First Night Hanging

[affreeman]

I've hung my Hennessy a couple of times at the local park wile futzing around putting the UnderCover and UnderPad on it the first time and swapping out the favctory tarp guys for the Jacks'R'Better self-tensioning lines, but since I don't have a yard I can set it up in for a trail sleep that had to wait until I could get out in the woods for an overnighter. That finally happened this past weekend when I hiked in to Upper Goose Pond in western Massachusetts on Saturday. I set the hammock up next to the tent platforms up behind the cabin (for those of you that are familiar with the place). It is a rather exposed spot at this time of year and I knew it would have been better to set up at the other tenting area which is snuggled down in the hollow a bit more, but the whole point of the weekend was to try the HH out in cold conditions so I went with the more exposed location.

It was unseasonably warm on Saturday with temps in the high 50s. I hiked in shorts and a T-shirt. It was rainy on and off all day and quite windy. In the evening it started to cool off and by the time I finished cooking and eating dinner at 5:30 it was getting chilly and it started raining steadily so I packed things up and crawled into my hammock. I had set up with the Underpad inside the Undercover and my down jacket underneath the underpad in the area where my torso would be. I also had a mylar heat sheet on top of the underpad. Inside the hammock I had my 20* down bag. Since it was still fairly warm I crawled in with just my shorts and T-shirt. My socks, which were a bit damp from slogging through the mud all day, were hung over the ridgeline to at least air out if they didn't actually dry. Even with the strong wind blowing it was quite warm inside the hammock; my back actually felt hot.

I was pleasantly surprised to note just how comfortable it was to lie in the hammock and read a book for a couple of hours. I also found the ridgeline very convenient for hanging assorted items. I had my wallet and cell phone (my wife insisted) in the little mesh pocket, a bandanna draped over the ridgeline up above my head, my socks down at the foot end, a water bottle hanging on one of the hooks that come on the HH, and my boots hanging by their laces on the other hook, with the boots themselves hanging underneath the door opening. (Do you call it a door?)

During the night the wind picked up until we had some mighty gusts. After getting home on Sunday I read some newspaper accounts of high winds cutting power to thousands of homes around the state. I also had some really heavy downpours of rain, one of which was heavy enough to cause some misting through the fly. Through it all, though, I stayed cozy and warm and comfortable. I ended up spending 13 1/2 hours in the hammock Saturday night. I wouldn't exactly call it floating on a cloud or anything, but I know if I had to spend that much time lying in my tent I would have been a cripple when I crawled out in the morning. In fact, I was comfortable enough that when I woke up at around 6:30 and noticed it was starting to get light outside I reached up and plucked my glasses off the ridgeline and thought I should get up and start my day, but then changed my mind and went back to sleep for another hour.

The temperature had dropped quite a bit overnight and by morning it was in the mid 30s. A couple hours later while hiking out I even got hit with a few snow flurries.

Here are a few observations and notes:

- The down jacket underneath the underpad seemed to keep my back very warm. As I noted previously, my back was actually hot for a couple of hours after I first went to bed. But by morning it had slipped down until it was at the very lowest point of the undercover, down around my butt. I expect it might have shifted during the two times a crawled out and then back into the hammock, and then flopped around getting back into my bag and situating myself.

- The hammock sagged quite a bit after I got in it. Not enough to touch the ground or anything, but enough that it was quite low and it made it a bit difficult getting out and getting back in. I find the Hennessy lashing easy enough to do, but it si time consuming and I would have tightened the hammock up if I had an easier way of doing so. As it was, I didn't bother.

- I'm not sure if I didn't get the hammock quite level, or if it was due to the sag I mentioned above, but I found myself sliding further towards the foot end of the hammock that was ideal, and I ended up with my feet quite a bit higher than my head. A couple of times I reached bck and grabbed the loop up at the head end and pulled myself up and that was much more comfortable, but the next time I woke up I would find myself back down towards the middle of the hammock.

- The first time I installed the underpad I found the process of releasing the side pullouts, unthreading them through the holes in the undercover, threading them through the underpad lines, then reattaching the whole thing, a bit tedious, so I used two mini-biners to attach the underpad cords to the side tie-outs and that seemed to work just great.

-I didn't see any signs of condensation in the underpad or the undercover anywhere when I was packing things up in the morning. The down jacket I had installed underneath the underpad seemed to be bone dry as well.

