What made you a "hanger"?

[curlymaple42]

My son was in the scouts when he was younger. I watched many of the adults and older scouts pitching hammocks and never really thought about it.

My brother in law gave my son a complete ENO kit. And I mean complete. Bug net, straps, biners, everything but a tarp. And then a year later he took it all back. My son was pretty upset so I just happened to see them on wish and I grabbed it. So now I'm 41 peeking at a fast approaching 42 and we all go camping. It was a rushed affair and poorly planned so we ended up on a gravel tent pad with no air mattress. My son threw his hammock up. In 10 minutes he was swinging and snoring. Meanwhile me and my wife slept on what we called "chastity" rocks.

So, I vowed to look into this hammock junk. I figured my big butt would never fit in one but maybe we can clear the tents out enough to find room for an air mattress. (We have 6 kids)

A week later and gobs of reading and tube videos later and my hammock is on its way to me. I just got a notification as I was typing this that it's out for delivery.


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Chastity rocks. Brilliant...

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[Heavy Bear]

Erased. Previous post is gone so the answer was irrelevant

[artgirl42]

My dad bought them for the whole family! I also love that when we go backpacking, I don't have to carry a huge tent to share, just one hammock all for me!

[SCWalker]

I wonder if anyone has read all 222 pages of this thread :O

Yes. I did when I joined. I was really bored and sick that night. I think I had a really bad cold or possibly the flu. It's been a few years.

[sloanie]

It's kind of interesting to look back and see how I came full circle. As a kid of maybe 11 years old (this was early 1990s), I bought one of those rope nylon hammocks. No idea where I got the idea from (I know Goofy enjoyed a hammock in the occasional cartoon I watched growing up, but I just remember it being very cheap ($5? $15?) at an Allied store.

I was part of a boy scout troop not long after that, and I hadn't ever seen or heard of the idea of camping in a hammock-- in fact, I'm not sure I'd camped outdoors at all up to that point unless you count going to a group campground and staying in a motorhome. But on the first backpacking trip I went on, which was a short hike in mild conditions, I decided I was going to pack in my hammock and sleep in that, heh. All I remember is that my scout leaders tied the sides of my hammock together so I wouldn't fall out in the night. Obviously it was a bit chilly without any particular insulation below me-- just me in my sleeping bag in my hammock, but that's the only thing I recall making me uncomfortable that night. After that, I never really thought about camping in a hammock again for nearly 25 years. I camped a little on and off as a scout, but not much after age 14 until I was in my late 20s.

I even bought a Hammock Bliss parachute nylon hammock in the mid 2000s that I never got around to trying-- totally forgot I had it. Spring 2015 rolled around and I must have seen a photo on instagram or something and it sparked an interest in hammocks again, and well... down the rabbit hole I went. Started with the obligatory "ENO double nest" (gotta hand it to them for marketing hammocks in general), and quickly started trying other gear.

It's just amusing to me that somehow as I kid I had one time tried a really crude form of hammock camping only to become kind of obsessed with it 25 years later. I'd had no idea what I was onto back then.

[KiwiMark]

I wonder if anyone has read all 222 pages of this thread :O

LOL - sure!
There isn't even 2,500 posts in this thread!

There is a thread on the adventure riding forums on the DR650 and it has over 140,000 posts in it - now THAT thread took me a LONG time to get through!

It's kind of interesting reading about what led other people to get off the ground and seek comfort hanging in hammocks.

[Randonneur]

The criteria I've always required of my gear is; small, light, comfortable and multi purpose. My Kelty 1 man bivy tent is most of that but once I switched from cycle touring to kayak touring finding a place to pitch a tent along the shores of a river is not always that easy. Problem solved with the hammock plus I don't have to carry and extra seat to sit on around camp. The hammock and tarp actually weigh less than my one man tent and they pack easier in a kayak.

[artgirl42]

This was my first hang in our yard, I'm hooked for hanging!

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[tollermama]

This was my first hang in our yard, I'm hooked for hanging!

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Looks like a comfy hang. When was your first hang? Hope for many more!!

[curlymaple42]

This was her first hang! I keep track of our hangs. Lol!



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