First Overnighter - Hickory Knob State Park

Well last week I received my 3 season Crowsnest and MacCat Standard tarp. That meant this weekend was my first test run overnight. I arrived at the campground just after daylight to check which sites might work for me. I left and drove up the rode abotu 15 miles to Calhoun Falls State Park and looked around there as well. They have a 13 site primitive tent loop. I decided I liked HKSP better so I went back.

I unloaded and built a fire first thing to get a feel for the wind. I chose a spot opposite the smoke and hung my hamm ock. That was the easy part. Then I started with the tarp. Unlike my hammock, I had never hung the tarp. I had a general idea of how it needed to go and proceeded to tie it out to the trees. It was then that I noticed it was hitting the whoopie sling and would not hang right. TIme for plan B. I decided to go for the V method and let the whoopie sling ride between tarp line. It still did not work the way I wanted it to, but made it through the night, including a lot a wind and rain. Talk about a first night out. My tarp issue had me hanging my hammock lower than I wanted and my Crowsnest was almost to the ground.

I didn't get wet, but it was touch and go. I think the MacCat standard will end up being a summer tarp and I will end up with a bigger one for winter.

I just need to experiment more with my lines and knots and different methods of attaching the tarp in relation to the hammock. Here are the pics.

http://thumb11.webshots.net/t/83/183...1wzPRJg_th.jpg

Excellent report. Nice looking tarp however a bit on the small size, for me, if a storm blew in. Perfect for a summer rain and light to pack.

Nice report thanks for sharing. I'm sure you have heard the old saying "practice makes perfect".

Yep. This trip was a practice run. Took me an hour to get it good enough,although not exactly how I wanted it. I have been studying videos tonight from Brandon at Warbonnet and practicing hitches.

Yes the tarp is smaller than what I thought it would be, but it did keep me dry through a pretty good wind and rain storm for 4 hours. Maybe I got lucky! I'm sure I will end up with a bigger one eventually.

I have been trying to figure out where I went wrong with the tarp location vs the hammock suspension. Maybe the trees were too close together to string the tarp line under the hammock straps.

Something else I learned on this trip is that a rectangular sleeping bag is way too bulky for a gathered end hammock. Gotta get a top quilt.

Sounds like a nice overnighter. You'll be throwin that gear up like a pro in no time. I had alot of fun learning different knots and gettin it all dialed in when I got started.

Looks like you ended up getting up pretty solid though. There is def a learning curve for hammocking, but once you get it, it's worth it.

Your tarp looks nice and tight, which is the advantage of the cat cut; I think most of the pics I have seen where the tarp is attached lower on the tree than the hammock, the trees are slightly further apart, so the 30* (optimum angle-YMMV) runs the hammock suspension clear of the tarp edge, then attaches up higher on the tree then the (more horizontal) tarp/ridgeline. shop around the galleries and see different setups for more ideas to try!
KM(who is wishing she did not have to get up early for work tomorrow...)

Since my tarp is smaller than what I thought it would be and with the weather forecast as it was, I wanted to get the tarp as close to the ground as possible to block the wind and rain. That worked against me by putting me and my Crowsnest closer to the ground than I wanted. I will be interested to see how it goes next time with no wind and rain.

That and think about getting a bad weather (bigger) tarp!