Hello everyone. I'm new here and from Western North Carolina. I started hanging due to the lack of flat/root-free ground around the NC mountains. I love it! Been hammocking for around 6 years now.

I'm at a very interested stage of my camping life though. I'm a backpacker, I travel miles into the woods to find that solitude and peace of being the only person in my general area BUT my little girl is ready to hit the woods. She's turning 5 this May.

So I'm trying to get some "Car Camping" gear to break her in to the outdoors when my girlfriend, who I've not really taken camping as of yet, says..."I want to backpack with you this season".

Now I'm super happy that she wants to go. And I'm also stoked that I'm going to be able to take the whole family into the woods also!

The problem here is getting the gear to bridge the gap. I don't think that I'm ready to put my little girl in a hammock. I think we should tent camp when the three of us go camping right now. My girlfriend wants to hammock camp while in the backcountry though.

So do I need to get gear for both or is there some stuff that will bridge the gap between these two extremes? I'm thinking of a CCF pad for my girlfriend in the hammock. She also needs a good bag as she's not done this before and is a cold sleeper.

Anyhow, I'll be throwing a ton of ideas at you guys and gals in the next few weeks trying to iron out the kinks of getting gear that I can bring along for the hammock trips but also be able to use it while car camping or vice versa.

I want to avoid having two sets of everything if that's at all possible. The main things I'm talking about here is bags and pads fwiw.

Thanks guys and I'm looking forward to being a part of this forum!