This weekend was a weekend of firsts for my son (6 yrs old) and me. We went to his first Cub Scout camping trip. It was at an awesome camp, Gus Blass Boy Scout Camp in Damascus AR. This place was great, the staff was very helpful and the accommodations were great.
We ended up setting up our hammocks looking out over the lake in a little grouping of trees. We are just getting our hammock "kit" together so we don't have a fancy nylon tarp (yet, you will see why later) so we used a brown and silver Walmart tarp. I was going to set up a double tarp so we would have more protection from the storms that were going to hit during the night, but I ended up letting my friend use the smaller tarp to put over his t--t.
This was my son's first camping trip using hammocks. He used a Grand Trunk ultra light with a draped bug net and whoopie slings/tree strap setup. The bug net worked great, just a couple of small rocks and rubber bands on the corners to hold it down and presto no bugs!
Well that is two firsts down how about some more...
I had mentioned the pending storms earlier, I made the choice to not tell my son about the storms that were going to hit that night, and I am glad I did. That little man slept right through them!
Now we're not talking a little rain and some little breezes with light rumbles of thunder in the distance. No this was more like small hurricane. It was strong enough to take out at least one tent at the camp. As a matter of fact a couple of counties to our North West the storm produced a tornado.
I got up three or four times to check the tarp tie downs and re-tighten them. I also had to use a walking stick to prop up in the middle of the tarp to help with run off. At one point during the thick of things I was holding on to the walking stick with one hand and the side of the tarp with the other because I was afraid it was about to leave us.
We ended up making it through the storm unharmed and relatively dry and my son completely unaware that anything had happened. My under quilt go some wind blown splatter and my Son's Pea pod sleeping bag got wet on the windward side. The tarp did it's job other than a couple of pinholes. I am researching sinylon today!
The storm counts as two firsts because it was my first real storm and of course my son's also.
Even though we had the unfortunate storm and my total loss of good sleep we had a great time! I asked my son (really got to get a screen name for him) "what was your favorite part of the camp?" his answer "Sleeping in my hammock and camping with you!". LOVE THAT LITTLE MAN!
Oh yeah and the got a ton of belt loops. Here are a few pics from the weekend. My son is the one in the middle.
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