Hello from Japan!

I’m a long fan of hammock use for camp-lounging, but I’ve never spent an overnight. I still remember my best and worst hammock moment (the same moment) in Utah on a cliff overlooking Fish Lake, almost 20 years ago. It was the most beautiful place I had ever hung a hammock and I was just starting to doze off, basking in a fuzzy warmth of self-congratulations on the perch I had found…when…WHACK…I was on the ground seeing stars, my head throbbing. The tree I had anchored my head-end to had snapped at the base and hit me square in the noggin. It was about 8” diameter and eaten out and crawling with carpenter ants at the base (the tree, not my head)…lesson learned there.

Spring 2011…
Now that the boys (8 and 9) are getting older, I’m going to get us all hanging for overnights. I've always hated being on the ground. We have a two-week, camping road-trip coming up in late March that will cover northern AZ and southern UT, with possible short forays across the borders of CO and WY. We did this basic trip a few years ago, hitting around 7 national parks, fossil digging, route 66, meteor crater and other points of interest. We wont be able to hang at all sites, but should get in a handful of nights. Other nights will be tent on cot.

Last time (same time of year) we had temps down below freezing at night and occasional snow.

Thanks…
I’ve spent the last handful of weeks reading literally thousands of posts to get up to speed and have been amazed by the breadth of knowledge/experience, and the generosity of this forum community. My thanks go out to the many contributors, and ownership/management of the site. If you posted something on how to make a hammock or underquilt in the last 2-3 years, chances are I might have read it and I thank you for it. I’ve also seen a lot of videos, some of them very entertaining (Shug? That man is a hammock-comic genius and needs an agent, if he doesn't have one already!).

Where we’re at now…
By the time the trip rolls around in March, I’d like to be up to speed with 3 hammocks ready for cold-weather use.

We have a couple Enos now, which we use for daytime lounging, though I hope to use those in summer with some bug netting (looking at Warbonnet travel hammock netting). I suppose I could use an UQ for those and be usable for the trip with enough clothes/insulation. I’m looking at the possibility of an IX or Climashield DIY UQ since the down UQ build appears to require skill and confidence I have yet to possess. I can’t fully conceptualize the baffle construction yet.

The boys and I have good cold-weather sleeping bags, so we’ll have to make do with those for now, though I’ve read all about how most you tend to evolve to TQs.

I’m relatively handy (though new to machine sewing) so I might give DIY a shot. However, we’ll need bug netting here for sure…the skeeters are ferocious from June/July through Oct/Nov. I like the zip-out nets I’ve seen folks make (HH clone and others), but as a beginner, I’d have to honestly say it looks beyond my confidence level, not to mention skill. Velcro looks easier, but less user-friendly. I’ll meditate on that

I’m also open to the purchase of a new or used hammock. Despite their mixed press, I’ve looked at new and used Clarks for winter use, NX-200 or NX250. At some of the dive sites I go to, I could hang near the ocean, and the weathershield would likely be a real asset in winter/spring.

I’m also considering the HH Holiday Special still in effect, “buy one, get a scout free” for the two boys. Looks like a great value, with tarps, even though I hear the coverage on the tarps is on the minimal side of adequate.

Bio…
Back in my late 20s, I did a lot of motorcycle touring/camping around the west/southwest. Before I moved here to Japan, I spent 4 months trekking/camping in the Himalayas of India/Nepal/Tibet (some good stories there). I’ve been in Japan for around 15 years now (with sub-par language skills), originally coming to study Iaido (art of Samurai Sword) and eventually had a sword made for me by a traditional smith. Sadly, my elbows and shoulders have become “unpredictable snivelers” to the point that I don’t actively train anymore. I am working as a university-level educator, and on weekends I teach scuba (I’m a NAUI, PADI, recreational and technical scuba diving dive instructor and Course Director).

Yoroshiku Onegaishimasu
(Standard verbage at the end of an introduction, literal meaning, “Please be good to me”)
H