tricks are placing light insulation clothing items on top of the pad, or heavier ones underneath the pad. Especially if you have any down clothing that you would otherwise be taking with you anyway on a hike. Or a trash bag lightly filled with either a space blanket or crinkled up newspaper (Garlington insulator) placed underneath the Hennessy pad. THE TRICK IS TO NOT have anything in there that's heavy enough to pull the undercover too far away from the underpad, leaving a big gap. Any gap is to be avoided.

    Here is a trick I recently learned that seems to be helping with the pulling away problem. The elastic pull outs that come off of the side of the Hennessy hammock, through the loop of the underpad and out of the undercover to an attachment point: assuming that you have the elastics doubled or quadrupled for additional strength like Hennessy says for use with the undercover, I then take this elastics/guy out cord and bring it back over the top edge of the undercover and back out the exit hole in the undercover and through the hammock loop one more time. When I do this, the undercover tends to stay up in place much better than when I don't. Therefore, extra insulation that I place between the underpad and undercover don't seem to have as much tendency to pull the undercover down towards the ground. My experiments with it so far seem to indicate that it's at least somewhat helpful. But to whatever degree you can get that undercover to stay in place and not sag toward the ground, there's almost no limit to what you can put in there underneath the pad for many inches of extra insulation.

    Good luck!

  6. #6
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    Last cold night I spent in my hammock I used my mummy bag as a quilt and my ccp cut down a little bit. I added my sit pad to the inside of the footbox of my bag. That might my feet inside of socks were on the pad inside of the bag. I think that could be a little warmer. Worth a try at least.
    Is that too much to ask? Girls with frikkin' lasers on their heads?
    The hanger formly known as "hammock engineer".

  7. #7
    Senior Member headchange4u's Avatar
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    I have always struggled with getting in my bag inside my HH. There is no easy way to do it. While at Mt Rogers I decided to try my bag in top quilt mode and I will never struggle with getting in my bag again. It is much warmer (assuming you have adequate bottom insulation. If not insert a pad) and I was amazed how much loft I was loosing by lying on my bag. The inside of the hammock was filled with warm down goodness.

  8. #8
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    OK, I made it through the night. Starting temp was 17, ending temp this morning at 0700 was 12.

    I was warm enough, but intermittently cold. I put my polarguard jacket, pants and down jacket in the supershelter (but OVER the foam pad, duhhh) and slept with fleece legs, poly t-neck and polarguard hood from the jacket. The Big Agnes was used as described with the Ridgerest CCP and it was a bear to get in the hammock. I went in as suggested: first sat in the hammock with legs dangling, then attempted to pull the BA with RR and Marmot down bag over my legs,then stand and pull up over my body. Trouble already doing some wierd version of the watusi struggling to get the bag(s) in place. When done with phase one I sat again and laid back in the hammock. I went in OK and the bags around my body went in OK, but the Ridge Rest stuck outside the hammock and were pinned there with my body weight closing the hammock slit. MUCH more struggling ensued to get the bottom of the Big Agnes with the RR inot the hammock. THEN I had to try to get bags in place and the RR (still in the Big Agnes) properly centered head to foot (quite a trick, picture a drunken uncoordinated inchworm) and then oriented diagonally. By this time it was light out and I got up. Not really, but did take about fifteen minutes to get that far. QUITE exasperating.
    I was warm enough except when I leaned against the sides and compressed the loft or when sleep girations got me off the RR AND off the supershelter.

    Next time: 1. Extra clothes go under the foam HH SS pad. 2. Defintely going to twist the SS loops twice through the hammock. 3. Big Agnes inserted first and opened, then sit and put on inner bag and lay back etc...

    Thanks to all for suggestions and warm thoughts.

    I'll make this work yet!!!

    Best,
    Jeff

  9. #9
    Senior Member blackbishop351's Avatar
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    Yup, just keep trying! You'll find something that works for you!
    "Physics is the only true science. All else is stamp collecting." - J. J. Thompson

  10. #10
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    i'm not a HH user but it seems to me that method is making things WAY harder than they should be.
    i believe i would be thinking about some way to better insulate the bottom & use the bag as a quilt. really easy to use that way.
    i made a BA horse thief bag into a really efficient quilt by removing the zipper & the bottom sleeve. it's one of my favorites now.
    I too will something make and joy in it's making

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