Wet & Wild

Sept. 3rd I'm heading to Damacus for my 1st section hike up to Harpers Ferry. So with the nice steady rain we are having here in the Northeast I decided to slap on my brand new rainsuit and spend the night in the backyard. After setting up my Hennessey without too much fuss I sat underneath and made sure I could boil a couple cups on my little alcohol stove. Check - all good so far. My honey staring out the window the whole time shaking her head lovingly.

So I slip off my rain suit and climb in for the night. Hammock sags and the tarp is now way too high and a little offset. Crud - climb back out and tighten the tarp slides and rearrange the stakeouts. Climb back in and things look OK. Up to this point I've only used my hammock in dry weather. So I had my trekking poles holding up the tarp a little. A few minutes later I see lakes accumulating over my head. Hmmm... OK no poles. Climb out and rearrange the stakeouts again.

Climb back in and finally get a little snooze. BLAMMO a 2 inch deadfall lands right beside me and knocks out one of my stakes. Phew that would have left a nasty bump. Climb out, restake tarp, toss large limb, climb back in. Lesson learned - always look up before tying up.

I get a few more Zzzzzs and notice I'm 6 inches lower than before and my tarp is flapping around shooting water all over. Crap, crap double-crap! Climb out, undo tree hugger, pull tight after taking down my hanging pack, boots and rain gear, rearrange tarp stakes and climb back in. Lie back and notice I have a 3 inch gap of open air over my head. Climb out, slide tarp towards my head, move stakes, get back in.

By this time I'm pretty wet, hammock is wet, down bag is starting to feel pretty damp. Screw it, zip in and fall back to sleep.

Around 7am I get up, grab my stuff and head inside. I immediately ordered the Guide Gear 9x9 (only thing left in my budget) and a Monster Hitchcraft. I'll use an Black Diamond light carabiner that I already have on one end and the hitchcraft on the other. The tarp states it doesn't stretch so no need to build tensioners. I'll just tie off the tarp to the tree instead of the hammock line and use the old tarp rings as drip lines.

A lot heavier setup but I'll lug it for the convenience. Sound like a plan?

SG tarp best tarp for the $$ but you will need the tarp tensioners

Welcome to the forum, btutor.

Your experience sounds very much like the initial learning experience that many of us on this forum had when first getting started. Give yourself some time and the details of a good hang will become second nature for you. An enlarged tarp, like the GearGuide that you've ordered, is a really good idea for any hammock, especially a HH.

Again, welcome.

You'll be past the learning curve before you know it. Kinda like a bird learning to fly.

yep, welcome to the group.
you'll soon have figured out what's stretching & how to get every thing centered. ...tim

Welcome btutor!

I couldn't tell by the description, but when it's raining always tie-off your tarp BELOW your hammock suspension. It will keep it closer to the hammock so you don't get as much seperation when you get in and it will go a long ways towards keeping you dry. The stock tarp will work, but the SG tarp will make it easy.

The good news is you learned in a night what can (did in my case) take a couple of overnights. Now that you're learning to stay dry the next thing we need to work on are those tree huggers. :D

btutor,

Welcome to the hanging gang... watch out for potential deadfall before picking your trees.

Pan