not really a trip report, so I'm posting it here. Mods if you disagree, move it at your will.
So, this past weekend, the mens group at my church had a retreat at a property not far away and I was there. Since the cabin only holds about 8 and the bunk house 10, I figured, what the heck! I'd take my hammock and tarp and UQ and sleeping bag and get in some hang time.
So, I get there and my location options are pretty limited and I wound up between a tree and a power pole. No big deal ast he space was about 13' and I"d have no issues getting setup. The only thing that concerned me was the wetness of the ground as we'd had about 3 days of good soaking rain.
So, I start unloading the backpack and get my rigging out (tree straps, cinch buckles and hammock) and after getting my little piece of ground cover down, I proceed to hang the hammock. No problems so far and as you can see in the pics, all looks good once the hammock is up and tarp on top.
I was using a CRL for the tarp and no ridgeline on the hammock. I'd also left my bug net behind as the temps were supposed to get down to the 40s, so figured I wouldn't need it. Well, right off, as I'm putting the stakes in the ground (titanium ones), I get a little concerned about the softness of the ground, but since no wind was forecast I wasn't too worried. Tarp goes up, and all seems OK.
So I go to bed about 11 and the temps are still hovering in the 60s and the no bug net decision is haunting me as I hear one buzzing after another. Ya know...those little buzzings that let you know a skeeter is aiming at your tender flesh? Yeah....those buzzings. So, I send up a small prayer to the good lord to keep them at bay tonight and He actually answered by sending a gentle yet firm breeze not long after I asked which seemed ot put the little buggers at bay. But then, God has a sense of humor. 'Cause right about 1:30AM, the "gentle, yet firm breeze" turns into a mighty wind which had some pretty strong and frequent gusts. At one point my hammock was not gently swaying to and fro, but bouncing up and down. not very hard mind, but noticeable nonetheless.
That's when the fun really got started. First, the tarp (my HG Cuben tarp) starts to get the bejayzuss flapped out of it, and the left side (I was laying with my head towards the power pole)starts to bang up against the hammock. And just about the time I"m considering getting up and doing something about that, a stake pulls loose. So, I get up and fix teh stake. About that time, the flapping against the hammock becomes too much, so I run a piece of ZingIt through the pull outs and anchor them to my truck mirror as it was next to my hang site and very convenient. Back in the hammock and now because of all of the noise (for those of you considering a Cuben tarp, be warned that in the wind it is extremely noisy. think Tyvek noisy) and the stake incident, I'm finding it hard to fall asleep. Good thing too, 'cause right about then, another stake comes out. Fix that and get resettled and one of the guylines goes slack. Fix that and another one loses the knot from out of the little tensioner thingy and it goes slack. Fix that and yet another stake pulls out.
Fix that, and my ridgeline on the tarp somehow either slacked up, or all the flapping caused it to drop down the power pole so that it was hanging almost on the hammock. Oh yeah...and all this time I'd somehow managed to mess up the mod I did on the hammock (GT Parachute Double) to replace the old rope and 'biners with Amsteel and Nanos, cause I had way too much material on the left side and not enough on the right. One up side to this though was that I was able to use the little stuffsack that's attached to the hammock as a weight by putting my Orbit lamp and headlamp in it and basically fling it over the right side of the hammock, creating a sort of cocoon around me which was an aid to keeping me warm. For insulation I had my JRB Greylock 3 underneath, a CCF blue pad with reflectix on one side underneath me, a Snugpak 45* bag, underwear, and the 1st layer of the military cold weather system. basically lightweight thermal base layer, and my socks. (For most of the night I was quite cozy.) I mention this because it was right around the time the ridgeline got fixed that, once back in the hammock I notice teh UQ has hit the ground. No idea how it came unhooked form the head end, but there you have it. Rehook it, and WHAM! another stake pulls free.
At this point I just let the tarp flap, snoozed about 30 minutes and got up and went in to get some coffee and breakfast, it being that time of the morning. Right...no sleep, grumbly feelings and a determination to get the next one right.
Below are the "before" pics. didn't have the heart to take "after" ones.
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