I'd thought I'd share my hammock hanging (and other) experiences from last weekend with y'all.
I was fortunate to be asked by a local Boy Scout troop to help instruct at a weekend camporee at a nearby scout camp in the mountains here in upstate South Carolina. They called the campout a ResQRee and it was designed to cover the material necessary to earn the search and rescue merit badge. The troop recruited members of local special teams, rescue instructors, and fire departments in addition to other local resources to make this a big event. I must say it went very well and we have gotten great feedback from those who attended. More than 100 scouts attended.
I always jump at the chance to talk about what I love. I also enjoy teaching so I was really pleased to be able to participate. I decided that I was going to skip the camp shelters this time and use my hammock. I asked them to reserve a location near the main group that had access to electricity (infernal CPAP machine keeps me alive so I guess I should use it).
I have been talking up hammocks and DIY techniques with some folks at work and have several converts already, two of whom were also asked to help teach. I arrived Friday evening to find them both already set up in grove of good trees with a perfect spot for me right next to them. We shared some good gear talk and discussed the weekends activities as I got set up.
I brought my extra bug net and my second underquilt that I just finished for EMS K9 (new HF member) to try on his ENO DN. The other instructor was using an ENO too and both had utility tarps for top coverage.
My setup is all DIY. I have HF members and all their posts, videos, and in-person consultations to thank for guiding me along the way. My hammock is an 11ft double layer 1.9 ripstop gathered end with whoopie slings and an amsteel adjustable ridge line. I made my bug net Fronkey style with a bottom elastic entry from an old army cot bugnet (I made two out of one net). The tarp is patterned from DIY Gear Supply's plans and is a 12 ft cat cut hex tarp I made from silnylon seconds from a local outlet. My down UQ and down TQ were made from kmart pillow down and ripstop nylon from that same vendor. Here is a photo of me under the tarp taken just before dark and also just before the skies opened up...FOR THE WHOLE WEEKEND!
I am glad I was able to learn from everyone on here about tarps and rigging for wet weather. I am also glad I did plenty of research and practice hangs to perfect my setup both dry and in the rain prior to this weekend. The only thing I had to do differently from my normal setup was to add a carabiner hard link between my whoopies and the hammock on each side in order to prevent water from traveling down the whoopies to my hammock. I also have some small drip loops knotted on my tarp ridge line (run under the tarp) just under the points of the top of the tarp as added insurance. One of the other instructors saw this and added some to his setup..more on that later.
The ResQRee was held at Camp Old Indian, a fantastic camp nestled back in the woods of upstate SC just south of the NC border. It is very peaceful and perfectly suited for its purpose. My first night's sleep was only interrupted by the patter of rain on the tarp over me and one trip to the facilities.
Saturday morning broke foggy and wet. After a wonderful breakfast of pancakes and bacon and some good coffee brewed up in my DIY Heinie pot alcohol stove, co-enjoyed by EMS K9, we headed off to our teaching stations. We taught continously till lunch time, rotating groups to assure everyone got all the needed material. I taught UTM coordinate use and topo map reading along with using UTM codes with a GPS.
After lunch, all groups met in the main grassy area of the camp for some demonstrations by local rescue teams. The Greenville County Water Rescue Team put on a nice demonstration at the nearby swim lake where they peformed several underwater searches. Glassy Mountain Fire Department demonstrated their skills by turning a car into much smaller pieces with hydraulic jaws, cutters, rams, and electric saws. Both demos were done in a pretty heavy rain. That rain necessitated canceling the appearance of the helicopter team and their Huey much to everyone's disappointment.
The third rescue instructor that was hanging with us went back to check on his hammock before dinner and found that it was pretty wet. He traced the cause to the drip loop he put on the ridge line. It was in too far and it did its job but it directed water onto the nylon and not the ground. I guess the water would have traveled down the ridge line onto the hammock without it so he was probably doomed to a wet butt either way. I offered him my spare hammock but he had finished teaching and had also done his part as a rescue diver in the dive team demo so he was willing to leave and "sleep warm and dry at home thinking about y'all" that night.He has been bitten by the bug however. This morning, he brought in a bag of nylon he bought yesterday to show it to me and to talk about making his own tarp.
After the demonstrations everyone meet in the large indoor dining hall for another series of participatory skills demonstrations involving rescue gear and patient care. Kids love packaging a parent or scout leader in a rescue stretcher and toting them around.
We had dinner and then met back at the dining hall for an evening wrap up where each instructor got a chance to stand before the group and share some experiences from their professional careers. EMS K9 was able to do a good dog and pony show- minus the pony (that was good right there) with his search dog that captivated the audience. Nobody cared it was getting late and paid close attention. That is high praise when you are instructing teens in a large group!
After a final get together with the organizers during an evening planning/snack session we gratefully headed off to our hammocks wanting nothing more than a hot shower and a dry/comfortable nylon cocoon of comfort. Oh yes---it was everything it was supposed to be.
I drifted off to sleep hearing the rain patter on my tarp and the notes of taps one of the scout leaders played on his trumpet. Bliss and peace!
Sunday morning after chapel was the big final- so to speak. The old aluminum tent poles I scrounged from somewhere were a godsend this trip as they let me put my tarp up in porch mode so it could act as a small gathering area for us (the coffee lovers) as we huddled around the heiney pot or fosters pot waiting for it to boil.
We designed a large search operation involving all the participants for that morning. We hid four moulaged "lost hikers" around the outskirts of the camp and recruited the scouts to find them. Each search team had a professional search/rescue dog and handler with them who used the opportunity to train and practice with the dog. We also designated a command staff to operate the command post under our supervision. The command post was staffed and run by senior scouts and adult leaders. For those who don't know, the search and rescue badge requires some training and practice with incident command, so this was a perfect opportunity to put it into practice.
Conditions were awful for the searchers. Temps hovered around 50F with pouring rain and heavy runoff from 2 days of rain. There was a light breeze occasionally but no heavy wind. Oddly enough, this was good conditions for the search dogs since it helped keep scent trails focused. Not all the scouts had good rain gear but some of the things you learn during good realistic training are not included in the actual lesson plan. I am sure they now have a good appreciation for real rain gear, good footware, and extra socks.
Our teams found all four patients within an hour, treated their injuries, and then got everyone back for a head count by lunchtime. All this was done without anyone getting lost for real or any injuries or hypothermia.
We had a short break so folks could get dry and recover before we held the after action/lessons learned meeting and dismissal.
I made a quick lunch of Cherokee Rice with the alcohol stove before heading home. I was in no hurry to leave the peacefulness of that place. I was certainly in no hurry to get home and start hanging things up to dry
This is my first trip report other than a brief post about my first hammock in the rain in my back yard. I hope you don't mind the length or the fact that it is not all about hammock camping.
-Sarge
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Originally Posted by FLRider
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