I don't like crawling out of a tent in the middle of the summer night and coming face-to-face with a poisonous snake!
I don't like crawling out of a tent in the middle of the summer night and coming face-to-face with a poisonous snake!
I first started looking into hammocks way before I got into backpacking, but I do not remember how or why...probably shopping for camping gear and stumbled across one. I just got a hammock this Christmas and have not taken it backpacking due to multiple reasons mostly transportation to said trail and college. I look forward to using it especially when I do my week on the AT in March. I know that I will love it after taking a nap in the backyard Christmas day
Three years ago I lost a leg and thought my hiking and backpacking days were over. Wrong! With the new prosthetic devises they have now I'm back to roaming the trails and enjoying mother nature again. Like RamblinRev says, "I'm slow and gimpy", but I'm still out there.
The biggest problem I have (had) is getting in and out of a tent. I can usually find a spot where I can sit, but a spot where I can sit that is convienient to a good tent spot isn't easy. Taking the leg off isn't much of a problem, but I really need to be in a sitting position to get it back on. I have to stand to get it to seat right, and this is a hassle when you have to sit on the ground or inside a tent. And getting up from the ground isn't always easy (or pretty) on one leg.
So after finding info on hammocking here and at other sites, and with some great help from Mule (he spent a couple of hours showing me some hammocks and letting me try some out - then sold me one of his). I have left the dark world of ground dwellers and come into the light. I are now a "hanger".
Other than the obvious, a great nights sleep, with a hammock I always have a place to sit and it's always convienent to my bed. This allows me to take my leg off at night and get it back on in the morning without having to crawl twenty feet to the tent or a seat. I can cook from there and just relax if I want. I can put up the hammock and tarp without having to bend over or squat down (except for stakes, and one or two are a lot better than four or six). I don't have to crawl in and out of it with wet rain gear. And I can dress and undress standing up. I still have a couple of issues to work out, like what to do with my leg at night. I'm not sure I want to leave it on the ground and wake up one morning to find that some critter has wondered off with it (not a pretty sight to see a one legged old man crawling through the bushes looking for his leg - maybe funny, but not pretty).
So, IMHO anyone with leg or back dissabilities can definately benefit from a hammock. Besides, where else can you get a better nights sleep in the wilderness?
I'm so out of shape ......I passed gas yesterday and pulled a muscle!
Well, sleeping under a tarp was the 'gateway drug' for me.
I loved the tarp, but I was not happy with any kind of sleeping pad I had.
Getting up off the ground after a long day and a long night tossing and turning was a pain.
I think I found Sgt. Rock's site first, while looking for tarp info, then Just Jeff's, then this forum. Lurked around and decided to try a cheapie hammock from amazon.
Hooked!
I saw some parachute hammocks that someone was selling at the Winnipeg Folk Fest about 6 years ago, it was the first compact, hammock I had seen. I got a Hammock Bliss for Christmas a few years ago and started hanging in warm weather. I didn't have a cold weather strategy yet. Last year I got sick of lugging around a noisy poly tarp and decided to try to make my own. Of course I came across Jeff's site (thanks from me too) and this one. Just about every question I might have seems to have been discussed at one point or another, so I've been lurking and reading threads. I figured I might have an original question some day and I might as well have an account for when that day comes.
it was fate
a week long trip on the New River in WV, 6 of us.
5 of us in rafts with tents, fighting the sand and trying to find suitable areas.
Number six was in a kayak and had a hammock. he was set up and lounging before we ever got the rafts unpacked.
that was enough for me. the following christmas i got my HAAB, and that was that.
I've only really made two trips with one, one week in Maine and one weekend close to home, but there's no way I'd go back to the ground
Josh
I want to hear some of the old timers stories!
Here's mine:
My brother and a few friends started hiking when I was 17 or so. I never went because I wouldn't find out they were going until the day they were leaving. Most the time I would be going to work and see his pack by the door and I'd ***** him out about asking me.
Fast forward 12 years. I start hiking with my buddy who use to hike with my brother. One trip he brought his hammock to sleep in on an overnight. I thought it was a great idea due to having 2 bad knees from playing football in highschool. So I picked up a cotton hammock and used a neat sheet as a tarp. Thank god it didn't rain.
What really hooked me was my feet and knees not hurting in the morning.
Before my next trip I bought a Travel hammock UL. I then found this site from the hammock forum on WB and realized about a week before I was leaving that I needed an underquilt. So I made a cheep quilt that I still use today. It's kept me warm down to 17 deg.
I took my boys (8,9) on thier first hiking trip last July and we all stayed in hammocks and they loved them.
I've been off the ground for 3 years now, not going back.
Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time. ~Steven Wright
Great sleep, openness to the air, site selection, HF, and an excuse to have new gear that is endless in configuration.
I love not being confined to level sites. I try to find some funky places. Most often on rivers, I have the best waterfront hangs as compared to my ground dweller friends who have to retreat inland.
“Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
I started getting serious about hiking/backpacking last year about this time. I was looking for lightweight equipment, and stumbled on this forum. I bought the relatively inexpensive Byer Moskito hammock to try out this thing called hammocking. I'm never going to ground again.
"Every minute outside ... is a good minute!" -> Calvin & Hobbes, 8/1/1993
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