Heya, been lurking for a long time, figured it time to start contributing. My wife and I live in Fort Collins, CO (which I found out is home of Warbonnet Outdoors O_O) with our two dogs. We've been camping a decent amount (last year, we did a month-long, ~4,000 mile camping roadtrip all through California), and I grew up camping, but always in a tent thus far. I really want to get into hammock camping and do my best to bring my wife along with me, but I suspect things'll be tricksy - neither of us wants to do much, if any, camping without our dogs. They're fantastic outdoor dogs: they've been in the tent with us down to around 28° and they were both happy as can be all snuggled up with eachother; they both adore water so much we can't keep them out of it; they're (mostly XD) well-trained, and on all our hikes and such their leashes stay in our backpacks. The point is, like I said, they're fantastic outdoor dogs, and they love it so much we feel terrible leaving them behind. I just don't know how we'd manage them with us both being in hammocks. I thought about the possibility of buying/DIYing a really tiny tent to bring along just for them (45 and 55 pounds - they're not real big), and that may end up being what I do. I guess time will tell.
Aside from that, I'm kind of having issues staying comfortable in my ENO DN. I have kind of a funny neck and back (long story short, junior high P.E. teachers shouldn't be allowed to coach wrestling...), and I am usually extremely picky about I can lay down without being in discomfort. For example, a pillow has to be JUST RIGHT for me not to start feeling it in my neck literally within minutes. I'm a side and stomach sleeper, so I'm guessing that's lending to my issues in the DN. I've got the 30° thing down, and I have a SRL at ~83% that's not too taught, I've tried hanging the head end a foot or so lower than the head end (which helps a little), but I just can't seem to get things right. I don't know, maybe I'll just make a thread about it at some point. But I'm really just looking at getting a longer hammock (I'm looking at you, Warbonnet ;p ), even though I'm not a big guy at 5'10" and 140lbs or so, and seeing how that goes. I like the idea of a bridge, but I am not real into the idea of carrying spreaders around either. Then again, of course, if I can get comfortable in one, it's worth the extra weight and bulk.
Aside from all that (sorry, I get wordy sometimes...), I've not ever backpacked before, but I am thoroughly enamored of the idea and will be getting into that eventually, as money allows. My wife adores camping, so I don't doubt for a second that I can get her hammock camping with me if I can get my and the dogs' situations figured out. Money is the biggest bottleneck right now, so I think I might try and get in touch with Brandon at Warbonnet and see if we can't get together some time so I can test the BB and his new bridge out, whenever that becomes official. Also picked up my first thread injector at Goodwill for $15 and with a little tinkering and some DIY repair work, it's giving me perfect straight stitches, so I'm pleased with that purchase. Made myself a double-ended stuff sack and a RL organizer so far, haha. Good stuff.
Anyway, I apologize again for being so wordy. I'll leave you with a few pictures.
My wife and I near Lake Tahoe last summer:
Altana, being her usual goofy self:
Nanaki:
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H.Y.O.H.
Originally Posted by Cannibal
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