First Hang in my newly purchased Blackbird 1.1 DL last night.
I was hoping to have done this before now, but wanted to wait for a night before a day that wasn's so gosh darn busy if the "sleep" did not go well. So this was my first hang in a BB, second hang in a hammock, the first being in an HH.
If everything was perfect, I would not have had my first hang in cold weather, ~ 38 last night, but it's what we had.
The tarp I used is a borrowed tarp from an HH expedition. I had an older Thermarest and put a new WM blue pad (the 24" version) on top of that. My top insulation is my wife's older Windypass bag that I think was rated to 15 degrees (at one time). A black mamba is in my future.
It was about 46 degrees when I hopped in last night and it sure felt comfortable. That said, even after reading a bit I had some trouble falling asleep. This had more to do with trying something new. Once I did fall asleep I did not wake up again until 6:30am. NICE!
It's amazing experiencing some of the situations I have read so often here. Specifically, it takes no more than being fractions of an inch off the pad to feel the cold. UQ's also in my future.
Next stop: Saturday night with the scouts on Mt. Pleasant. I'll also be probing my buddies to see about warmer gear for a possible jaunt to the Mt. Roger's hang in January.
Thanks so much for all of the great advice and experiences shared here. I'm 100% "in" on hanging.
PS. I thought I had my wife talked into letting me take our cat out to the hammock and test out if she would "make bisquits". She vetoed: "Mike, she'll tear that thing apart"
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