Superstition Wilderness, AZ 4/23-4/25 2010

[pisanodc]

Andy,

Thanks for posting the link. Tom did a terrific job with the chronicles of our trip. It was an amazing time. That extra day was so refreshing and allowed for an even deeper submersion of wilderness experience. We have to do more of those. And my thanks for planning the trip.

Ange

[drewboy]

Scott and Ange, it was my pleasure. You guys are great to hit the trail with. I also liked this format for a weekender, where you get a late Friday start and put some miles under you before setting up camp. Guaranteed I'll be planning some more of those; so much better than a Friday car camp and it really seems to stretch the weekend out a bit.

Other comments about the trip:

With no rain and minimal wind, it is always a real treat to hang without a tarp, particularly with no bug netting to impair your view. In AZ bugs are hardly ever an issue. There's nothing better than staring up at the stars as you fall off to sleep. And it's especially nice with the relaxing sound of a creek gurgling next to you. Although the cacophony of sounds from the local frog population was a little much at times.

I did re-discover one of the potential disadvantages of whoopies, which is they do require a bit more spacing between trees to accommodate the buried region than other suspension methods. It was bit more of an issue with the whoopies I used on my Traveler this trip, which were an early model from AHE that had some additional spacing between the hammock and the bury. I posted a comment about this on my initial review here about my whoopie upgrade, and Paul immediately incorporated this feedback into his products - you gotta love that. I'd been meaning to swap these ones out, but never got around to it. This was just one of those rare times where I really wanted to hang at one spot, but the trees just did not have quite enough spacing to get a good hang.

Andy,

Thanks again for letting me join in on the trip. It was great to get away for 3 days/2 nights instead of the typical 2 day/1 night. Glad Tom came out for "business". Always nice to meet new people.

Andy,

Thanks for posting the link. Tom did a terrific job with the chronicles of our trip. It was an amazing time. That extra day was so refreshing and allowed for an even deeper submersion of wilderness experience. We have to do more of those. And my thanks for planning the trip.

Ange

[Rook]

Andy,

I switched out my Eno Doublenest suspention last night. Here's a link: http://www.hammockforums.net/forum/s...ad.php?t=17060

I'll be doing the same thing to my Hennessy this weekend when I get my whoopies from Te-wa.

[Shug]

Love seeing those hammocks over the rocks and that bivy just made me glad I am a hanger!

[drewboy]

Definitely Shug, rocky locales like these are great for highlighting the advantages of hanging. I did speak with Tom about his ultralight bivy setup vs my hanging setup for that trip, and it turns out that our sleeping/shelter combined weights were pretty close. Tom had a super light ~4oz bivy, but with a full length inflatable POE pad that I'm guessing was around ~20oz. I had a WB SL 1.7 Traveler with whoopie/straps at just under 16oz and a Te-wa 2/3 underquilt at just under 13oz. Tom used a ~21oz JRB No Sniveler quilt inside his bivy vs my Golite Ultra 20 top quilt at ~19oz. It looks like in this case only a few oz penalty to get him off the ground. If I'd have brought my Grand Trunk Ultralight at 12oz w/suspension, it would have been just about a wash, and with my Nano 7 at ~8oz w/suspension even lighter with some sacrifice in room/comfort.

Love seeing those hammocks over the rocks and that bivy just made me glad I am a hanger!