I got interested in hammock camping after reading about it in the book "Without a Paddle: Racing Twelve Hundred Miles Around Florida by Sea Kayak" last winter. The author slept in a hammock on the race. I was planning a multi-day canoe camping trip in early summer and imagined I'd like to try sleeping in a hammock by the river. It was the most enjoyable sleeping while camping I've done!
15 days in the Grand Canyon (2 trips), sleeping on the ground. Although a hammock wouldn't do much good in the Grand Canyon, it made me start looking for alternatives. Did I ever mention, "I hate tents".
We are now ready to start our way down the Great Unknown.We are three quarters of a mile in the depth of the earth.We have an unknown distance yet to run, an unknow river yet to explore.What falls there are, we know not; what rocks beset the channel, we know not; what walls rise over the river, we know not. Ah, well! We may conjecture many things. The men talk as cheerfully as ever; jests are bandied about freely this morning; but to me the cheer is somber and the jests are ghastly. Powell 1869
Never gave hammocks a thought until a friend gave me his Clark NA about 7 years ago. I gave it a try and it just opened up a world of new places to camp. Very helpful when never sure where I'll end my day.
http://www.stc-hike.org/ Susquehannock Trail Club web site - PA STS trail info
The same way I got interested in every other piece of gear: I saw someone using it. For hammocks, this was right before I laid down to sleep on a lumpy slope.
As kids we would hike up Belknap Mt in NH & spend the night in a hikers cabin. Lack of floor space forced me to seek an alternative. At the time I worked in a surplus store which carried canvas navy hammocks. That was in 1972. Been a believer ever since.
For me it was Bushcraft USA and the hangers over there. I love being outside, camping out under the stars and such but HATE sleeping on the ground. I have been wanting to try this for many moons and finally got a GT SBP from Santa. Today I went to West Marine and picked up some Amsteel blue in 3/16 and made my first set of whoopie slings. I plan to modify the original suspension that has only been set up once for a brief moment on Christmas day after many hours assembling new lego stuff for my boys.
How did I get interested in hammocks?
In a word: Paranoia.
Some of you may be familiar with the concept of a "Get Me Home Bag." Its a pack that you keep in your car that includes essentials and supplies sufficient to get one home from work in the event that a man made of natural disaster makes it impossible to drive. I work 42 miles from where I live do the requirements for preparing a GMHB includes overnight shelter. I was looking for something that would provide one good night's shelter that wouldn't look like expensive camping gear sitting in the back seat of the Durango. I found a Crazy Creek Crib and tarp for $30 on Ebay and went looking for what else I would need to make the damting work for at least one night.
In doing so, I found a place that has caused me to buy stuff that looks like expensive camping gear when its sitting in the back seat of the Durango. But that's because I can use it for camping. The Crazy Crib is in the GMHB.
Yes, this has been covered before, but its still fun to post, or even re-post the why & wherefore.
For me:
I had read the stuff on whiteblaze about hammocks, Kept picturing those net hammocks & how uncomfortable they were after a few hours. Still, I read on.
Went on a much needed hiking trip close to home (Eastfork State park in SW Ohio) on a day with a light rain ALL day. Set up camp in the required campsite area (usual heavy use bare dirt, thankfully only wet dirt, not quite mud.). My tent is a one man tent, very low, so you MUST crawl in & out. Well about the 4th time I had to answer the call, I decided that sleeping on the ground SUCKED, but not nearly as much as having to crawl thru wet dirt, twice, every time I had to Pee! This trip was in fact a test to see if I was going to quit backpacking. I got home the next day & sent a PM to "Hammock Engineer" (Now Coffee) as he lived close to me, "Can you please meet me with your hammock & let me see it, maybe try it out?? He graciously brought it over to my house & let me lay in it. Within less than 5 minutes, I was hooked. Haven't looked back.
In hind sight, I was "Done" with tenting years before, I have never set up a tent without having something (stick, rock root, etc) poking me all night. & like Shug, I always woke up with a "dead arm",,, Always! And seriously, has anyone ever found an actually level tent site out in the piney woods? I was so tired of waking up, off the pad, & feeling like I was: standing on my head, or skrunched at the foot of my tent, or rolling out the door or going thru the back wall.
When you have a backpack on, no matter where you are, you’re home.
PAIN is INEVITABLE. MISERY is OPTIONAL.
I hiking buddy of mine got me interested in hammocks the first time he showed me his Blackbird. It still took me about a year to really come around to it, but once I did I was hooked. I don't have a problem sleeping on the ground or in a shelter, I can sleep anywhere. I have just found that the hammock affords me a better nights sleep, a chair at camp, and many more available camping spots. Plus with my WB Superfly tarp I can set up many different sheltering options.
Hammocks rock
I was tent camping at a race at Road Atlanta with some friends and because of having to find a suitable place to pitch the tent we were quite a ways away from where we wanted sit and watch the race. The best spot to watch the race is on the side of a steep hill so camp chairs suck and sitting on the ground sucks. Behind me at the top of the hill I saw two hammocks set up between the trees. The were sitting in the comfort of their hammock and I was sitting in the dirt. The next day a trip to REI solved my problems.
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