Too close for comfort?

[dkurfiss]

Can using trees too close together cause the dreaded calf ridgeline and if so how do you combat it short of moving to trees that are further apart?

[russbus]

Finding trees that are correctly spaced apart is probably the single handedly most important part of hammocking. If two trees don't work move your set up. It's as simple as it seems

[Dutch]

Can using trees too close together cause the dreaded calf ridgeline and if so how do you combat it short of moving to trees that are further apart?

Yes to a certain point. If you have a ridgeline and the ridgeline is tight when you are in it, then the trees aren't too close.

[DanglingModifier]

The bigger the trees, the more advantage you can take of their diameter to add extra inches or feet between your two attachment points. The type of suspension you use plays a big role here. If you have a suspension like whoopies which increase your minimum hang distance due to the extra cordage of the loop and bury, then you can get some of that distance back by making your attachment points on the opposing sides (instead of the "front") of your trees.

Like this:
Untitled.jpg

Raising or lowering attachment points doesn't help appreciably with suspension distance. For instance, if your trees are ten feet apart, and you raise the foot end of your suspension 10 inches higher than your head, then you'll get approximately another 1/2" distance between your attachment points. Although raising your foot end won't give you appreciable extra room for your suspension or adjust your suspension angle by a significant amount, it still might make your hammock more (or less) comfortable. Worth trying if you haven't already.

[SilvrSurfr]

I would think trees closer together would cause less calf ridge, not more. Trees closer together equals more sag, and I've always read that the cure for calf ridge is more sag. So it would seem that the closer the trees, the less chance of calf ridge. The length of your tarp ridgeline will usually determine the minimum hanging distance. The most common tarp ridgeline length is probably 11 ft., so your trees would need to be at least 12 ft. apart.

I've only experienced calf ridge in hammocks with integrated bugnets, never in a simple, gathered-end. Hutzelbein speculates that calf ridge is a product of stretch; since all my hammocks are polyester I don't have much stretch, which may explain why I never get calf ridge.

[Xtrm tj]

Yes to a certain point. If you have a ridgeline and the ridgeline is tight when you are in it, then the trees aren't too close.

Im kind of baffled by this statement Dutch? If you have a ridgeline on your hammock and your laying in you hammock it will always be tight right? Or are you talking about a tight ridgeline with noone in the hammock?

[DanglingModifier]

You can definitely have a loose ridgeline when you are in your hammock.

Imagine both attachment points are on the same tree. Your hammock would hangs down like a big U. Your ridgeline would be a floppy mess even if you were in it since the ends of your hammock would only be a few feet apart at best. Now imagine instead of attachment points on the same tree, your second tree is only 5 feet away. Same problem. Hammock makes a big deep U. Loose ridgeline with or without a body in it. 9 feet away, same problem, but getting better. At some point moving those trees apart your U will flatten out enough to spread your two gathered ends far enough from each other to make the RL taut.

For a common real-world example, a loose RL with a loaded hammock can easily happen when your attachment points are far enough apart when the hammock is unloaded, but get pushed towards each other when the hammock gets a load. Small enough trees where the shear force pulls them towards each other when you get in the hammock would do this, or many types of hammock stands where the flex of the stand shortens the distance between your ends when you get in.

I recently picked up a Handy Hammock strut set and have spent several days trying to dial in the setup to work with my 11' XLC. If I pitch the struts with a guitar string taut RL before I get in the hammock, the RL is a floppy mess laying on my face once I load the hammock and the struts flex in some. To stay high enough off the ground with those struts I may actually have to remove the RL (or lengthen it) so I can get the hammock flatter, so there isn't quite as much sag when the struts flex. My Dutch Argon hammock has an ARL, and that makes it a lot easier to use with the HH struts. The XLC has been a challenge so far in comparison.

[dakotaross]

Finding trees that are correctly spaced apart is probably the single handedly most important part of hammocking. If two trees don't work move your set up. It's as simple as it seems

Only for fixed-RL hammocks, right? Another benefit of going netless... adj RL.

[DanglingModifier]

I think russbus is mostly correct about choice of trees. RL, ARL, or no RL, won't matter much for comfort if your trees are six feet apart. If your trees are too close together a floppy RL and net on your face is probably the least of your comfort concerns.

[cougarmeat]

One of the assumptions I made when I first "got into" hammocking was that trees were everywhere. And they are - until you look for some to hang from. Though I like my bridge hammock, I usually bring a gathered end camping in a new location because it can use trees closer together. That was a great suggestion about stringing the suspension line from the sides of the trees, instead of the middle, to get extra length. I've also seen that suggestion when two people want to hang together. If one person's suspension comes off the left side of the tree and the other person's comes off the right, that might allow for just the right amount of separation, yet nearness.