Just Stumbled In

This August I took a 75 mile canoe trip in the Voyaguers National Park. I wasn't sure we'd always get a campsite, so I looked for gear that could be "pitched" on the Canadian Shield (rocks). Bought a WBBB and now I'm hooked. The advantages of a hammcock made the trip all the better.

Putting a hammock under a tarp is far better than a tent. It is so easy to access gear without having to open a tent and let the bugs in. Easy to get out in the evening to answer the call of nature. Love the shelf in the BB.

Most of my hanging will be around water (land of 10,00 lakes). The view from the hammock on a northern lake is breathtaking. The far shore of the lake photo is Canada.

I'm a little Minnesota proud, but think about this. Shug is from a southern state, but lives in Minnesota.

Welcome from the Jersey Shore. That tarp looks absolutely massive!

Welcome to HF from Georgia! Looks like you've put together a nice set up. Nothing like getting out from the walls of a tent and enjoying a room with a view.

Welcome from South Carolina! Loving that view.

Welcome fellow minnesotan!! I came out of the BWCA about 3 weeks ago. Love those northern nights hangin by the lake.

The tarp is an 10 x 12 Globe Skimmer Ultralight tarp from Equinox. When traveling by water with no portages, I can take a little more weight and the extra space under the tarp is a luxury. Looking at a smaller one with doors for hiking and winter camping.

I snowmobile in the winter and I think it would be a blast to hang on a trip rather than in the hotel.

Hello and Welcome from Canada!

Welcome form WV. What a great intro to hammock camping!

welcome from east Tenn.

Welcome from SC. Nice setup... :thumbup:

Another South Carolina welcome. Love the tarp who makes it?

Great story, one to share with my "unbelieving" friends. Welcome from IL!

Welcome from Georgia, and welcome to HF. Just being curious, but how many days to do the 75 miles?

The trip was a circumnavigation of the Kabetogama Peninsula in the Voyageurs National Park. Without pushing it very hard, we were able to complete the trip in five and half days. To avoid wind, we would be on the water by 6 and off by 1:30. I took a kayak (only one in the group) and probably worked less than those in canoes, except the one canoe where the rear paddler was using a kayak paddle. This setup pushes the canoe along very well and pretty much eliminates J-stroking.

Unlike the BWCA, if you can’t find an unoccupied campsite you can camp in an undesignated campsite provided it is at least 200 ft from an existing occupied camp site. This is where the hammock shines. You don’t have to find a level clean area to pitch a tent. Many of the campsites in the northern Ontario provincial parks aren’t maintained or frequently used which makes more work when using a tent. You can always find suitable trees for a hammock in northern Minnesota or Ontario, so I think the hammock is a better solution when exploring less traveled areas.

The tarp is an Equinox Globe Skimmer - 10 x 12.

Welcome from NW Indiana!

Welcome fellow Minnesotan

Welcome to HF from Mass.

Voyageurs is just mind-blowing. My Uncle in law has a cabin on Cemetery Island where Namakan and Kabetogamma come together. Magic spot.
Shug of South and North and Over

Welcome from Louisiana.

+1 on the tarp, my first glance I thought it to be closer to 16'. HUGE.

Paddled by Cemetery Island. It's a beautiful paddle from the east end of Rainy down into Namakan and into Kab. I haven't been on the park's Kab-Ash hiking trail, though at 27.5 miles it could be a two day-er. It doesn't have the grand vistas of the Superior hiking trail, but would be interesting wilderness.

Here in northern Minnesota, we're spoil with what we have.