I've been wanting to try this ..

[Tucson Tom]

So today I spent the afternoon sewing up a two layer gathered end hammock.
Then I spent the first part of this evening installing a couple of eye-bolts in the
garage so I can try this out. My anchor points are about 20 feet apart, so I did
some calculations and put the eye bolts up 101 inches and just finished fiddling
with sling length so I don't find myself laying on the floor when I get in and things
stretch some -- as it did the first time I tried it out.

I am planning to give it a go and sleep in it tonight. So far not much luck getting
a diagonal lay. I am usual a side sleeper, so it will be interesting to see how that
works out.

I want to spend a few days at home seeing how this is going to work for me before
commiting myself to a backpack trip with it. The big question is how my creaky
old beat up body is going to take to this.

[Loki]

Good on you testing at home Tucson Tom.

After a few nights fiddling and adjusting suspensions, my "creaky old beat up body" decided the hammock is better than the bed.

Welcome to HF! How is that "largest contiguous stand" of Ponderosa pine trees in Arizona doing?

[Beast 71]

I'm a side sleeper at home and I use around 4 pillows to be comfy, but in a hammock I can sleep comfortably on my back. I usually sleep at a 10 degree list though and with no pillows. I hope you find similar results because I've found that though possible, side sleeping isn't optimal.

My beat up body prefers a hammock to a bed and especially to a pad on the ground. The hammock gives me a gentle traction of my spine. I find it very helpful after a day of paddling or walking over hard rocks. My cousin, also a hammock convert, put it best "We spend all day compressing ourselves vertically and all night in a tent compressing ourselves horizontally, but in a hammock we decompress."

[Tucson Tom]

Quite a test flight. First thing was that I overslept to the tune of about 4 hours. I knew I was sleeping in, but I had no idea to what extent. And even then I woke up like I was drugged. I can't say just what this all means.

Temperatures dropped down to a frigid 57 degrees in the garage last night.
Climbed into he hammock and pulled my sleeping bag over me as a quilt, as I often do, but very quickly noted that my backside was annoyingly cool, so I fetched the thinlight pad I bought from Gossamer gear some time ago for just this purpose (1/4 inch by 39 by 59). Slipped it between the hammock layers and was quite cozy.

My calculations were wrong somehow and I have the anchor points up too high at 100 inches (8 foot 4) because my anchor lines are at 40 degrees, significantly too steep. My 101 inch ridge line just dangled uselessly slack. My current setup puts the hammock at 12-15 inches off the floor, so I should just try shortening the lines till I get 30 degrees and see how high up that is.

Much to my surprise I found side sleeping in a fetal postion quite reasonable, but my lower back doesn't quite agree with it. As was said, simply sleeping on my back may just work in a hammock for me. The one thing I notice this morning is that my neck feels a bit kinked -- I'll see if I can get things better by tightening up the lines to the specified 30 degrees.

This is clearly far superior to sleeping on the ground. The jury is still out as far as overall superiority versus beds and cots. I am still working out the best mode for me in the hammock. I'll tighten the lines up and spend another night in the garage.

I am pondering this for the week long backpacks I like to do in the Sierra Nevada in California. The desire to be off the ground and in a hammock is going to pull me down out of the areas at and above timberline that I like the best. Still coming to grips with that. Camping high has always been a vital part of my bear avoidance strategy.

As for Arizonas contiguous pine forest, I do owe it a visit. I don't spend much time up on what Arizonans call the "rim country", I spend most of my close to home camping time in the southern Arizona "sky islands" -- plenty of hammock options there, and it will be interesting to see what options open up when I can make camp on an arbitrary hillside. There is an extension of our rim country pine forest over in New Mexico, the Gila Wilderness area, that I think would be an ideal place to take a hammock, and I have neglected that area for a long long time.

[Bubba]

In my head you should have your anchor points around 90 inches high.


EDIT: The hammock hang calculator says 87 inches.

[Tucson Tom]

In my head you should have your anchor points around 90 inches high.

EDIT: The hammock hang calculator says 87 inches.

I would say this is dead on. I just shortened my straps (at this point in time done by retying knots in slings) to get a 30 degree angle in the straps and it raised the bottom of the hammock about 13 inches, just as geometry would dictate.

I thought I was being clever by raising the hammock from 20 to 30, me being a tall person, but being up at 32 inches makes it just a little challenging to get in and out of, but not entirely unreasonable. If I lower my anchor points 10 inches, I think I will be perfectly happy.

My plan for tonight is to experiment with eliminating a pillow. The hammock itself seems to offer enough options for finding a comfortable spot to place my head. We will see if this eliminates the neck kink. One less thing to carry backpacking if it works out.

[UrsaMajor1887]

Have you googled "hammock hang calculator". When I put the anchors in my bedroom wall studs, I used the calculator to determine the hieght they should be at an it was spot on making me a happy hanger.

[olddog]

TT, when I was in a bed I used 2/3 pillows just to get comfortable. In my hammock I found that a minimal pillow was all that was needed. My pillow of choice is a WM inflatable travel pillow partially inflated, $4.88. When entering the hammock I place the pillow over my left shoulder, if on my back one leg of the pillow is under the back of my neck, when I roll to my left side the bulk of the pillow is under my head offsetting the height of my shoulder. Sometimes I get up in the morning with the pillow still hooked over my shoulder. After 21 mons. just starting to roll to my right side but the tension on the side of the hammock tends to offer a substitute pillow. Another thing I would like to say is that moving into a hammock fulltime is not going to be an instantaneous process,there will be quite a bit of tweeking. But once there it will be hard to return to a bed again.

[Tucson Tom]

Another thing I would like to say is that moving into a hammock fulltime is not going to be an instantaneous process,there will be quite a bit of tweeking. But once there it will be hard to return to a bed again.

I like this comment -- and I am getting ready for night 3 in the hammock. Night 2 was better than the first night by far, and I am getting used to this and figuring out how it is going to work for me. Tonight I am going to ditch the full pillow and just try folding up a fleece sweater for a pillow. Something I would be likely to have on a hike anyway. And an overnight hike is now firmed up for the weekend, that should be interesting.

I could see my way to sleeping like this full time.

[RedBeardHanger]

I could see my way to sleeping like this full time.

Go for it! I swear by my eno! I won’t go back to a bed of any kind ever! 16 months and counting…!

The more you sleep in it, the more you get comfortable and learn how to do things to suit you.

Good luck and most importantly, have fun!