Hanging with lightening?

[mr tickle]

No offence taken at all I'm no authority on anything, i actually appreciate the correction

[darkbyrd]

Wet soil makes a better ground than dry soil, as anyone who works with electric fences will know (maybe know all too well!)

[Vulture]

I think it is telling that no hammock camper has fallen victim to lightning as far as we've heard. My 1 cent.

[Blaker]

metal or no metal, my opinion would simply be dont be the tallest object around. and maybe try not to hang your hammock from the taller trees.

[sturgeon]

I saw these pictures last year and was amazed. The author is a member of hammock forums, I'm pretty sure. Maybe he will comment.

Check it out: http://www.wildsurvive.com/outdoor-c...p?topic=5897.0

[SilvrSurfr]

When I was a kid growing up in south Alabama we used to have to work in the field (forced child labor). When a thunderstorm came in, everybody moved into the drainage ditches surrounding the fields. It can rain a few inches in an hour in Alabama, and sometimes those ditches would fill up, but we all stayed there till the storm passed - nobody dared leave.

One time I was watching a lightning storm from the barn, and a lightning bolt hit an old oak tree in our front yard, not 30 ft. from me. It split the oak tree in half, and struck the front porch. The lightning bolt also struck my Irish setter dog sleeping under the porch, killing her and her litter of pups instantly. That's the closest I've ever been to lightning - but I've seen plenty of strikes 50 to 250 ft. from me and those are just as scary.

[dirtwheels]

The advantage is that the golfer has is his relatively short walk or ride back to the clubhouse or vehicle and the new lightning detection systems with audible warnings. That said I get off the course during lightning events in short order, something I cannot do on the trail. So that makes me more of a fair weather guy.

That said, I do love lightning, I thinks it's beautiful. Loved Shug's video during the lightning storm in the gorge. And if you've ever witnessed the grand lightning storms in the flat lands of the mid west you've been treated to the best light show you'll ever see.

Seeking lower ground sounds like the safest thing to do, however if that's your plan you'll never get a video to equal Shug's gorge lightning hang!

[DAdamEich]

This is a great article and great discussion. Thanks for sharing!

This thread illustrates just a few dangers of being in the woods that most of us don't think about when we need to. I personally don't think about lightning when I'm setting up my hammock and honestly forget most of the time to even check for any widowmakers above me. I'm sure we all need to get in better habits of knowing our surroundings, but discussing the dangers that we've all experienced makes us all think of things that we wouldn't have thought of before.

[DRobertson]

Just hope I won't have a problem with that....

[MAD777]

Other than not choosing the tallest trees to hang from or the only two trees in an open field, there's not much we can do, except be thankful that we survived the far more dangerous activity of driving to the trailhead.
Of course, if my luck runs out, I'll just consider myself dual purpose gear: hiker and hammock light!