I've been hiking the Whites for more than 25 years and I"d add only 1 caveat: while hammocking (and camping) is permitted in areas not under special restriction (like in the krummholz and above treeline), the reality is that much of the White Mountain National Forest was logged flat through the 50s, 60s, and 70s and can be a dense boggy mess packed with tiny trees. I've hammocked exclusively there for the last 6 years, and frankly, I find it more difficult to find suitable dispersed hammocking sites than tent sites. I've never not found one, but I"ve spent far more time looking for one than I ever did for a suitable tent site.
There is almost nothing I won't backpack in, however, so I can't remember the last time I was stuck in a tent or hammock because of any weather. Maybe in the 90s in Wyoming... I"ve hked through days of cold 40-degree rain. Love it. But as others have said, especially in the Whites where the ground is often saturated and can start running anytime it rains, I"d take a hammock any day over a tent.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Men hang out their signs indicative of their respective trades; shoe makers hang out a gigantic shoe; jewelers a monster watch, and the dentist hangs out a gold tooth; but up in the Mountains of New Hampshire, God Almighty has hung out a sign to show that there He makes men.
- Daniel Webster
I use a camp stool that I carry over the top of my backpack.
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As opposed to sitting crosslegged, or worse, laid out on your back or stomach on a tent floor? Egads. Yeah, I'd much rather be laying back in a hammock all day.
What I would offer though is that if this is a concern, get a big tarp so that you don't have to be in the hammock while its raining, assuming you have something to sit on. Put the tarp in porch mode and sit in the hammock, or on a piece of tyvek or a chair and watch it rain. Tons better than being couped up in a tent.
"I wonder if anyone else has an ear so tuned and sharpened as I have, to detect the music, not of the spheres, but of earth, subtleties of major and minor chord that the wind strikes upon the tree branches. Have you ever heard the earth breathe... ?"
- Kate Chopin
as long as you have all the kinks worked out of your hammocking system (no leaks in the ridge-line seam; no water running down your ridge-line dripping onto your quilt; no water running down your suspension then down the back of your hammock and into your underquilt) chilling out in the hammock through heavy rain is very enjoyable.
usually, though, the first heavy rain is when you find out the deficiencies of your system. You think everything is good, because it was ok in lighter rains, but then the heavy rain comes and suddenly you have a drip from above... is it a leak? is it running down your ridge-line? Meanwhile your quilts are getting soaked, and finally you take a dirty pair of socks and tie them at each end of your Ridgeline just outside of your tarp and the drip stops. whew... but now your quilt is soaked with no way to dry it except to climb in and dry it with body heat.
but there after you make sure your ridge-line is level and tight enough, or you switch to not going under your tarp, and you put drip-lines on your suspension.
generally, I'll read, or even just sleep through the rain. I don't usually want to get out and walk around, but I can see sitting under the tarp and carving if that's what your into.
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Last edited by WalksIn2Trees; 05-02-2019 at 09:05.
I put the tarp in porch mode and take a nap (or 2). If I get too bored, I put on my rain gear and take a walk. If I'm in a fishing area, I go fishing, the best fishing is usually in the rain.
How true this is.
I mostly fair weather camp, but the few time I got 'socked in' I packed my insulation away in my pack/rain cover/plastic compactor bag to keep dry. My hammock was used as a chair did experience some drip line overflow, but the hammock nylon was just damp and not an issue.
Enjoying the simple things in life -
Own less, live more.
I use a Tyvek sheet but when it's really raining and the ground is very muddy I just give up. Then I'll just keep everything in my hammock (love thee RR pockets) or my pack and they only things that touch the ground are my boots and tarp stakes.
If it's rain but mostly straight down you don't need to hunker down like a thunderstorm where your tarp is 6" above your face, so in those instances I set the tarp and high as I can reach and spread it wide, or better yet, in porch mode. Much, much better and more options than a tent.
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