So this is just a story from a noob about how you should test your gear:
i decided to get out and try my hammock backpacking a week ago, and all i had was an old rain fly from a garage sale tent.
Actually i was a total noob and didnt try the whole setup before i set out. The first night we set up real late so i didnt have much time to figre out how to pitch the tarp.
Problem 1- i hadnt brought enough line to do the ridgeline i needed, so i had to hang it over my hammocks bugnet rige line. It was WAY to close. Honestly, if i had brought enough, it probably would have been fine.
Problem 2 - i hadnt brought enough line to pitch the sides out very far.
So there i lay in my hammock with my tarp almost on top of me thinking about how this was not as cool as everyone says.
Then it started to rain. Then it didnt stop for 4 hours...
Problem 3 - the rain fly was leaky all over!
My tarp started to leak down the sides. Then it started to drip on my face. And it started to get drawn down the bugnet which was touching it.. And the sides of my hammock.... and onto my sleeping bag.
About half an hour of thinking to myself "i have to endure, i can make it til morning..." and i bailed into the tent with the other guys all warm and dry.
So the next evening when i had plenty of time to figure out the setup (and having run into someone from the forum who was hammock camping who said to pitch it a foot or more above the hammock). I mustered up the guts to try again, picked trees that were closer together, and pitched it way up...
And the next morning i woke up comfortably looking over the bluff to the sun rising over the river and i understood...
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