I just found out about this forum from ADVRider's hammock thread. I've done some camping, years ago, but got tired of it because I got tired of lugging around a tent. I've recently gotten into motorcycle riding and am thinking about multi-day trips, and don't want to be tied to motels. I'd heard about the Hennessy Hammock, but only picked up one recently. Of course, I didn't find this forum or the ADV hammock thread until after I bought my hammock and tried it out in the backyard for a night.
My 'hang' includes a Hennessy Deep Jungle XL Asym with a Hex fly and insulated underpad. I also ordered the 72' straps because the Pacific Northwest has a lot of LARGE trees (my backyard has several trees that have trunks exceeding 5' in diameter... they can barely be encircled by two 10' tie-downs hooked to each other).
My first night out was interesting, in that hanging a hammock is not as easy as it seems. Even though I secured the hammock at eye level, the tie-down tree straps kept on sliding down gradually until I ended up on the ground. I finally was able to reposition the straps so that the hammock tightened the tie-down, which delayed the slippage for a few hours rather than a few minutes. Once the hammock was actually suspended with my weight in it, I found it to actually be very comfortable and I was able to quickly and warmly fall asleep in the hammock wearing shorts and a t-shirt, on top of my 55-degree synthetic bag when the temperature was in the mid-60s, but early the next morning when the temp dropped to the high 50s and the sleeping bag settled to the ground the cold woke me. Even in the zipped up bag, having a foot or so of the bottom of the hammock compressed against the ground reduced the insulation too much. I finally gave up and went back into the house at 6:30 to get a few hours' sleep.
I'm traveling for work, but when I return home I'm going to give it another try, having learned from my experience and from reading what others are doing on this site. Hopefully the next hang will be more successful in terms of comfort.
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