What a great time!
If you have never been to a group hang I highly suggest you go. It was my first time to one of these shindigs and not only was it a lot of fun but I also learned a lot. It was also the first time I went camping in January. There are people with so much knowledge to share at these events. I bet even if you are a seasoned camper I am sure you would still leave with a bit of new information. If you are new to the hammock game then this surely is the place for you. Hopefully you can learn from what I did right and what I did wrong.
I arrived late on Friday night and the closer sites were already taken. My advice is to make it there during daylight to ensure you get a good spot and have light to find a suitable spot. Since this was not my first time setting up my ridge doing it in the dark was not a big deal. I found a spot close to the water. It was a great view but I later was told this meant it was a windier site. I actually did not mind this one bit. In fact I slept with my tarp pulled back so that I could watch the stars. It ended up being about 35 degrees Fahrenheit. It was chilly but I did not suffer.
Here is what I did wrong. Since I do not own either a top or under quilt, I utilized 4 sleeping bags. That’s right you read correctly 4 of them. I had 4 sleeping bags with two different sizes. I zipped up the first 2 together and stuffed them into the other 2 which were zipped together. Basically it was a hot pocket inside of another hot pocket. This may have been fine if this was a snug fit. It was not snug at all. There was all kinds of space inside both sets of bags. I think my reasoning was that I wanted more room to move side the sleeping bags. I am a bigger fellow and I didn’t believe I would fit ok. As it turns out I later tried a single sleeping bag at home and I fit inside fine. The reason this system is bad is that there was so much room inside the sleeping bags that it made it harder for the bag to retain my body heat. If I had to do it over again I think I would have tried two sleeping bags inside each other.
The second night was much colder. I believe this night got down to 21 degrees Fahrenheit. However I was much warmer this night. I made a few changes for this to be true. The first thing I change was that I tied my tarp much lower this evening with the ends of my Kelty Noah tarp closed with a twig. This made for somewhat of a door. I believe the lower pitch and the doors helped retain more body heat. I also procured a Therm-a-Rest Z Lite sleeping pad at the gear sale (big hangs are a great place to buy cheap used gear which is another reason you should go). Another camper recommended that I put the pad on a second hammock I had in my car. This meant the pad was sandwiched between two hammocks. I laid one open sleeping bag on top of the sleeping pad beneath my top hammock. I then had the second sleeping bag on my top hammock. I laid the final two zipped together bags on top of this and I slept inside the two top sleeping bags. I have to note that even though it was colder this night I was warmer. The issues had had were that the sleeping bags and pad would move and I would have to adjust during the night. If I had to do this over again I would have ditch one of the zipped together sleeping bags and slept inside of one instead.
What did I learn? Don’t go hanging in January again without a top or under quilt. I currently have a friend helping me sew an under quilt out of one of the sleeping bags. I plan on making a top quilt from another sleeping bag myself since this one isn’t as difficult (Will post pictures and steps once these are complete). Can you hang with simply sleeping bags and a pad in January? This was Florida people I would not advise doing this up north. It is doable but I do not recommend it. Next year I would show up earlier to spend more time with the other hangers and get a better spot for myself. The gear sale is a great place to pick up new to you equipment for cheap. My final piece of advice is to make sure you are on time to meals. I missed many of them and after enjoying a couple I realized I should have made sure not to miss any at all next year.
I would like to thank the members who make this hang possible. I would also like to thank everyone who taught me new tips and tricks. Your friendliness and willingness to help was refreshing and demonstrated why people come to these hangs.
Hangers and warm and delightful folk. I can’t wait to get back out there and hang some more.
Go ahead and suggest any ways my crude set up could have been improved. Not only am I here to learn but perhaps someone else can also learn from my mistakes.
-Nook
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