Well, after my most excellent Memorial Weekend solo trip, I convinced my wife to try out my hammock during a backyard camp out with my kids. She was immediately convinced, so we bought another Chameleon for her.
This trip, I decided to take 3 complete newbies to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) in northern MN. I have been several times, but my closest friends and my wife have never tried it, mostly they said because it was intimidating. We chose to outfit canoes from Sawbill Outfitters and launch right onto Sawbill Lake. The very flexible plan was to get out there and go as far west as everyone was comfortable going and make a vacation out of the rest. Nothing too tricky, nothing too grueling, several contingency plans should something go wrong. That was enough to convince them to trust me.
We set out from the Twin Cities at 4AM on Thursday, ate a delightful breakfast in Duluth at The Duluth Grill, and arrived at Sawbill somewhere around 10:30 AM. Quick tutorial from the outfitters/Rangers and we were on the water. The friends were a bit rusty with the paddles and wound up canoeing maybe twice as far as my boat haha. Whatever gets you there. We took the southwest portage (short, easy) from Sawbill into Alton Lake and campsite hopped southward looking for a place to set up. This is a pretty busy area and all but the southern-most site were occupied. No matter, the site we landed at has its own bay, great shelter from the wind, excellent fire area, decent swimming, and a very pretty sunset view.
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Here's the two Dutchware Chameleons in tandem mode (test hang), with 32" spreader bar. Tarp is a Jacks 'R' Better 12' Universal.
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Having no idea what I was doing with the setup, we actually managed to have the best night's sleep ever in all of our years camping. My wife and I discussed it several times during the trip, how great these hammocks are.
Next day we had a proper lollygag morning, packed up and hit the lake by about 11:30 AM. Friends did not sleep as well on the ground and were kinda stiff, so we went with an easy contingency option and decided to just stay on Alton Lake, skipping the westward lakes. Heading northward on Alton, on the east bank, we saw several pretty sites that were occupied, and a couple sites on the west bank also occupied. We did discover a hard-to-locate landing on the west shore that turned out to be another really great site. We stayed there 2 nights.
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This second night, I messed up the setup. It turns out (probably obvious to you all) that you need to be fairly careful with the alignment of the two hammocks to be parallel between the trees. I just eyeballed it, shrugged and accepted what it was. The result of misalignment was that I slept very close to, and mostly underneath my wife. She slept great. I was fine, but there was less luxury this way even though I really like her. Third night I discovered the misalignment issue, took better care, and had a 5-Star sleep afterward.
(Below) There are only sleeping bags in these. No idea what I was thinking letting that go...
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All in all, this was the best camping trip ever with my wife (12 years camping together) and that is entirely due to the excellent sleeping.
Rig:
(2) Chameleon by Dutchware, (2) asym bug net, (4) dyneema straps+beetle buckles+Dutch Clips, 32" spreader bar
Jacks 'R' Better 12' Universal Tarp + (2) pole mod, (4) Hookworm guy outs, Continuous Ridgeline with Wasp (Dutchware)
Warmth: (wife) 10* 70" Habanero UC by Loco Libre + 25* Kelty down mummy bag; (me) just a 25* synth mummy bag from REI
Food: Packit Gourmet and Camp Chow brands from re-hydrated meals, this and that for all the rest. You all should try Packit Gourmet, man are they good.
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