Hello from Knoxville.

[Jebediah]

I am excited to get back into a hammock.
I had an HH UL Explorer starting back in ‘05. Loved it. I started hiking with a dog and sold my hammock for that reason.

Wow how things have changed. Dutch Ware is new to me and so are top covers. I made my own topquilt and underquilt back then, but now there is a huge choice of those. Wow.
I wanted to keep it simple on the gear to start out with and having read a lot and watched some videos it seemed that I only heard good things about Warbonnet.

I ordered a Blackbird XLC, Superfly, and 20* degree Wookie and can’t wait for it to get here.
My reasons for going back to a hammock are because I always missed it on clear nights, my son in law uses one, and I saw a lot of them on the AT this year and, well, I sorta got jealous.

Anyways, thanks for having me here and I hope to meet a lot of you on the trail or at hammock hangs. I always wanted to go one of those hammock hangs.
Jebediah
My old gear.
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Henessey. I shook all the down to the top of an old LLBEAN 20* rectangle bag, then sewed it shut and opened the bottom up and used it as a pad sleeve. That’s what I started with. I did 500 miles of the AT with that setup in one go. It worked is all I can say.

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I made Down topquilt out of that same LLBean bag, with baffles and some purple 20d I got at Walmart for $1.00 a yard on close out. The underquilt was made from the same 20d, purple, and synthetic insulation from a Mountain Hardware bag that I repurposed. I bushwhacked the Sheltowee Trace trail with that setup. And bushwhacking it was.

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[Hanging Roy]

Hello Jebediah, I'm just north an hour of Knoxville on 11w. I've just joined on here also. Wow 500 miles on the AT! That's something to be proud of. I've done lots of hiking in the Smokeys, but no overnight. I'm sort of new with hammock camping, but a few nights off the ground has turned me on to it.

[sidneyhornblower]

Glad you came back. Sounds like you've got a lot to share. Those are really well done mods in the photos.
Cheers.

[Jebediah]

Hello Jebediah, I'm just north an hour of Knoxville on 11w. I've just joined on here also. Wow 500 miles on the AT! That's something to be proud of. I've done lots of hiking in the Smokeys, but no overnight. I'm sort of new with hammock camping, but a few nights off the ground has turned me on to it.

I like the Smokey’s, too.
I know what you mean about getting off the ground. It sure feels good. I hope we meet up at one of the local hangs.

[Jebediah]

Sidneyhornblower- thank you, sir for the compliment. I was real proud of that purple quilt. And it did me good.
RIP purple quilt, gone but not forgotten.

[Jorge99s]

Hello Jebediah, I'm just north an hour of Knoxville on 11w. I've just joined on here also. Wow 500 miles on the AT! That's something to be proud of. I've done lots of hiking in the Smokeys, but no overnight. I'm sort of new with hammock camping, but a few nights off the ground has turned me on to it.

Hi Roy. Glad to have you on the forum. I’m hoping to put a trip together in the Smokeys in the spring. Will be sure to post it on here. Hopefully you can join.

[Hanging Roy]

Hi Roy. Glad to have you on the forum. I’m hoping to put a trip together in the Smokeys in the spring. Will be sure to post it on here. Hopefully you can join.

That would be a blast. I'll be watching.

[Hanging Roy]

@jebediah that looks like one on the bridges on the Virginia Creeper trail?

[Phantom Grappler]

I do not think this wooden bridge is designed and built to safely handle stress of hammock camping. Are you prepared to pay for cost of rebuilding bridge railings after causing collapse?
Have fun—with safety and respect for all as part of the fun.

[Phantom Grappler]

Maybe railings on bridge are metal and stronger than they appear. Still I would not hang there. There are lots of different paths to get us where we are going, and just because a path is different does not necessarily make it wrong.