My first attempt to sleep in my hammock in my backyard was so-so. It was comfy, except that I couldn't get my head to stay on the diagonal with the rest of my body! I had a throbbing headache the next day.
Anyway last weekend I went camping with some friends in upstate New York, on the Fingerlakes Trail. It was a short hike to a lean-to. I was not properly prepared with a tarp, so I brought the fly from my pup tent and some extra cord, although my intention was to set it up in the lean-to itself so I wouldn't need it. My friends all had hammocks and tarps made this way:
http://www.hammockforums.net/forum/s...ad.php?t=37462
They set up outside and I proceeded to hang my hammock inside the lean-to. There was a huge beam across its width and I wrapped my webbing around it at each end, behind the roof rafters, which acted as a stop. Now the trouble was, given the distance of the furthermost rafters, I couldn't get my hammock to straighten out as far as I thought it needed to go. My ridgeline was sagging.
Uh oh, I thought, I hope it will be alright. Turns out the extra sag was just what I needed! This time was waaaay more comfortable than before. I could stay on the diagonal really easy and my head didn't flop to the center like before. I could roll over to the opposing diagonal without wondering if I had found the right spot or not.
Because it rained all weekend we didn't do much, we started on dinner by 5 o'clock and were all in bed by 9. I woke for a couple of hours in the middle of the night, got out for a while then went back to sleep. Next thing I knew it was 20 to 8 in the morning!
When I got up - no aches, no stiffness. That's better than when I'm in home in bed. I'm sure the small bottle of Southern Comfort I consumed helped, but then I've been known to imbibe the odd glass of wine before bed before now.
I'm not going to get my hopes up too much and take it as it comes. Every good night's sleep is a bonus as far as I'm concerned, and if I can go camping and feel half as refreshed as I did last weekend, it will still be twice as good as I feel after a night on the ground on my thermarest.
Here's a pic of me hanging in the lean-to. I tied a poncho liner around the underside of the hammock, and had a fleece summer weight sleeping bag unzipped over me. I think it was about 65 degrees F/18C. Pretty warm but I would have felt it without the poncho liner I think.
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