Hello everybody,
I started hammock camping in August 2015 and would like to share my beginners experience within the first few months - especially the failure part of it. And I wanna tell you about my perfect overnighter yesterday.
Sorry for the long post, it's half a year of experimenting in one piece of text.
In Summer 2015, I planned to do a multi-day hike in the nearby Palatinate Forest, and quickly decided to use a hammock for sleeping. About 15 years ago, I slept for two weeks in a brasilian cotton hammock on a trip to Italy, and remembered it to be very comfy.
At first, I planned to use an Amazonas Silk Traveller which I bought several years ago. But I soon realised it was to small for me. Hence, I fetched myself a TTTM Double (TTTM actually is the only more or less prominent camping hammock manufacturer in Germany). For insulation, I used an old sleeping bag as TQ and made a PLUQ as an underquilt. For shelter, I bought a cheap tarp from Decathlon (a local REI-analogon). My main objective was to get a light setup for little money, which was easier to accomplish with a hammock than with a tent. Luckily, being short of money also kept me from buying a pad, which I now think was a good thing. As suspension I used two 4mm polyester ropes - not very tree friendly, but that day I did not know any better.
The trip in August was awesome, and really hooked me. I slept great and enjoyed many cool places to hang. Without much financial and DIY effort a had a pretty good rig, except it was a little heavy (hammock 21 oz, tarp 30 oz, PLUQ 35 oz, TQ 45 oz, total: more than 8 lb).
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The day I came home my hammock camping life actually started. I discovered HF (thanks to all members for the great ressource you built over the years), bought a sewing machine (sorry: thread injector), and took a beginners course on sewing. Since then, I made five hammocks, some underquilts from old sleeping bags, two tarps, a down underquilt, some clothes and some small stuff. Nearly all of my first DIY projects went wrong, second tries were better and mostly usable. Here are some pictures.
My first hammock, my first tarp, my first sewn underquilt (from an old sleeping bag), my fancee feest stove. The fabric of the hammock had to much stretch, which resulted in extreme calf-ridge. And the sewing holes were pulled open, I gathered through a sewn channel. The rolled hems on the edges of the tarp were very crude, no good sewing. The fancee feest works fine, I still use the first version.
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Here is my second tarp, ridgeline and tie-outs are "Warbonnet style". Sewing got much better. Still two mistakes: the fabric I chose is to heavy (1.6 oz/yd^2) and I attached the webbing used for the corner tie-outs on the outside of the tarp. Underneath the tarp is my third hammock. Double-layer with "Warbonnet-style" gathering. Got nice, very comfy, but too heavy (2x1.5 oz/yd^2).
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Here my most difficult and hence most unperfect project: my 3/4 down underquilt, 8 baffles, 9 ounces of down, 2 inches loft. The main mistake: I made the inside fabric too wide, resulting in to less loft. I did not take into account the stretching of the fabric. It did not render the quilt useless, but performance was much lower than expected. And I hab air gaps under my legs, I never really found out why. I addressed both issues with a measure: I sew some darts on the inside, higher on the foot part of the quilt (somhow like at Warbonnets Incubators). Now the quilt works quite fine down to 25°F, but it looks pretty "scarred". After that brave mod I lost my inhibitions and added another idea I wanted to try velcro on the foot end to be able to attach a piece of poncho liner to turn the 3/4-quilt into a full-length quilt. Did work somehow, but the velcro is not really nice there. If "Frankenquilt" wasn't occupied already, it would be the perfect name for my quilt. Probably, I will disassemble it after the summer, take the down and add some more, and make a second version of the UQ. I'll see.
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I experimented with stoves, tarp ridgeline and hammock suspensions for hours and hours - like probably anybody else on this forum. At the moment, I am happy with the fancy feast stove, a CRL with prusik loops and s-biners for the tarp, and a UCR hammock suspension with Dutch Clips and diamond knots.
In addition to these hardware-related experiences, I made some behavioural advances.
I spent several nights below 32°F and repeatedly was hit by serious condensation - everything soaking wet. Sleeping as warm as possible is not always the best - afterwards I discovered right that piece of information in some of Shug's videos. I learned not to get into the hammock at 4 in the afternoon and stay there until next morning - not a good start for a restful night. And I learned to avoid the calf-ridge by laying in a certain way in the hammock, or to ignore it if I cannot find the sweet spot.
So, within the last months I made some evolution. And I had several failures - and enjoyed every single one of it.
And then, yesterday, I had a perfect overnighter. Started Thursday at 10.00 AM, at 35°F. I hiked for 7 hours with three little breaks, 10 miles. Base load was about 22 lb, plus 4 pounds consumables. The first thing I made different and better than on any other trip before was clothing and hiking behavior. I slowed down to reduce sweating, a tip I have from the guy who speaks of himself in the third person. In combination with my nearly all wool clothing (two thin merino shirts, a pair of merino long johns and my new DIY wool shirt) I had not a single moment where I was freezing or feeling hot. I never took off anything and also did not change cloths at camp. Although I did sweat, everything dried on my body without me getting cold. The wool shirt is absolutely awesome, definitely worth carrying this little extra load and bulk compared to a down or synthetic jacket. And robust, and fire-resistent, and odor-resistent, and so one. The best 35 Euros ($40) spent in months. Here a picture of it. It has no hood, but the next version will.
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Setting up camp was easy. Found a great spot with two perfect trees. I hung my DIY hammock, my DIY tarp, attached my DIY down underquilt, and my DIY UQ protector, and unpacked my HG Burrow 20.
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Then I cooked dinner (self dried tortellini with tomato sauce, tea) on my DIY fancy feast stove. When it got dark, I made a small swedish torch fire and watched the stars. At 9 PM I went to sleep, I left all my clothes on except my trousers. I did not cover my upper body with the HG burrow, as the wool shirt was warm enough. I watched not to get too hot to avoid condensation. And gradually covered myself when I felt cold. Worked like a charm, not the slightest problem with condensation when doing it this way (Shug: "Add insulation as you go." I can recommend that.). Nights low was 26°F. I was comfy all night. In the morning I had tea, a cereal bar and chicken minestrone from the hammock. When the sun was rising, I took down camp and hiked home, 5 hours, 8 miles, with a nice tea break.
This great moment showed me that I am on the right way, my way. I will continue to experiment at home and out in the woods. And I can surely tell every newbie to hang in there - the perfect hang is waiting for you.
Sorry again for the excessively long post. I hope, I do not break any forum rules with this one.
Best, Roland.
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