What made you a "hanger"?

[Bike-N-Hike]

Why a hammock?

I needed to reduce my gear weight due to cervical spinal injury.

I started 3 y/o with a Hennessy Asym ultralight backpacker zipper model.

Found that I needed to shed even more weight so presently I'm a ultra-lightweight gear freak.

It took me years to get all my old camping gear, now I'm doing it all over with ultralight.


Before my injury my pack weight was never an issue, I already thought I already had lightweight gear until I found this and other websites.
Nobody I know is into hammocks, I struggled with sleeping pads but this season I'm going to spring for a TQ, UQ and Cuben Tarp to save another 2lbs.

My total pack weight for a 3 day 3 season adventure will then be around 22 lbs (10 lbs of food and water included).

Cross my fingers that will be enough, otherwise I'll have to go with just what I can carry in an oversize hip pack and cargo pants. My problem is the compression that occurs from the weight on my shoulders/neck.

Anyways, I'm happy to be hanging and having fun with the new lightweight gear.

[Tarheel Hanger]

Got back into camping 4 years ago and bought a big tent and crappy back pack and sleeping bag from a sporting goods store for my 1st camping trip in 20 years. All my friends had ENO's and after laying in one for about 10 mins I knew I was hooked. As soon as I got home I bought My doublenest and have been in hanging heaven since. I do like the privacy of a tent so I decided on a Clark NX-250 , My own tent in the sky and I love it. I know its not lightweight but give & take I guess. I will never go back to the ground.

[BSAhammock]

I am in Boy Scouts and while I was a Cub Scout leader was introduced to hammock camping. I then bought a Hennessey hammock from a man and used it. I was sold on it and bought my young son a similar hammock. I'm ready to learn the ins and outs of hammock camping.

[gnosticmoron]

About this time last year a friend persuaded me to take up backpacking. Since I had no gear aside from what was in my hurricane survival kit, I needed to start nearly from scratch.

Weighing the options, hammocks made the most sense to me by a very wide margin. Off the ground and lounging is the way to go.

[FJRpilot]

I'm a big motorcycle racing fan and every year my son and I have attended the various MotoGP races around the country. We prefer to make an adventure of it and ride our bikes to the events and camp out in the state parks for the weekends. After having a pretty bad "Get-off" a few years ago ( and hitting my mid 50's) I found I couldn't sleep on the ground in a tent anymore. Just way to much pain. So I looked into hammocks, bought a Hennessy and have never looked back. I don't use the Hennessy anymore preferring a DYI gathered end, but I am holding onto it for my grandson...

[Jasonadams1]

Two of my best friends started a section hike on the AT. I went to visit one of them before they left and he was packing his backpack. He had a hammock and that sparked my interest. So here I am about 6 months later and I am no longer a ground dweller.

[Hobes]

Being a longtime Bowhunter, i got sick of lugging around trucks loads of stuff, even my beloved Swag was getting to be a pain, unless camping near my truck. Chasing wild game, does take you into some wonderfull back country, some of which is on the sides of hills, so, plenty of trees, means hammock aways....

[jamaulwall]

I've enjoyed camping all of my life, everything from RV camping, tents, to under the stars on a ground cloth. Most of that camping was either car camping or back country camping with horses to haul my gear so weight was never an issue. A few years ago I got roped into working with my local scout troop and that necessitated some backpacking trips. I looked into hammocks to reduce weight and bulk thinking I would only use them on backpacking camps but have found I prefer the hammock to the ground on all of my camp is now. I'll never go back to a t**t again.

[Tefte]

I became a convert because I just don't sleep well on the ground. I got tired (literally and figuratively) of the lack of rest and started looking for options. It became an interest and thanks to Just Jeff and some others, I have made two of my own gathered ends hammocks. I was so enamored that I actually got my son's scout troop involved and we ended up hanging about 30 boys at Camporee last year here in SoCal. Only one boy didn't pay attention and figured he didn't need a ground pad (still working on the UQ thing) and woke up frozen. Lucky for him we had a brand new EZup (large) that came in a box and I gave him that for a pad the next night. He slept just fine and stayed warm, though not terribly comfortable. <grin>
As of yesterday I made some mods to my first UQ and look forward to testing it out on the next campout we take with the scouts! I'll never sleep on the ground again. I've gone so far as to build my own tensegrity structure so I can hang wherever and whenever I want if we're car camping. Unfortunately the tensegrity is a bit too heavy for backpacking. Luckily most everywhere we go backpacking has trees!
Thanks to all of you pros out there, especially Shug and Just Jeff for the great information and entertainment (shug, shug, shugety, shug) you provide!!!

[Shug]

I became a convert because I just don't sleep well on the ground. I got tired (literally and figuratively) of the lack of rest and started looking for options. It became an interest and thanks to Just Jeff and some others, I have made two of my own gathered ends hammocks. I was so enamored that I actually got my son's scout troop involved and we ended up hanging about 30 boys at Camporee last year here in SoCal. Only one boy didn't pay attention and figured he didn't need a ground pad (still working on the UQ thing) and woke up frozen. Lucky for him we had a brand new EZup (large) that came in a box and I gave him that for a pad the next night. He slept just fine and stayed warm, though not terribly comfortable. <grin>
As of yesterday I made some mods to my first UQ and look forward to testing it out on the next campout we take with the scouts! I'll never sleep on the ground again. I've gone so far as to build my own tensegrity structure so I can hang wherever and whenever I want if we're car camping. Unfortunately the tensegrity is a bit too heavy for backpacking. Luckily most everywhere we go backpacking has trees!
Thanks to all of you pros out there, especially Shug and Just Jeff for the great information and entertainment (shug, shug, shugety, shug) you provide!!!

Whoooooo Buddy......I learned a ton on JustJeff's site. It was the site I found that spurred me on. He is inventive. I'm just a passer-on-er)))))
Shug