A week at Scout Camp

**TriSec** · 07-21-2013, 08:32

Hi all.

I've not been around in a while, but nevertheless...here I am.

Just spent a week at T.L. Storer Scout Reservation with my Troop. I ran into another forum member out there (Ginixia), but that's another story.

Of the 6 nights at camp, I managed to hang for half of those. Sunday night was just too busy; I didn't set up until Monday. Monday and Tuesday were delightful nights under the stars in my rig.

But then it rained Wednesday evening. I retreated to my tent since I never bothered to rig a tarp in the early going. I certainly did that Thursday and was back out for part of the night. (But I couldn't find the sweet spot - I eventually went back to my bunk.)

And then Friday, I was enjoying a fine evening when a squall decided to blow through. Since I was under a jury-rig, I wasn't feeling that secure in the wind, so I retreated to my tent again. Good thing, too - everything got soaked.

I was in a Grand Trunk ultralight with a big old tent rain fly bashed together over it with miles of rope and sticks and poles. Two things are clear after this week....I need a real rainfly, and I'm sure as hell upgrading to that Night Owl before the fall season. (But on the other hand, my old "mosquito bar" tied to the ridgeline worked like a charm.)

Pix after I upload them!

**camoxjeep** · 07-21-2013, 14:38

Sounds like you had a great time anyways. The best thing to do when you get your tarp is try it out in the yard before taking it on a trip to get the kinks out. Good luck

**Ctcharger** · 07-21-2013, 14:56

Just got back from our week at camp too. I hung all week. It was great! Much better than the canvas tents and cots, and NO bugs inside. This was my first real hang as well, other than the back yard and I can't wait for the next trip. I'm hooked!

**WVScouter** · 07-21-2013, 17:02

I love scout camp week!

**jbrescue** · 07-21-2013, 17:17

We had four of us hanging all week. 95 degree days made it a little warm at bedtime, but it was nice later. Rained like mad the last night we were there. All of us stayed bone dry.

**BamaFan** · 07-21-2013, 21:05

Just back from woodruff summercamp, too much going on Sunday night to get set up, but got to hang the other five. I had my night owl, and got to try the tadpole in the rain, worked great. We had myself, and two other scoutmasters, and two scouts hanging. By the end of the week, all four scoutmasters, and seven scouts were hanging. The trading post sold gt ultralights.

**scouter** · 07-21-2013, 22:13

I too am just back from a week at scout camp! great 7 nights of blissful sleep! Friday night I was woken up about 2:30 am the high wind had hit the right speed to get my hang straps humming! the whole hammock was singing! Warbonnet blackbird was as comfy as can be and the hennessey tarp kept me nice and dry through some very heavy rains

**cf1383** · 07-22-2013, 02:51

Always loved the week of scout camp!

**jbrescue** · 07-22-2013, 10:16

Originally Posted by BamaFan

The trading post sold gt ultralights.

Must be nice, ours only sells ENOs at full MSRP. A scout needs something less expensive to try on a whim or for their first hammock.

**cpverne** · 07-22-2013, 10:27

I guess I should post my summer camp experience here.. Spent a the second week of July at Camp Durant (Carthage, NC) with a nightly temp from 69 to 73. I'm a warm sleeper, but needed to add my PLUQ to make sure there was no loss of blood through the hammock.

Weather was very warm and humid through the day, so nights were spent with a tent fan pointed at me all night to combat the humidity. I had rigged an adjustable ridgeline under my SuperFly to hang the fan from, but found that even on high, my RidgeRunner's bug net was pretty effective at deflecting the breeze away, so I had to sleep all week with the bugnet off. Thankfully there weren't that many bugs out.

We got about 2 inches of rain on Tuesday, and of course it came down when we were all out at the mess hall. At that point I realized I had left the tarp rigged really high up and the doors pulled back to allow every little bit of breeze through and just knew my hammock was getting wet. When I got back to camp, my pillow was damp, the bug net had little droplets of water all over it, and my tarp was dripping a fair bit of water through the pullout seams. Overall I was lucky the SuperFly is such a large tarp, all of my stuff could easily have been soaked through..

After slogging around adjusting the tarp guys to bring things down, I finally had things under control and reflected on all of the things I did wrong..