First nights in the field with the LL quilts

[Benchmark]

I got to finally take out the hammy with my 20* Habanero UQ & 40* SS Serrano this past weekend on a scout campout. Friday night was damp with on and off misty drizzle and gusts of about 20 - leftovers from Jose. Overnight lows were upper 50's. I got there late so I had to setup in the dark on Friday. Not really an issue but I find trying to scan trees for widowmakers is just a lot harder as artificial light doesn't always let you see the big picture and the gusts made things seem a little more real. Spot I found worked pretty well - trees just far enough apart and in the right direction to block the wind with the tarp. With the BB XLC only having zippers on one side, I also experienced the advantage of zippers on both sides of a bugnet/going netless in terms UQ adjustment. Pretty minor issue though and it wasn't a problem. The Serrano worked well and it's so amazing having down vs. synthetic sleeping bag in terms of packability and noticeable weight on top of you. Only got cool on second night but it had been warm out so I was pretty minimal in terms of clothes on that second night. I put some socks on after the nightly tree watering and was fine after that. George and crew - Thank you! Great products and worth the wait!

I think the other thing I realized was that I think I need to spend some time in the hammock before settling in for the night. I get in to basically just go to bed and find I'm a little to excited about being the hammock to fall asleep quickly. Trying to remember if I was that way with tent too. Probably just need to spend more time sleeping outside!

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Mods - feel free to move this if you feel it should...this is partial trip report/partial review.

[deckster]

Looks awesome! I read for a while in the hammock before I fall asleep. I've been a hammock camper for a bit over a year now, and one big shift for me from tent to hammock was learning that I could get used to sleeping with the tarp in porch mode and really feel like I was outside, you know? I didn't try that until about the third time out or so, when the weather was good enough, and it was a remarkable change compared to having the tarp snugged down around me. I felt naked at first without the "tentlike feel" of a tarp around me, but learned to love it quickly and just lay there and enjoy the outdoors, silly as that sounds.

Sounds like you had some weather issues on this trip, but have you had the chance for that open, uncovered hang yet?

[Benchmark]

Yeah getting into the bed/hammock earlier would probably help that but it seems it's always on the later side on the scout campouts. I've been a hammock camper for about the same as you. I did get a tarpless night last October. That was pretty cool. It was full moon that time which made it a little bright. I have an old fleece neckwarmer that I use sometimes to force the darkness on the eyes and warm the head. The weather this past time was still pretty good. The pics above are from Saturday morning after the rain and still in 'tent' mode. I switched to porch mode right after the pics. When I used it at summer camp I had porch mode going the whole time. I definitely prefer porch mode. I think I'll start looking into some kind of netless option for a second hammock - maybe a Dutch for the cooler weather. I know I can take the net off the BB but I'm not sure how well that will work. It seems like the removing the net by the head end will put your head right on the edge of the hammock body.

Overall the quilts work well though...never say never but I don't plan on going back to pad and sleeping bag! So much more comfortable.