- I used just the stock tarp and even in the heavy wind-driven rain I stayed completely dry. I suspect having the undercover on might have helped here, since even rain that might have been blown in low under the tarp would have been repelled by the undercover.

- The underpad is nice and light, but it is bulky and I haven't yet figured out a good way to pack it. I just rolled it up sort of tightly and stuffed it into the back mesh panel on my backpack.

-I would really like a better (quicker, easier to adjust) was to suspend the hammock. The standard tree huggers and Hennessy lashing is just too time consuming. I'm going to be hanging this thing every day for six months or so next year on my thru-hike (assuming I make it!), and I want it to be as easy as possible. I am open to suggestions here. I know there are lots of threads on suspension systems, but I get lost in the discussions.

- Oh, one last thing. I am a definite side-sleeper at home and thought I would be the same in the hammock, but it seems that I ended up in a kind of hybrid position halfway between back sleeping and side sleeping; a position that wouldn't even be possible in a flat bed. It was surprisingly natural and comfortable. When I did roll completely onto my side, I found myself wishing Tom Hennessy would make both left and right-handed hammocks, since I sleep almost exclusively on my left side and that puts my face right up against the hammock fabric. Rolling onto my right side put more "open space" in front of my face, but I can't really sleep this way since a deviated septum means I have limited breathing through my nose lying on that side.

[Mrprez]

Sounds like a good night overall. It may take a few times to get the level set right so that you aren't sliding during the night. You might try a small line level from Home Depot on the ridgeline to help you get it right. The ground can cause you to think it is level when in fact it isn't even close. Here is a tip on one way to make a quick and easy suspension system that can be adjusted easily;

http://www.tothewoods.net/HomemadeGearHHGarda.html

[elcolombianito]

Very nice report. Always nice to hear other successful hennessy experiences with the stock tarp.
About the suspension. I also recommend the garda hitch, but maybe this one better http://www.hammockforums.net/forum/s...ead.php?t=1623 .
The ring buckle is another really nice one. If you dont cut the long remaining hh cord (you just need a short piece of them) you can -or at least i did- use these remaining cords to hang you backpack under you, sort of like a gearhammock, or a gear hammock for that matter, from these points. The advantage i find with the ring buckle system is you can keep the rings inside the tarp.

Anyways, thanks for the report.

[warbonnetguy]

you can also do nothing more than switch the knot. actually a good method is to thread one end loop of the tree strap through the other, and then tie to this single loop via a quick easy knot. if tying directly to the webbing loop, consider the slipped double sheetbend. pretty quick to tie and since it's slipped, you just yank on the tail to untie. if tying to a ring or biner, a slipped buntline hitch is a great way to go. there are literally thousands of knots, probably some good ones nobody's even used for hammock hanging yet.

[BillyBob58]

Great report, Affreeman! Excellent first effort. Did you have to fool with the SS suspension any after you put your down jacket in the UC, or were you able to just throw it in without any gaps developing? I have been thinking of running a string from the suspension head end prussick hook to some attachment point on the jacket, to keep it from slipping down to the bottom. But I have not tried this yet.

Great to hear that you had no condensation problems.

After my first night of slipping to the bottom of my HH, I just started routinely hanging the foot of my hammock 6" or so higher than the head, and have never had that miserable problem again. It is also much easier to just hang it a bit higher at the foot than to spend time trying to get it perfectly level, which still leaves me slipping to the foot anyway.

[BillyBob58]

you can also do nothing more than switch the knot. actually a good method is to thread one end loop of the tree strap through the other, and then tie to this single loop via a quick easy knot. if tying directly to the webbing loop, consider the slipped double sheetbend. pretty quick to tie and since it's slipped, you just yank on the tail to untie. if tying to a ring or biner, a slipped buntline hitch is a great way to go. there are literally thousands of knots, probably some good ones nobody's even used for hammock hanging yet.

I have often wondered if there was any reason, strength wise, to put the rope through BOTH tree hugger loops? As opposed to what you suggest, one hugger loop though the other loop, and then just put the rope or a biner through the one loop? Is that one loop strong enough to support full body weight? Because it sure would be easier. I guess it would be, because I only use one loop with a biner through it with my cinch buckle system.

Would that slipped sheetbend be easy to tie while trying to pull the ridgeline pretty tight?