Hey everyone! First post here, and it's kind of a long one, so if you want the short story, skip to the end of the fourth paragraph.
I was a boy scout back in the early 90's and got into backpacking through that. Went to Philmont (Scout ranch in the New Mexico Rockies), hiked 68 miles and loved it. After I left the Scouts I backpacked a few times with friends, then I got married in '98 and we backpacked together once. All was well and good, my pack weight was about 35 lbs with food and water, hers was a little less, but we were in our early 20's and I thought that was lightweight. Kids came a little while after that, and while we still managed to go hiking and camping a few times a year, we never managed to go backpacking again, until last year.
Last summer, we decided we wanted to take our two boys backpacking. We talked to them and they were excited about it, so I started digging through my old gear and researching online to bring our kit up to date and get some gear for the kids. I happened across Andrew Skurka's Google talk and thought, "I could have a pack weight under 20 lbs?!!!" Thus began hours and hours of research and an old passion of mine was rekindled.
I managed to go on three separate backpacking trips during the fall in the Washington Cascades—once with our kids, once with just the two of us, and once with a friend. My pack was light, the trip with my wife was one of the best times we've ever had together, and on one of the trips I hiked 10.5 miles in a day—the most I'd ever hiked at a time, with or without a pack—and I felt better than I remember on any other trip, except for one thing...the ground. The night of my wife's and my two day trip, cuddled up on our Ridgerests, I remember thinking, "Sleeping on this hurts a lot more than I remember." On the trip with my friend, he slept in a hammock and I envied him from my tent. He's been trying to persuade me since that hammocking is the way to go.
So, here I am. I started out a few weeks ago looking for a tarp/bug nest combo to replace our heavy tent, and decided to give a hammock another look after realizing that it's essentially the same thing, but possibly far more comfortable. I've been using my spare time the last week here reading and deciding what to do. I've read every thread I can find about two person hammocking, and concluded that since we sleep cuddled most of the time, it's worth a try. I'm planning on a diy hammock, bug net, and tarp, and I'll be posting about that soon, looking for advice. I'm also planning on making two for the kids, because I know they're going to get jealous.
Hopefully we'll get out several times this year—we've already got two trips planned at the end of the month. I'm a photographer by trade, so I hope to share some trip reports with some cool photos.
Cheers!
Aaron
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