Western desert hiking/hanging/tenting

**boarstone** · 03-01-2010, 17:22

Okay...I've been scouring and e-mailing every possible site on this subject.( Since last fall) I hang, but to go to Cave Creek, above Phoenix, in April, I have no clear answer if I should take my hammock and pray or take my tent and save my knees. The pics I have mangaged to look at to see what types of trees/wood I could hang from is not working. Looks really snarly, few and far between, just the cactus looks promising. Anyone here experienced in the desert? Can one hang from the huge cactus there? If not don't feel bad, I'll just tent it and KNOW I'll be okay and suffer the 3# weight. I don't want creepy crawlies so tent was 1st option.

**poker88** · 03-01-2010, 17:47

I'm pretty sure that it's illegal to damage the cactus.....

**PepeLp** · 03-01-2010, 18:23

Wow, just imagine if a saguaro fell on you, yikes!

**lori** · 03-01-2010, 18:29

Cactus isn't promising at all - they are not trees. It would be like trying to hang the hammock between two styrofoam pillars. Take the tent.

**boarstone** · 03-01-2010, 19:07

Originally Posted by lori

Cactus isn't promising at all - they are not trees. It would be like trying to hang the hammock between two styrofoam pillars. Take the tent.

Thanks for the info! Tent it is....

**boarstone** · 03-01-2010, 19:08

I'll have to give a short report when I get back on my experience....

**Fritos-Banditos** · 03-01-2010, 19:56

I've always been curious to how people would hang in areas without many trees (ex. deserts, above tree lines on mountains, rural areas). One thing I have noticed is that when it comes to desert camping, you either put your hammock on the ground and treat it like a bivy or you use rock climbing techniques to secure your hammock to available rock faces, formations, or boulders. I don't exactly know how or what it would take, but if a climber can scale a practically vertical wall face then why can't you use similar techniques to hammock? Maybe I'm missing something too and it is pretty much just a pipe dream to hang in a desert.

-FB

**MacEntyre** · 03-01-2010, 20:05

To Big Bend we are taking two methods of making a treeless hang. We'll have the Prairie Travois (three pieces of bamboo each 21' long and 4" thick), as well as six aluminum poles for hanging one hammock from two tripods.

Trip report will be posted in about three weeks!

**mbiraman** · 03-01-2010, 20:59

Originally Posted by Fritos-Banditos

I've always been curious to how people would hang in areas without many trees (ex. deserts, above tree lines on mountains, rural areas). One thing I have noticed is that when it comes to desert camping, you either put your hammock on the ground and treat it like a bivy or you use rock climbing techniques to secure your hammock to available rock faces, formations, or boulders. I don't exactly know how or what it would take, but if a climber can scale a practically vertical wall face then why can't you use similar techniques to hammock? Maybe I'm missing something too and it is pretty much just a pipe dream to hang in a desert.

-FB

If you've got some big rocks around( 5-8ft) you could possibly use webbing around the rocks to hang or one tree and a big rock . You can also use climbing nuts or cams to secure a crack at one end and a tree or rock at the other end but it will be more challenging to find the right anchor points but not impossible. You could just go to ground

**BillyBob58** · 03-01-2010, 23:39

Originally Posted by boarstone

Thanks for the info! Tent it is....

Why don't you take your hammock- with minimum tarp- and use it as a bivy with net on the ground if there are no trees? If there are trees, you hanging in comfort above the desert rocks and snakes/scorpions!