What made you a "hanger"?

**mtb_huh** · 11-23-2015, 10:18

I wanted to be cool like everyone on this forum!

**Deltair** · 11-26-2015, 20:35

I had always been into camping, and I was looking at the books on camping at my local library when I ran across Derek Hansen's The Ultimate Hang. I thought,"Well, that's interesting:Hammock camping?"I went home and read it cover to cover the did some more research online...then i read it again...and again. I kept that book for like 3 months while I was putting together my rig. I got of the ground and never looked back.

**profire** · 11-27-2015, 12:07

I have spent many years canoe camping down rivers but recently started getting into backpacking. In my research for new gear I came upon this crazy guys videos on YouTube ...... Shug! I blame him, but it's all good, I cannot imagine going back to the ground. I'm glad I found his videos, informative and entertaining. Keep up the great videos Shug.

**ken_c** · 11-29-2015, 09:39

My brother introduced me to hanging about 2 years ago. We now meet up at least once a year to hang. After many years of tent camping, the quick, easy and surprisingly more comfortable sleep of the hammock has made a convert out of me.

**mistone** · 11-29-2015, 09:59

Been doing it for 5 years now never looked back! more comfortable sleeping in a hammock don't have to be on the ground anymore!

**splme** · 11-29-2015, 17:21

I found hammocks almost by accident. The kids and I bought my wife a hammock and hammock stand for mother's day this year, and I was hooked after my first nap! After reading The Ultimate Hang I had a successful summer camping trip using the hammock and stand, and started hanging indoors most nights. I enjoy DIY, and hammock making turned out to be a lot of fun. My boys are getting close to scouting age, so I'm really excited to help them catch the vision of hammocking vs. ground sleeping. (It should make their scouting experience a lot more comfortable than mine was!)

**Puck's** · 11-29-2015, 17:49

I had a Hammock many years ago, it was a cheap fishnet style never slept in it just lounging in car camp setups usually. Last year on a backpack trip my nephew brought a hammock to sleep in instead of under the group tarp we had planned to use. He let me sleep in his setup. He was just in the starting stages of hammock camping, ( at 16 yo ) he was too proud to admit to the CBS, so he was offering up anyone a trade night. So I traded him, and froze. It was way comfortable though, and I realized that if I could get proper insulation it would be so much better than sleeping on the ground. I was already sleeping under a tarp, with a minimal sleep system, so going to hammock was not too hard for me. Had to sell it little more to get wife on board with it, for various reasons. The comfort level is what won her over. So much more comfortable off the ground.

**Angelicabams** · 11-30-2015, 08:44

Newbie from London England. I decided to start hanging after losing interest in camping which I once enjoyed when I kept having horrible back ache from uncomfortable ground. I have been hanging for 6 months now and am looking for a new light weight hammock that is truly waterproof if anyone has any suggestions?

**HippyFish** · 12-08-2015, 21:09

This will probably sound totally lame, but I was flipping through and rei catalog and happened to see this amazing picture of someone on a hammock with the "eno" letters. Having no clue what this was at the time, I was instantly off doing searches online and it was like wildfire... everything from the benefits, to how to hang to gear and so on. Before that, never even knew the "hammock life" existed, it's like a whole new world has opened up for me lol!

**Recalc** · 12-10-2015, 11:43

Just purchased my first hammock and have yet to spend a night in it so I am pretty "new". This year, I walked 1,870 miles of the AT before I left with a foot injury. With time on my hands, I thought about how the experience could be improved.

My tent served me well enough, but it was a minimalist single wall shelter that was hard to relax in during a rain. Every now and then puddles would form on the floor, so I looked at other options. The free standing double wall tent designs I liked were too heavy for my ultra light tastes, and it looked like it was easier to find two trees for a hammock setup than a good tent site.

There will be a slight increase in weight as opposed to my prior setup, but I believe the hammock will be a dryer and possibly more comfortable experience. My journey from Pinkham Notch to Mount Katahdin next year should tell me if my speculation is correct.