More personal space while camping! lol. I'm a cub scout leader and have 2 boys in the scouts. We take an 8-man tent.... and both boys love being "underneath dad" while we sleep. Getting a hammock is a way that I get more personal space. I'll still have to set up the tent for them, but then they sleep "over there"!
I wanted to get a hammock to be a little kinder to my body. I've been backpacking for about 30-years plus. I noticed on my trip in 2012 it was hard getting in and out of my tent, the body wasn't responding like the good old days. I have a hammock I take just for kicking back at the campsite. I decided to take a brief nap....3-hours later, I felt really great waking up. So I decided to try sleeping in a hammock. I did a great deal of research, it looked like the Clark Jungle Hammock NX-250 was the best fit for me. I'm heading out to Kennedy Meadows, CA in August to give it a try for 10-days.
For me it was a natural extension. I've always camped and love getting my gear smaller and lighter and most if all-simpler. It's always been about simple for me as I'dnever heard of UL before. Less to worry about or go wrong. I have made my way through tents quite happily and was starting to work with tarps when I saw some pics and vids and thought it looked more comfy. I'm quite brave and would happily go without tarp given a 70% chance of stars.
I'm really looking forward to trying it a lot more.
To increase the number of miles we can hike per day, by speeding up camp set up and take down...
I was comfy in our tent or Kafaru tipi setups, thanks to the ultralight ThermaRest cot getting me off the ground with the TermaRest Xtherm mattress and Kifaru 0degree Slick bag with ultralight Exped pillow. I do enjoy the comfort in a hammock, but I did have it pretty good before. But dang, setting up and taking that light cot and tent really cost us time, time that we could be hiking or enjoying some relax time at camp.
I will still use my 8man tipi for back country hunts and lightweight tent for mutli-day base camp style camping. But for hiking/camping trips, we are converting completely to hammocks/tarps. Lots to learn, but between this forum and YouTube (thanks Shug), we should be able to become primarily hangers (I'm so glad, they didn't end up calling that "swingers" ).
Deja Moo: "The feeling you have heard this bull before"
My dad had a hammock that we used to hang in in the mountains and I loved it. I do some light offroading and never really liked the camping chairs so I picked up a couple of cheap hammocks to mess around with. Then I got on here and all hell is breaking loose.
I walked from Katadyn to Gorham with a tent. Never again!!
Using Tapatalk
I would look up Indiana backpacking/hiking videos on YouTube when bored, and I found TrailMedic's videos. After watching enough of his, my curiosity got the better of me and I ordered a GT UL and made my own tarp. And here I am.
I believe good gets better.
I became interested in hammocks upon watching the walking dead and reading the hunger games. i put two and two together and figured the best place to stay out of danger is up in the trees. paranoid? maybe but it's fun
Bookmarks