Son's First Hang - Northern Utah Mountains

**Dice** · 10-26-2011, 16:37

This is a little late in coming, but I wanted to get it posted anyway. I took my 9 year old son out for his first hammock hang in the beautiful mountains above Huntsville, UT. We own a little bit of property there and it is perfect for hanging!

This was definitely a car camping trip, no back-packing involved. The main goal for the trip was to use the trusty chainsaw to cut up some old aspens that had fallen and were hanging very dangerously across parts of the property.

The secondary goal was to... take my son hammock camping of course! Didn't go too well... more on that later.

First I have to share how beautiful the mountains were this year. We had a really long spring in Utah this year with rain (snow in the mountains) until July. While I really love the rain, this did put a damper (Ha!) on our camping adventures. When we finally made it up in August, it was absolutely incredible! While it was late summer in the valley, it was only spring in the mountains!

We got to camp and setup in the beautiful Aspens...

My Explorer in the back, Scout in the front.

Sitting around camp:

The weather was very nice. Just cool enough to be able to enjoy the campfire. No clouds, no wind. Nice.

Cookies for some easy smores:

The night didn't go so well. I must admit I was a little worried about it anyway. I remember my first night in a Hennessey and it wasn't great. I got so claustrophobic I almost bailed. I wasn't ready for that. Having that net so close to your face can be pretty tight. I was worried that my son would have the same problem but hoped he would not. Well, he did. About 4:00 AM he woke up in a serious state. He was freaking out a bit. I was able to talk him through it from my neighboring hammock, but in the end he decided he had to get out. Can't blame him. He lasted a while though. Good kid. So we ended up in the car. He slept great, I did not!

But, morning came and everyone's favorite camping meal - Breakfast!

Now I am a huge fan of freezer-bag cooking for backpacking. I have found some awesome recipes that are light to pack but great to eat! (I will share some in another trip report) That does not, however, mean that I can't eat them just because I want to!

Breakfast for the son... pop tarts! He won't eat it if it's not in a pop tart.

Now... MY breakfast! Freezer-bag Rice Pudding! Wooohooo!
Before cooking:

Put 2 cups of boiling water in there using the Jetboil (boils in less than 2 minutes!)

Then pop it in the cozy for 10 minutes or so:

and voila! Nice, hot, sugary, cinnamony, raisiny, rice pudding! Love it! Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of it before I ate it... couldn't wait!

So, all in all, it was a great trip. Got there, cut up a few fallen trees, cooked some hotdogs over the fire, tried out the new Hennessey Scout, to mixed reviews from my son. He didn't much enjoy the claustrophobic part, but I couldn't get him out of it during the day! Woke up, great breakfast, broke camp, headed home. Nice. Very nice...

**Bic** · 10-26-2011, 16:45

beautiful property! This is the first I've heard about the claustrophobic issues...My hammock just arrived today (cannot wait to get home!) hoping I don't have any issues! Sounds like you got over it and enjoy it now though. All in all it looked like a great trip... but then again any time you can spend outdoors with your kids is great! I try to take my sons camping as much as possible! Thanks for sharing!

**BillyBob58** · 10-26-2011, 19:53

Claustrophobia can be a major problem for some folks in a hammock, and even worse in some hammocks than others. I have recently been playing with an extra non- zip HH Expl UL I picked up. The net stays out of my face even with the HHSS UC on, but for some reason once I get the pad in there it wants to be near my face. Although, if I get positioned just right, the top of my head is pushing into the hammock and the net does not touch my face. Also, I have used a foam pillow, with the left half pushed into the hammock, that keeps the net comfortably away from me. Things also vary with how I tie out the side pull outs. Still, lots more net clearance in my WBBB, one of it's advantages. Also, I noticed this was much improved in the HH DJ XL, and I'm sure it would be wide open in a Safari also. And my JRB Bridge net is also always far from my face.

The worst case example of this I have seen is with a 1st time used with a no net hammock BUT a Speer PeaPod for insulation. It ruined this guy for hammocks. He was counting on the PeaPod (must have been a failure to communicate) for total insulation, top and bottom, not even a summer TQ or enogh puffy clothing to fill that role. Which might have been barely OK (@27F) if he had been able to close, or mostly close, the PeaPod. But the guy could not stand it with the pod closed, or any part of it touching his face. So he would get cold, close it up and get warm, then go crazy, open it back up and freeze. He was a mess by morning. I was just fine in my PeaPod plus puffy clothing. And my other friend was just fine in his summer (55F) rated PeaPod, plus a pad down in the pod and a TQ. And my son was fine using my WB Synthetic torso Yeti, leg pad and a NF Cat's Meow. But the first words out of this guys mouth the next morning was "hate it, hate it, hate it!".

I have never had any problem even with the PeaPod fully closed, even with it draping down right on a part of my face and head, other than my head getting too hot. But for the severe claustrophobic, this made for a bad start of a week long trip!

**ricecg** · 10-26-2011, 20:41

Looks like a beautiful place...to bad for the early morning...better luck next time

**Veto 65** · 10-30-2011, 17:04

Well, he made it to 4 in the morning, that is great. Nice pictures and thanks for the trip report.

**bigred72** · 10-30-2011, 18:19

Huntsville is a beautiful place, I took my family on a drive through there today. I did my wood badge training in February at Camp Kiesel. Good luck on the claustrophobia issue. I made a WBBB clone and with the tie outs, it doesn't bother me. I think in the Henessey I might have that issue.