Who Wants to Win a Hammock?

[Thom]

As some of you may know, I make hammocks. As a thank you to the people of this forum that have taught me so much over the last few years I would like to give away a hammock, or Thommock as I like to call them.
The rules are simple. 1. Share a memorable moment you had while camping. It can be funny, scary, weird, etc. It doesn't have to be hammock related. If a deer decided that your tent was in its way, I want to hear about it. 2. Check out my Facebook page. Liking it is not really a requirement, so I guess this isn't actually a rule after all.


Here are a few photos of the hammock in question. It is 11' long 58" wide and made from 1.9oz ripstop nylon.
Contest ends 7/17. Winner will be chosen at random. Good luck.
The winner gets to pick what kind of suspension system they want.
hammock.jpg
hammock2.jpg

[ag1024]

I'm game. Here in Oklahoma we have a federal game preserve with lots of rock climbing and miles of nature trails. But everyone camps at an established camp site. We take our Scout troop there often. On one of these trips I got up early (from my hammock, of course) and went for a walk around the established camp. When I got back, I saw two young scouts standing by the road just staring at something beyond some trees ahead. When I got there I saw what they saw, a buffalo was strolling through the camping area, walking through some of the camp sites, looking around. I and the two scouts just stood there watching as the buffalo slowly meandered away from the campsite, and off down a trail. The thing was huge, but did not really wake anyone up, and was just seen by the early risers. It was a site to see.

[Twokag]

Thanks for the offer.

memorable camping story - As a 15 year old I went on a week long back packing trip with my brother in law who was 24 and a friend of mine who was 16, in Desolation wilderness by lake Tahoe. In our youthful ignorance we put a large stump on the coals when we went to bed so it would smolder all night and we would not have to re-light it in the morning. During the night the winds picked up and blew it into a big flame. The flames were pushing 10' high and blowing toward my tent, but I slept through it. When I woke up in the morning the other two were up and tired. They spent much of the night running to the small lake we were camped by (before the 200 foot setback standard caught on) with quart size zip lock baggies to dump on the fire. They said they yelled at me to get up and help, but I heard nothing. I think the white noise of the fire lulled me to sleep. We were VERY lucky we were not the leading news story that day and getting arrested for burning down the sierra forest.

***

novasquid reminded me of another story... We were camping in Yosemite with my wife and kids. With all the hyper awareness of bears, it is on everyone's mind all the time. At about 2 in the morning we heard rustling and scratching on the tent in the campsite next to ours. Then we hear the lady scream. Then silence, then the husband laughing, then a string of explatives from the wife, then car doors slamming, and cars driving off. It appears the husband tried to be funny and scare his wife, she was not an outdoorsy type, and did not share the humor in the situation, and packed up and left in the middle of the night. That had to be a LONG ride home for him.

[novasquid]

nice looking hammocks!

here's my semi-scary moment. my wife and i were camping at swallow falls in maryland a few years ago, and we kept hearing noises outside in the middle of the night. we had joked previous to bedtime about how people overreact and think every noise in the night is a bear. and of course here we were thinking we were being stalked by a bear. i peeked outside and turned on my flashlight, and we saw the reflection of a raccoon's beady eyes shining back at us.

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[2ply]

While hiking the AT and BMT loop here in Georgia I found a great spot on a ridge top for my camp that night. After setting up the hammock and having dinner I walked around camp some to explore my new home. I noticed several large depressions in the ground surrounding the area but didn't think much of them. Headed to the hammock and was having a good nights sleep until I awoke to the sound of gunfire, lots of it and very close. Then came shouts of "civilian!!....civilian!!" Turns out I chose to camp at the convergence point for a night exercise by the Rangers from Camp Merrill. The depressions were fox holes used by the Rangers. They moved out of the area but it was hard to get back to sleep listening to their training fire throughout the night.

[rais'n hammock]

Hammocks are great. I'm in and would love to win.

I was on a camp-out last summer with my tarp in porch mode on both sides. About 2 in the morning I heard the same rustling noise I had heard the night before and it was going on longer than the night before. I peaked out over the side of the hammock as the moon light glistened off the white stripe of a nice little black "kitty" (skunk). I wanted to take a picture as I watched it sniffing the leafy ground and walked right toward me. I didn't because I could just hear the rest of my camp buddies yelling at me the next morning as it would have sprayed all over their tents.
I just laid back, remained still and quite. It kept walking strait toward me and I felt its tail drag across my back as he walked right under my hammock. I checked again after it was few feet from me and it went off into the trees.
What a fun time.

[mrh_on]

Nice looking hammock...I want it

I'm not sure if you're allowing crazy canucks into this but here's a cool story from a paddle while camping once. I was planning out an early morning paddle to enjoy the sunrise so I set off in the dark from camp. It was getting close to fall so the mist was everywhere on the lake. I was heading down into a long, narrow bay that had a creek/river that fed into the lake but the mist was so thick I could barely see any of the features on the shore. I was stopped and taking a few pictures of the mist from my point of view when I turned to my left. I remember thinking to myself (as I tend to talk to myself when paddling alone) "I wonder where the mouth of that creek is.." when all of a sudden a sea gull came straight out of the mist towards me. The mist parted around it as he flew, or rather he disturbed the mist behind him in a way that made it part....showing me exactly where the mouth of the creek was. Weird and cool. I laughed and said a thank you to the gull as I doubt I'd have found it until the sun came up all the way and burned off some of the mist. That lead me to one of my most memorable paddles ever, a creek that had 3 beaver dams on it that I was able to pull my boat up and over and continue onwards to a totally different lake.

[Thom]

mrh_on, I ship internationally. If the USPS ships there, then I will ship it there.

[mrh_on]

mrh_on, I ship internationally. If the USPS ships there, then I will ship it there.

Awesome! Thank you

[dtp2c111]

Thanks for the offer.

The neat story that comes to mind is once when I was laying quietly in camp the woods in the afternoon a deer came up and must have thought that I was just part of the natural surroundings (or maybe it had a poor sense of smell) because it got to about within about 3 feet of me and slowly just kept on walking by as it looked at me and took it all in. This was in an area close to cities and people here in Chicago so maybe they are just more use to people but it's the closest I've ever been to one without it spooking. Was kinda cool.